Education, Health and Care (EHC) Needs Assessment
The purpose of an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Needs Assessment is to get a full picture of your child or young person's education, health and care needs to decide whether they need an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan to support them.
The assessment is person-centred, which means we keep the child or young person’s views and wishes central to our decision making. The All About Me template helps children outline what is important to them, and is used throughout the assessment process. We recognise that parents, carers and families’ views are also very important and ensure that we listen carefully to everyone involved.
This can be referred to as person-centred planning and this video explains more about it:
During the assessment, we gather information and evidence from a range of different people including professionals from the child’s education setting and health services. See IPSEA’s guide to what happens in an EHC Needs Assessment. Your allocated SEN Case Officer will support your family throughout this process.
Education Health Care (EHC) plan timeline
Once a request for an EHC Needs Assessment has been received, we have 20 weeks to complete the assessment process and issue a plan if necessary. This is a 3-stage process and you have a right to appeal at the end of each phase. Details of how to appeal will be included in the decision letter you receive.
1. Request phase (weeks 1 to 6)
A parent, school or young person requests an EHC plan.
The SEN Team will:
- send a letter to confirm that the request is being considered
- review the evidence to decide if an assessment is needed
- within 6 weeks, send a decision letter to say whether the assessment will go ahead
2. Assessment phase (weeks 7 to 16)
During the assessment phase, we'll ask the child or young person to share their hopes and views. We'll also consult with professionals and ask parents to contribute.
After this evidence has been reviewed, we'll decide whether to issue an EHC plan:
- if yes, we'll prepare a draft plan
- if no, we'll provide written feedback
3. EHC plan phase (weeks 17 to 20)
We'll send the draft plan to the child or young person or their parents.
There's a 15-day period to consult on the plan, during which:
- families can ask for a school or setting to be named in the final plan
- families give their representations to the draft EHC plan
- information about personal budgets is provided
After 15 days, we'll finalise the EHC plan and send a copy to the child or young person, their parents and any professionals involved during the EHC Needs Assessment. The EHC plan will be reviewed within 12 months.
If we decide not to issue an EHC plan, we'll ensure to gather all advice sought in the assessment and share a Statutory Assessment Plan. This can be used to deliver SEN support to the child or young person, as it provides a framework for schools, families and services to use to ensure they still receive appropriate support.
Right to appeal
At each stage within the 20 week process, families have the right to appeal to the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Tribunal if they disagree with our decisions. In most cases, people must consider mediation before they appeal to the tribunal.
There are services who can provide free, impartial information about your rights and support you in following the right processes:
For more information on complaints, appeals and mediation, see our mediation, complaints and appeals information.