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Supplying you with information, advice and support
An EHC plan is a legal document which explains:
A local authority makes EHC plans after an EHC needs assessment.
A plan can include your child’s health or social care needs as well as their educational needs. An EHCP will not be issued if your child has health and social care needs that do not affect their education.
Your local authority must make sure that your child gets everything that is set out in their EHCP.
The school delivers what is in the plan. Sometimes the school or college may give support that is different from what is written in the plan. If this happens the support given must achieve the same things for your child.
An EHCP is made up of information given to the local authority by:
The plan should:
The EHCP is a legal document and what is in it must be delivered. It is important that it describes your child and their needs accurately.
An EHCP should be clear, to the point and easily understood by you. There should be enough detail in the plan so that you are clear about exactly what support your child receives, who will be giving this support and when they will get the support.
Most children and young people with SEND go to a mainstream nursery, school or college and are supported by their staff, resources, and funds. Teachers and other professionals regularly review how a child or young person is getting on and support them to learn, develop, and feel safe. This is called special educational needs support or SEN support.
All schools and academy sixth forms, sixth form colleges, further education colleges and 16-19 academies have funding for children with SEND. Early years settings such as nurseries can also get extra money to support a child with SEND.
SEN support in nurseries, schools and colleges is based around the specific needs of each child or young person. The staff, equipment, resources and support your child gets is decided using something called the graduated response. This is an assess, plan, do and review cycle.
This means if your child has special educational needs their school or college should:
Assess what support they need
Plan the support
Do the support set out in the plan
Review how well the support is working
This cycle continues and your child will have their needs and support reviewed regularly.
Plymouth has the Graduated Response to Inclusion which gives more information on what kind of support can be given by schools.
Information about your child’s needs, support and goals should be
Sometimes the support for a child is not enough or is not right. Your child may not make the progress that was expected and start to fall behind other children their age. Or their difficulties in school get worse and not better, and their behaviour at school and/or home becomes more challenging.
If things are not getting better for your child your first step is to ask for a meeting with school to review your child’s plan. At the meeting you can talk about the support they are receiving, what may need to change and how will you know if any new support is working.
PIASS has a meeting planner resource which you may find helpful for these meetings.
If reviewing and making changes to the support it does not make a difference, you can ask whether a needs assessment for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) should be the next step.
Professionals sometimes tell parents that they do not think their child needs an EHC assessment, or that the assessment would show they don’t need a plan. This can feel uncomfortable, as ideally it makes sense for everyone to support the application for an EHC needs assessment.
If your child’s teacher or the SENCO do not want to support an application for assessment, ask if you can meet to talk about it, to see if you can come to an agreement. If that’s not possible and you can make the request for an EHC needs assessment yourself.
Before the local authority’s special education 0-25 team can make an EHCP for your child or young person, they will need to find out whether they need one. To do this they will need to do an EHC needs assessment.
The local authority must carry out a needs assessment if:
Important to know…
Having an EHC needs assessment does not always lead to getting an EHCP. The information that is collected as part of the assessment may show ways that the school, college, or other provider can meet your child’s needs without an EHC plan.
You can ask for an EHC needs assessment for your child. If your young person is over the age of sixteen and under the age of twenty-five, then the request should come from the young person directly. Parents/carers can help young people by making the request for/with them but would need to ensure they agree with you doing this. The local authority might ask for this to be evidenced in writing so you might save time submitting this with your request.
Your child or young person’s nursery, school or college can ask for a needs assessment too. If you are making the request, it is a good idea to tell your child’s nursery, school, or college.
If your child’s nursery, school or college is making the request you will need to agree to it and sign the application form. If the form isn’t signed by the parent the application will not go any further until you have signed it.
Anyone else can tell the 0-25 team about a child they think may need as assessment, such as health professional, a foster carer, social worker, or family friend.
Children and young people in youth custody also have the right to request an assessment for an EHC plan. The child’s parent, the young person themselves or the professional working with them can also ask the home local authority for an assessment.
In Plymouth parents can make a request by completing the online request form.
Request EHCP AssessmentThe online form asks for information about you and your child including names, date of birth and name of nursery/school college.
It will ask you what support is already in place for your child and has tick boxes for the following:
The online form asks:
Are there any other agencies involved with the child and asks you to provide details. For example, speech and language, CAMHS, Livewell.
It is important to add the details of the agencies who are working with you and your family. You could add if any referrals have been made.
The form then asks why you would like an EHCP.
It is important to outline the reasons why.
Remember the legal reason when the local authority must carry out a needs assessment are if:
In this part of the form outline why you think your child has or may have special educational needs.
And
Why you feel they may need special educational support to be made through and EHCP.
Remember you don’t need a formal diagnosis to request an EHC needs assessment.
The form then has an option to upload any documents.
It is important that you upload any supporting documents, for example:
Remember PIASS are here and can support you with this form.
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