When is a Statutory Assessment for an EHCP needed?
When a child or young person is not making expected progress with universal SEN Support, a request for an Education Health and Care needs assessment may be considered. Early years settings, schools and colleges will be required to provide the evidence of actions already taken and reviewed over time (at least six months) (9.1-9.7, SEND Code of Practice). Please see our Early Years SEN Support page for more information.
An EHC needs assessment may result in an Education Health and Care (EHC) plan (or EHCP). When it does not, the information gathered can be used to inform SEN support provided by the early years setting/school/college.
This video looks at what an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) is and the process of getting one for your child. There are some clear diagrams to help you try to understand the process.
Who can request an Education, Health and Care needs assessment?
- Educational setting (early years, school, college with the knowledge of the parents or young person).
- The child’s parent or legal guardian.
- The young person over the age of 16 but under the age of 25.
- Anyone else who knows the child or young person for example foster parent, health or social care professional.
Where are the requests sent?
You can submit a needs assessment request to the Statutory Special Educational Needs Team online.
Make a request
To request an EHC needs assessment, you need to fill in one of the following documents:
- SEN request template (Word version) (docx, 91 KB)
- SEN request template (PDF version) (PDF, 294 KB)
Once you have completed the request template, you can use our online form to submit this:
Once the request is received the family, child/young person will be allocated a contact within the SEN Team – A SEND Practitioner.
What is the process?
- The assessment process will take a maximum of 20 weeks.
- Parents/carers and young people must be notified within 6 weeks of a request being submitted as to whether an EHC Needs Assessment will be carried out.
- If it has been agreed that an EHC Needs Assessment will not be carried out there will be the opportunity for parents/carers and young people to meet with a Senior Inclusion Officer to explain the decision. A SEND Support plan (non-statutory) will be issued instead of an EHC plan.
- An Appeal can be made at this point if you disagree with the decision. Find out more about the appeals process.
- If it has been agreed to carry out the EHC Needs Assessment a SEND Practitioner will arrange a face to face meeting with the parents/carers and young people to explain the process in more depth.
- Parents/carers and young people must be notified within 16 weeks whether or not a Draft EHC plan will be issued.
- If an EHC Plan is agreed a Draft EHC plan will be issued and there is a 15 day period in which parents/carers and young people can respond to the Draft plan. At this stage a personal budget can be discussed.
- Educational Setting(s) will need to be consulted to regarding the placement. This could be a mainstream education setting or a specialist provision. Once this has been agreed, a final EHC plan with a named educational setting(s) will be issued.
- EHCP's are reviewed annually, and this is the opportunity to review what is working well and any changes that need considering. From year 9 onwards young people begin to think about preparing for adulthood.
- If at any point you wish to appeal a decision relating to your EHCP, you can read more about the appeals process.
- Ceasing to maintain an EHCP can occur if either the LA is no longer responsible for the child or young person, or it is no longer necessary to maintain the EHC plan. Before this can happen, the Local Authority must consult with the child’s parent or young person as well as the head teacher or principal of the school or college being attended, and issue a ‘cease to maintain notice’ – a formal notice in writing to the parent or young person telling them that the LA wants to cease to maintain the EHC plan and the reasons for this. This could be for any of the following reasons:
- a child or young person has moved to a different Local authority;
- the young person has taken up paid employment (this does not include apprenticeships);
- the young person has started a higher educational course;
- a young person aged 18 or over has left education and no longer wishes to engage in further learning;
- the young person has turned 25.
The below video uses a real life case study to look at the process of requesting and getting an Education, Health and Care plan.
Sendias Bathnes have fully detailed guides relating to the EHCP process, if you require further detail.
Contact information
To contact the SEN Team, please email your SEND Practitioner directly, or use the email address provided above, according to the age of the child/young person.