How to apply for an Education, Health and Care Plan

When applying for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) for your child, the first step is to request an EHC needs assessment from your local authority. If you’re making the request yourself, you might find our sample ‘request for assessment’ letter helpful.

Once you’ve sent the request, your local authority should reply within six weeks to let you know whether or not they’ve agreed to carry out a needs assessment.

A boy walking to school with his mum and holding her hand

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How long does it take to get an EHCP?

The whole EHCP process from requesting a needs assessment for your child to receiving the final plan should take no longer than 20 weeks.

All local authorities must work within the statutory guidance as outlined in the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice 2015. Here’s a timeline of the process:

Week	Action	Right to appeal
One	Send a request for an EHC needs assessment to the local authority. (This request can be from a parent, young person, school or other professional.)	N/A
Six	You’ll receive a letter from the local authority telling you whether they’ve agreed to carry out a needs assessment. They’ll then collect professional reports which are reviewed by a panel within the local authority.	If the local authority decides not to assess, you can appeal this decision.
16	The local authority completes the needs assessment and decides whether to draft an EHCP.	If the local authority decides not to draft a plan, you can appeal the decision.
16-20	The local authority sends you a draft EHCP. You have 15 calendar days to send back any comments.	N/A
20	The final EHCP is issued and ready to use.	If you’re not happy with the content of the final EHCP, you can appeal the decision.

How does the EHCP process work?

Your process begins when you submit your ‘request for assessment’ letter to the local authority. You can find out more about this on your local authority website.

Top tips

Always ask in writing and keep a record of the date.
We strongly recommend that you send your letter by recorded delivery.
You can also send it as an attachment to an email, again to ensure you have confirmation of delivery.
The clock doesn’t officially start ticking until the local authority has received your ‘request for assessment’ letter.
While you’re waiting to hear back from your local authority about whether they’ll complete a needs assessment, you may want to start thinking about Section A (often referred to as the ‘All About Me’ document), which relates to the views, wishes and aspirations of your child and your family. Take a look at our guidance on completing Section A of your child’s Education, Health and Care Plan’.

The decision and next steps

The local authority responds with a ‘refusal to assess’ your child’s needs – what happens next?

You have two possible options:

You can appeal the decision by contacting the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal Helpline (SENDIST) on 01325 289 350 or email send@justice.gov.uk.
You can explore what other support is available through ‘the local offer’. This is often referred to as special educational needs support, or the ‘graduated approach’. For more information on this, go to our guide on the graduated approach.

Take a look at a sample local authority ‘refusal to assess’ letter, which outlines your right to mediation (a private dispute resolution procedure) and/or appeal.

What happens once the local authority agrees to assess your child’s needs?

At this stage, your local authority contacts any professionals who are supporting your child to ask them to carry out assessments (if new ones are required) and share their reports.

These reports should contain recommendations that can be included in the EHCP to help meet your child’s needs in the best possible way.

Top tip

While you’re waiting to hear from your local authority about whether they’ll be drafting an EHCP for your child, you may want to consider contacting your local authority Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Officer (SENDO). You can ask them to share copies of the professionals’ reports with you, so that you can check they reflect your child’s needs.

A report from an educational psychologist (this report must be included in all EHCP applications).

Your child’s own thoughts, aspirations and wishes for the future (which go in Section A of the plan).

Educational advice from professionals who have regular contact with your child, for instance, their class teacher and/or the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Co-ordinator (SENDCo).

Reports from medical specialists, for example, ophthalmologists, orthoptists, optometrists and/or paediatricians.

Information on any involvement from Social Services, for instance, access to direct payments and personal budgets.

Information on your child’s physical or sensory needs and abilities, for example from a Qualified Teacher of children with a Vision Impairment (QTVI), Qualified Teacher of children with Multi-Sensory Impairment (QTMSI) or Habilitation Specialist.

Reports from health care professionals, for example, occupational therapists, speech and language therapists or physiotherapists.

Any other professional considered important to the development of your child, for example, Braille tutor, assistive technology advisor, Specialist Employment Co-ordinator of the Vision Impaired.

You can ask the local authority to obtain information from anyone, including independent professionals, if it’s agreed they can reasonably provide information about your child.

Examples of EHC needs assessment requests and refusals

[Insert your address and contact details here.]
[Insert the name and address of the Director of Children’s Services or Special Educational Needs Disability Officer (SENDO) (if known) at your local authority.]

Dear Sir or Madam

Re: [Insert the name of your child and their date of birth]
Request for EHC needs assessment

I am writing as the parent/carer [delete as appropriate] of the above child/young person to request an assessment of their Education, Health and Social Care needs under section 36 (1) of the Children and Families Act 2014.

[Insert name of your child] currently attends [name of nursery/school/college].

Or, [Insert name of your child] is out of nursery/school/college. [Delete as appropriate.]

I understand that the test that the local authority must apply when considering this request is contained in section 36 (8) of the Children and Families Act 2014.

[If your child has a ‘known’ special educational need – for example, a vision impairment, give details of this here. List all your child’s Special Educational Needs (SEN) here in priority of significance.]

[Insert name of your child] has the following Special Educational Needs (SEN):

A vision impairment: my child has been diagnosed as having [insert the name of your child’s eye condition here. If they have more than one, list them as bullet points.]

My child is currently under the care of [insert the name of your child’s eye care professional, for example, their ophthalmologist or optometrist.]

[Insert your child’s name] is registered severely sight impaired/blind (SSI) or sight impaired/partially sighted (SI) [delete as appropriate].

[NB: If you already have copies of your child’s latest clinical reports and Certificate of Visual Impairment (CVI), you could attach them, with this letter, to an email marked for the attention of the Director of Children’s Services and/or Special Educational Needs Disability Officer (SENDO).

If you’re not sending this letter by email, you could enclose photocopies of these documents with the letter and send it by recorded delivery. Note that attaching the documents is helpful but not obligatory.

If your child is currently in an education setting (nursery, school or college), you may feel the setting doesn’t or can’t provide the specialist support and resources your child needs, for example a specialist modified curriculum (adapted and enlarged to suit individual needs), specialist equipment or opportunities to develop specialist skills such as independent living skills. If this is the case, you should use the second part of this letter to outline all the reasons why you feel they can’t meet your child’s needs:]

I believe [insert name of your child]’s nursery/school/college [delete as appropriate] cannot meet my child/young person’s needs as outlined below:

I am aware that as a local authority you are required, by law, to reply to this request within a six-week period and if you refuse my request for an EHC needs assessment, I will be able to exercise my right of appeal to the Special Educational Needs Tribunal.

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you require any further information. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours faithfully

[Insert your name here]

......................................
[Your name] on behalf of [name of your child]
Local authority headed paper
Date:
Address:

Dear

Re: Child’s name and date of birth

After much consideration and review by our Special Educational Needs Panel, we are confident that your child’s needs can be fully met by the Special Educational Needs Support (SEN Support) available through our Local Offer and current support in place at her school. We therefore cannot further your request for an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) assessment.

You know, of course, that you have the right to appeal to the Special Educational Needs Tribunal against the description of your child’s special educational needs, against the special educational provision specified in the statement including the school named or, if no school is named, against that fact. This may be done by writing to the Special Educational Needs & Disability Tribunal (SENDIST), [address of where to send the letter of appeal]. If you wish to appeal to the SENDIST, you must lodge the appeal within two months of the date of this letter.

There is also a disagreement resolution service available to you: KIDS SEN Mediation Service. They can be contacted on 0333 0062 835 or senmediation@kids.org.uk. If you decide to use this service, it will not affect your right to appeal to SENDIST. Alternatively, you can obtain further advice from the [local authority name] SEN Information and Advice Service.

[Ms Somebody] has been designated as the officer to whom you apply for information and advice about your child’s special educational needs and you may contact her at the above address or telephone to discuss any of the above.

Yours sincerely

Special Educational Needs Assessment Service

We're here to answer your queries

Contact us if you need more information about the EHCP process.

children@guidedogs.org.uk

0800 781 1444