Education Health and Care Plans

When is an Education, Health and Care Needs (EHC) Needs Assessment necessary?

The vast majority of children and young people will have their SEND needs identified and met in their local mainstream educational placement. Where, despite the placement having taken relevant and purposeful action to identify, assess and meet the SEN of the child or young person, the child or young person has not made expected progress, the school or parents should consider requesting an Education, Health and Care needs assessment. To inform its decision the local authority will expect to see evidence of the action taken by the school as part of SEN support.

What is an EHC Needs Assessment?

An EHC needs assessment is a detailed look at the special educational needs (SEN) of a child or young person and the support he or she will need that is not ordinarily available from within the resources of their mainstream setting. Local authorities are responsible for carrying out EHC needs assessments under the Children and Families Act 2014.

The needs assessment brings together information about what your child can and cannot do and the special help they need. It includes information from: you, your child, the early years’ setting or school and other professionals who work with or support your child. The assessment is to see if your child needs an Education, Health and Care plan (EHC plan).

The local authority will look at:

your child’s attainments and rate of progress
their special educational needs
what has already been done
the difference that support has made
your child’s physical, emotional and social development and health needs.

Who can ask for an EHC needs assessment?

Parents – by writing to the local authority. It is always a good idea to talk to your early years setting, school or post 16 before asking for an EHC needs assessment as the local authority will need evidence from the settings on what they have done in order to identify and meet needs..
A young person over the age of 16 but under the age of 25
the early years setting or school, but only after talking with you first.
Other people, such as your doctor or a health visitor, can tell the local authority that they think your child needs an assessment.

What happens when the local authority receives a request for an EHC Needs Assessment?

The whole process of EHC needs assessment and EHC plan development, from the point when an assessment is requested until the final EHC plan is issued, must take no more than 20 weeks. This diagram [pdf document] illustrates the statutory timescales for EHC needs assessment and EHC plan development.

Key Decisions

Detailed information on how it is decided whether an EHC Plan is issued can be found in the Key Decisions information document [pdf document]

If the decision is not to issue an EHC Plan this must be communicated with reasons within 16 weeks if the initial request being received. Advice gathered during the assessment may be shared to inform provision within current educational placement.
If the decision is to issue an EHC Plan, parents/carers and child/young person will be offered a “Making Sense Meeting”, to collaboratively write and agree outcomes before a draft EHCP will be issued by 16 weeks from initial request to assess. The parent/carer (or young person if over 16 years of age will then have 15 days to respond to the draft, this includes asking for a particular educational establishment to be named and requesting a personal budget. For more information view the Personal Budgets Policy [pdf document]

For more information about what happens when the local authority gets a request for an EHC needs assessment view the Special Educational Needs information advice and support pages which include a range of factsheets on SEN and disabilities You can find out more about advice and information for EHC needs assessments in the SEND Code of Practice[external link]

Translations

A one page explanation of what an EHCP is [pdf document] and why it is necessary for some children. If you require a different language, please contact [email protected]