Education, health and care (EHC) plans and assessments

Find out what an EHC plan is, who they can help, how to request an EHC needs assessment and how annual reviews work.

What is an EHC plan?

An EHC plan is a legal document that sets out:

  • a child or young person's special educational, health and social needs
  • how those needs should be met
  • the outcomes that the child or young person will work towards achieving in life.

The SEND service reviews the EHC plan at least annually to make sure the support the child or young person receives is working.

Who an EHC plan can help

For most children, all schools or educational settings have resources that can support them. The setting can use a special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) support plan to help make a long-term plan of action for the child. For more information see SEND support in schools, colleges and nurseries.

However, some children and young people (aged up to 25) need more help than is available through (SEND) support.

If this is the case, you may want to consider requesting an EHC needs assessment if your child or you as a young person:

  • has/have high support needs
  • is/are receiving support from a wide range of services
  • is/are not making progress even though the support is increasing in type and amount.

The EHC needs assessment is how the EHC casework team works together with a panel of practitioners from across education, health and care to decide whether a child needs an EHC plan and, if so, what support is in the plan. This is a legal process that may result in the child or young person receiving an EHC plan.

Who can request an EHC needs assessment?

You can request an EHC needs assessment if you are:

  • a parent, carer or foster parent
  • the child’s nursery, school or college
  • a health professional or other person involved with the child
  • a young person aged 16 or over and still in education.

Parents and carers can request an EHC needs assessment by filling in this EHC assessment request form.

EHC assessment request form for parents (DOCX, 55.71KB)

The SENCo, who is a designated staff member in the school to oversee and coordinate support for children and young people with SEND can help with the application process. 

The Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS) can also help. This is a free service for children and young people. They can help you find out about your rights under the law and about the (EHC) needs assessment. 

Educational settings can also request an EHC needs assessment using the EHC assessment request form below. Any request not made by a parent or carer must have their full knowledge and agreement.

EHC assessment request form for educational settings (DOCX, 71.99KB)

In both cases, please return this completed form to send@lbhf.gov.uk

Your local authority will inform you of the outcome of the panel by week 6 in writing and may be followed up by a telephone call. 

Children younger than 2 years old

It is not always appropriate to carry out an EHC needs assessment for children who are younger than 2 years old. However, EHC casework team will consider the most appropriate ways forward and discuss these with parents, carers and professionals as needed.

If they do decide not to assess a child’s needs, they'll explain the reasons why and whether an appeal can be made.

Children in care 

In Hammersmith &Fulham, The Virtual School is in place to support children looked after.  

The virtual school helps children in care to gain a first-class education throughout their childhood, including making sure they get into the right school for them, and receive the best possible support through the education system. 

The EHC casework team liaise with the virtual school team to ensure that: 

  • EHC needs assessments for children in care are carried out promptly
  • children in care with an EHC plan in place have effective annual reviews to review their needs, the goals they are aiming for, and the support required.  

How the assessment works

If the EHC casework team and the panel agree that the child's needs require assessment, they will work with their partners in education, health, and social care to complete this within 20 weeks. The EHC casework team will give you a named EHC coordinator who will support you during this process and provide you with updates on progress.

As part of the assessment, the SEND service will also contact:

  • teachers or staff at the child's nursery, school or college
  • an educational psychologist
  • specialist teachers from the specialist teaching and learning service if they are already involved
  • a paediatrician (or GP if your child is over 18)
  • a speech and language therapist, an occupational therapist or a physical therapist, if already involved
  • family services (or adult social care if your child is over 18)
  • anyone else they need advice from, or that you think they should seek information from.

This information will help the EHC casework team see how your child’s needs affect their access to learning across a range of areas.

Your involvement

You and your child or you as a young person are at the centre of the assessment process. The allocated EHC coordinator will make sure you have time to prepare for meetings and give you time to share your views. You can attend any examinations or assessments as needed. 

