SEN FAQs

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An Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) is designed for children and young people up to the age of 25 who require additional support beyond what is provided through standard special educational needs (SEN) support. The EHCP outlines their educational, health, and social care needs, along with the specific support required to meet their needs.

The first step in the process is submitting a request for an Education, Health, and Care (EHC) needs assessment. This request can be made by parents or legal guardians, young people aged 16-25, schools, health professionals, or other individuals involved in the child’s care.

Requests should be directed to your local authority’s SEN department and can be submitted via email or letter. While some local authorities may suggest using an online portal, it is important to note that there is no legal requirement for a specific format or submission method. A request cannot be rejected simply because it was not submitted through the local authority’s preferred process.

When submitting your request you will need to include; your child’s details, a description of their difficulties, the support that has already been tried and why additional provision through an EHC Plan may be necessary

Once the request is submitted, the local authority has six weeks to inform you whether it will proceed with the EHC needs assessment. If the local authority has not made a decision within six weeks, further action can be taken to move the process forward. 

If the local authority decides to proceed with an EHC needs assessment, the entire process—from the initial EHC needs request to issuing the final EHC Plan—should be completed within the statutory 20 week limit. If the process exceeds this you have the right to challenge the delay.

There are several misconceptions surrounding Education, Health, and Care Plans (EHCPs), often stemming from local policies. However, these policies do not override the law, which ultimately governs the EHCP process. Below are some common myths that do not form part of legal requirements:

• A child does not need to be academically behind their peers to qualify for an EHCP.
• Schools are not required to have spent £6,000 in SEN funding before an EHCP application can be made.
• There is no mandatory number of ‘assess, plan, review’ cycles a school must complete prior to an application.
• A child does not have to be assessed by external professionals before an EHCP request is submitted.
• A formal diagnosis is not required for an EHCP application.
• Local authorities may encourage online portal submissions, but legally, applications do not have to be submitted via these platforms. Requests made by email or letter remain valid.

• For children ages 0-5 years, local authorities should consider reviewing the EHCP every 3 to 6 months to ensure their needs are being adequately met. Otherwise, the plan should be reviewed annually as standard.
• Parents or professionals can request an earlier or emergency review if there has been a significant change in the child’s educational, health, or social care needs, if the current provision is no longer meeting those needs, or if the child is at risk of exclusion from school
• EHCP’s should also be reviewed and updated in a timely manner by the statutory deadlines for children moving to the next “phase” of education – 31 March for transfers from secondary schools to post-16 and 15 February for any other “phase transfers”

An Education, Health, and Care Plan (EHCP) is a legally binding document, and ensuring it fully complies with legal requirements is essential. An EHCP check helps verify that all identified needs are included are matched with appropriate provision by cross-referencing professional reports. It ensures that the wording is specific, clearly specified, and appropriately quantified, making the EHCP enforceable should you need to rely on it in the future.

Having a thorough review can help safeguard your child’s access to the right support.