Education, Health and Care Plans

EHC plans are for children and young people aged 0-25 years old who need more support than their school or other setting can provide.

You can read more about the support that schools and other settings should provide in the ‘SEN Support in nurseries, schools and colleges’ section of this website.

The first step is to ask the LA to carry out an EHC needs assessment. A parent can request an assessment for their child at any time. Young people can request an assessment for themselves. Or, nurseries, pre-schools, schools and colleges can make the request.

Click here to make a request for an EHC Needs assessment.

The LA must agree to assess your child’s need if:

• your child has or may have special educational needs; and
• they may need special educational provision to be made through an EHC plan.

The LA must write to you within 6 weeks to notify you of their decision to assess or not assess your child. If they decide that it is not necessary to carry out a needs assessment, they must also tell you about your right to appeal this decision.

During an assessment, the LA must find out about your child’s educational, health and social care needs. They do this by asking for your views and those of any professionals who work with your child e.g. teachers. They will also arrange any specialist assessments that are necessary to fully understand your child’s needs e.g. assessment by educational psychologists. Everyone will be asked:

• the needs you child has,
• the help required to meet those needs,
• and the outcomes that your child could achieve with that help

The LA must complete the needs assessment within a maximum of 16 weeks from the request for assessment.

An EHC plan must be issued if the assessment shows that your child has SEN or disabilities and they need special education via an EHC Plan. This means that they’re needs cannot be met through ‘ordinarily available provision’, also called SEN Support (see the SEN Support section of our website for more information on this.)

The LA must write to you to notify you of their decision. If they decide that it is not necessary to make an EHC Plan to meet your child’s needs, they must also tell you about your right to appeal this decision.

If your LA decides to issue an EHC plan following an EHC needs assessment, it must first send you a draft version.

A draft EHC plan must not include the name of a particular school or educational setting. It must:

• set out all of your child’s educational, health and social care needs in sections B, C and D and,
• specify the provision required to meet those needs in sections F, G and H

You will receive a letter with the draft plan telling you that you have 15 days to make comments about the plan. It will tell you that you have the opportunity to request a meeting with the LA to discuss the draft plan. And it will ask you to name your preferred education setting/school when you respond to the draft plan.

IPSEA have great resources to help with all this: what an EHC plan should contain, and EHC plan checklist.

SENDIASS also have a detailed guide to checking a draft plan and run fortnightly draft plan workshops that you can drop into if you have questions about checking your child’s plan.

When you make a request for a particular school, college or other institution, the LA must consult with that institution to decide whether to name it in the final EHC plan (unless your request is for a wholly independent school, where different rules apply). For more information on your rights to request a particular school or other institution, see IPSEA’s advice on choosing a school or other setting.

The LA must issue an EHC plan no later than 20 weeks from the request for assessment.

An EHC plan is a legal document. The special educational provision described in an EHC plan must be provided.

An EHC plan must name an educational setting or type of setting in section I.

The LA must write to you when they issue the final plan telling you about your right to appeal if you disagree with:

• the special educational needs described in section B
• the special educational provision in section F
• the setting or type of setting named in section I

Please see the appeals section of our website for more information.

What happens to the plan if a child or young person leaves the local authority area temporarily for example because of military deployment, a foster placement, or staying with another parent?

Their EHCP should stay in place. Local authorities must not stop or change an EHCP without first talking to you, your child, and the school. Even if your child is away for many months, or even years, they can be considered to be “ordinarily resident” in your home area, and the local authority remains responsible for their EHCP. While your child is away, the local authority can pause the EHCP, or agree that temporary support is being provided elsewhere, but they cannot remove the EHCP or reduce support without following the correct steps. This means your child keeps their rights, and you keep your right to be involved in every decision.