If the EHC team decides not to issue an EHC plan

The EHC Team will consider all the advice received as part of the assessment and will decide about whether an EHC Plan is required. This decision is made via a multi-agency meeting with representation across education, health, and care partners. Your coordinator will formally write to you to inform you of the decision by Week 16 or will contact you to notify you of any delay.

The team will tell you within 16 weeks of starting the EHC assessment if they decide not to issue a plan for your child or you as a young person.

Your coordinator will invite you to a meeting called ‘Next Steps meeting’ to discuss the decision and possible ways forward. Even if the child or young person doesn’t need an EHC plan there will still be support available through the Local Offer for SEND. 

The Family Hub website that you are on at the moment is where all the information about SEND services is published. You can contact the Local Offer for SEND service at local.offer@lbhf.gov.uk

If you disagree with the decision, you have two months to appeal to the SEND tribunal. The SEND service will explain how you can appeal and give you information about the mediation process. Parents, carers and young people who wish to make an SEND appeal to the First-Tier Tribunal may only do so after they have contacted an independent mediation advisor and obtained a certificate. KIDS SEND Mediation Service offers a free mediation and disagreement resolution service that is an independent service of the local authority.

Contact a mediation advisor at KIDS:

020 7359 3635
mediationlondon@kids.org.uk

If the EHC team agrees to issue an EHC plan

The team will issue an EHC plan if the EHC needs assessment shows that the special educational needs provision required for your child, is over and above what is available in the Local Offer for SEND. 

Your coordinator will:

  • explain the help that is available and involve you in decisions about how funding is used where possible. This could include Help with travel to school costs for young people with SEND and in some cases, you may be able to receive a personal budget to arrange the provision yourself
  • arrange a co-production meeting with you and the child’s educational setting and any relevant professionals to go through the draft EHC plan to make sure it is accurate. You will have the opportunity to comment on the draft EHC plan before the EHC team issue the final one.

This is the EHC plan template for your reference, it would be completed by the professionals working with you.

Education, health and care plan template (PDF, 279.92KB)

How long does the assessment process take?

Click on the link below to find out about what happens during the 20 week assessment process.

What happens and when during the assessment process?

Weeks 1-6

The 20-week timescales start at the point that the request is received by the EHC Casework Team (must include parental or young person consent). The information included within the request will be considered by a panel of practitioners from across education, health and care and a decision made about whether it is necessary to undertake an EHC needs assessment. The LA will inform you of the outcome of the panel by week 6 in writing and may be followed up by a telephone call.

If an assessment is agreed, you will be allocated an EHC coordinator who will contact you to discuss the assessment. Your coordinator will talk to you about what to expect from the process, will ask some questions that help explore your child or young person’s or your needs and difficulties, and will discuss with your which agencies are currently involved with you/your child or young person and the family as they will be asked to contribute to the assessment.

If you/ your child or young person has complex health needs and is seen by a specialist, it is important that you share these details. Your coordinator will review the information that you and the education setting have already provided to ensure that we contact the right services. Your coordinator will also discuss your / your child or young person’s longer-term aspirations and what outcomes will be important for them to achieve as it is crucial that both your and your child’s voice is clearly evident.

If an assessment is not agreed the EHC team will send you formal confirmation of this via a letter which will also detail the reasons for not undertaking the statutory assessment. The EHC team may also offer a meeting to discuss the decision and next steps. The letter will also provide you with information about how you can appeal this decision.

KIDS SEND Mediation Service offers a free mediation and disagreement resolution service that is an independent service of the local authority. 

Contact a mediation advisor at KIDS:

Weeks 6 to 14:

The EHC team will seek advice from parent/carers and agencies identified as being involved with you / your child or young person. This will include medical advice from healthcare professionals; educational advice; psychological advice from an educational psychologist (EP); advice and information in relation to social care and Early Help services; advice and information from any other agency that the EHC Team thinks is appropriate and any agency that you as a young person or as the parent/carers of a child reasonably request that the LA seek advice from.  These agencies have up to 6 weeks to submit their advice to the EHC Casework team.

