Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans

An Education, Health and Care plan (EHC) plan is a legal document for those aged 0-25 with special educational needs. The EHC plan is developed in partnership with them, their family and any professionals involved to reflect the support needed for them to thrive.

What an EHC plan is

An EHC plan is a legal document that clearly sets out the special educational needs of a child or young person, the support they need and who should provide it. 

It includes 3 key sections:

education , which explains what's needed for a child to achieve in their learning and which school or college they will go to
health, which sets out any health services or health support that a child needs to ensure they can learn and participate fully in the curriculum
social care, which explains any services that we'll provide to support a child and their family

See our Easy Read guide to EHC plans and SENDIASS's guide to EHC plans.

Most children and young people with SEND can be supported without an EHC plan, due to our inclusive schools approach in identifying and responding to individual needs. Our mainstream schools also receive extra funding to support children with additional needs.

This video has more information on EHC plans:

Requesting an EHC plan

A small number of children need an EHC plan to access the support they need. If you feel your child may need an EHC plan, speak to the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCo) at your child's educational setting. School’s provide evidence that they have supported your child and monitored their progress, so they can help you with this process.

Alternatively, you can speak to a SEN Case Officer from our SEN Team by calling 020 7974 6500, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. You can also request an EHC Needs Assessment on your child's behalf by completing this form and emailing it to us at: sen.assessment@camden.gov.uk.

You can also post it us, along with any written supporting evidence to:

London Borough of Camden, 10th Floor, 5 Pancras Square, c/o Town Hall, Judd Street, London, WC1H 9JE

Once a request for an EHC Needs Assessment is received by Camden, we have 20 weeks to complete the assessment process.

Annual reviews

When an EHC plan is in place, it's reviewed every 6 months for children under 5 or every 12 months for children over the age of 5.

The purpose of the annual review is to look at the needs, provision and outcomes specified in the EHC plan and discuss whether they need to change. In most cases, we'll ask the child’s education setting to hold the annual review and relevant professionals will be invited to attend. The Independent Provider of Special Education Advice (IPSEA)'s annual review checklist has more details on the information that needs to be shared.

Children and young people are at the heart of annual review discussions and they're encouraged to share their views. It may be helpful to look at our annual Review template to prepare for the meeting.

The annual review process takes 8 weeks to complete. This video has more information on what happens during this time:

Phase transfers

When a child or young person has an EHC plan and is due to move to a new phase of education (such as from primary to secondary school), their EHC plan must be reviewed well before this. Phase transfers take place for the following key stages of education:

early years education to primary school - before joining reception
key stage 1 to key stage 2 - before joining year 3
primary school (key stage 2) to secondary school (key stage 3) - before joining year 7
key stage 3 to key stage 4 - before joining years 9 and 10
secondary school to post-16 education - before joining year 12+

For those in a phase transfer year, the annual review process should be held in the summer term prior to the year of transfer. For example, for a child moving into year 7, the annual review will be held in the summer term of year 5.

For those moving from secondary school into post-16 education, the EHC plan must be reviewed by 31 March in the year of transfer.

For all other phases of transfer, the deadline is 15 February in the year of transfer.

Right to appeal

If we make a decision about an EHC plan that you don’t agree with, you have the right to appeal to the SEND Tribunal. Find more information about complaints, mediation and appeals.

There are services who can provide free, impartial information about your rights and support you in following the correct processes: