Education, Health and Care Plan Easy Read

Getting the Right Kind of Support

In the past, children and young people who needed extra help with learning had Statements and Learning Difficulty Assessments.

This has changed. Now they will have Education, Health and Care plans instead. Sometimes these are called EHC plans.

The plan will use information from your EHC Needs Assessment to say what you want to achieve and what support must be provided to help you.

What is in the Plan?

Everyone will have a different plan because it is all about YOU.

We are all different.

It will have information like:

• Who you are
• How you communicate
• What you want to achieve
• Why you need help with things
• What kind and amount of support you need, and how often you must get it
• Where you go to school or college (if you do).

Once this support is written down in the plan, it must be given to you.

All the people that support you will be able to see your plan. It should help them work together to support you.

You have the right to say what kind of information you think should be in your plan and who you want to see it.

Who gets a Plan?

If you had a Statement before, then this should be changed to an EHC plan. It should be changed some time before April 2018.

If you have a Learning Difficulty Assessment (LDA) you can ask for an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment.

If you are aged 25 years or under and you need extra help with learning then you might get a plan to help you get more support.

EHC will carry on until you are 25 years old.

This will stop if:

• You go to University
• You get a job
• The local authority think you do not need it anymore.

You can tell the local authority what you think about your plan and they must listen to you.

The local authority are sometimes called "the council". They might say that you do not need an EHC plan anymore if there are big changes that mean you no longer need the support in the plan. They will tell you first.

If you do not agree then you can say so. You can ask your local Information, Advice and Support Service for help.

Will someone Help me to get a Plan?

There are people called Independent Supporters who are there to help families move from Statements to EHC plans.

You can ask your local authority to help you find an Independent Supporter.

Find out more about EHC plans on The Council for Disabled Children's You Tube channel.

Information, Advice and Support Services can help you if you have any questions about your EHC plan, Learning Difficulties Assessment or Statement.

Ask one of our members of staff for support.