Weeks 14 to 16:

The EHC Team will consider all the advice received as part of the assessment and will decide about whether an EHC Plan is required. This decision is made via a multi-agency meeting with representation across education, health, and care partners.  Your Coordinator will formally write to you to inform you of the decision by Week 16 or will contact you to notify you of any delay.

If it is decided that it is not necessary to prepare an EHC plan, your coordinator will offer to speak with you to explain the decision and discuss next steps. You will be provided with a summary of the assessment and the advice that contributed to the assessment. You will receive formal confirmation of this decision in a letter which will provide you with information about how you can appeal this decision. If you disagree with the decision, you have two months to appeal to the SEND tribunal. The SEND service will explain how you can appeal and give you information about the mediation process. Again you can contact KIDS SEND Mediation Service

Weeks 16 to 19

Where the EHC Panel have decided an EHC plan is required the draft EHC plan will be issued to you. The EHC coordinator will contact you to explain the content of the EHC plan as well as your preference regarding the education setting to be named in Section I of the final EHC plan.

Coproduction meetings will be offered to provide the opportunity to discuss the draft plan with all professionals involved and so you can request any changes based on the assessment advice, that you would like to be made to the EHC plan before the final plan is issued. You have 15 days to respond once the draft is issued.

The EHC Team will consult with your preferred education setting and may also consult with other settings that may be suitable. The education settings should respond within 15 days to consider the request for placement and determine whether they are able to put in place the provision that has been identified in Section F of the EHC plan.

The EHC Team will consult with your preferred education setting and may also consult with other settings that may be suitable. The education settings should respond within 15 days to consider the request for placement and determine whether they are able to put in place the provision that has been identified in Section F of the EHC plan. If a specialist setting is the most suitable setting and is your preference, the Coordinator will refer the case to the SEN panel where professionals will review and make a final decision. Not all independent education settings are approved by DfE (approved educations are listed on the Section 41 here: Independent special schools and post-16 institutions - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)) .

If your preference is for one of these settings the EHC Team will consult with them but does not have the same ability to name them if they do think they are a suitable education setting for you / your child or young person.

Weeks 19 to 20

The final EHC Plan will be issued with different sections giving the education needs of the child / young person, the health and social care needs, as well as naming a suitable educational placement in Section I of the EHC plan. If you do not agree with the education setting that has been named in the EHC plan, the accompanying letter will provide you with information about how you can appeal this decision.
 

Reviewing the EHC plan

The EHC team reviews your child's plan every year (every 3 to 6 months if your child is under 5 years old) in a meeting that you and your child or you as a young person can come to.

In the meeting they:

  • review how the support the child has received has helped them to improve their learning outcomes and make progress in other areas  
  • see if the child's needs have changed in any way  
  • review the outcomes and see if they need to be changed  
  • plan for the next period up to the next review.

The child's educational setting will send the EHC team the information from the meeting. They will use this to decide whether they need to update the EHC plan.

Once the decision has been made the EHC team will write to you with the outcome.

If the EHC plan needs to be updated, the team will send you the revised draft plan for your comments, before then issuing a final amended EHC plan.

Find out more about annual reviews for education, health and care plans.

You can appeal to the SEND tribunal if you disagree with the SEND service changes, or if you disagree with the decision to not make changes, or to cease the EHC plan but you have to contact an independent mediation advisor first. KIDS SEND Mediation Service offers a free mediation and disagreement resolution service that is an independent service of the local authority.

Contact a mediation advisor at KIDS:

020 7359 3635
mediationlondon@kids.org.uk

Help with travel to school cost 

If the EHC plan indicates the child or young person needs help with travel to school, to apply for the service please fill in the home to school travel assistance request form below and send it to send@lbhf.gov.uk 

Home to school travel assistance request form (DOCX, 244.76KB)

For further information please consult the Home to school travel assistance policy.

Home to school travel assistance policy (PDF, 350.76KB)

Personal budgets

If the EHC plan indicates the child or young person needs to receive a personal budget please see the relevant guide below.

Guide to direct payments for 0 to 18 year olds 

Personal budgets and direct payments for young people 19–25.
 

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