What is an Education, Health, and Care (EHC) Needs Assessments?
An EHC Needs Assessment is a detailed assessment of your education, health, and care needs.
It is the first step to getting an Education, Health, and Care (EHC) Plan.
An EHC Plan can result in additional support and money for you at school if you have special educational needs (SEN).
SEN is when you find learning or taking part at school a struggle and need extra or different types of help compared to other students of the same age. Find out more information about getting extra or different types of help at school.
If your school or parent/carer feel the help the school is already providing is not enough or the school needs more money to keep the help going, then they are likely to request an EHC Needs Assessment from the council.
The council is usually referred to as the local authority (LA).
Whoever puts the request in (school or your parent/carer) they must ask you for your views about what you are having difficulties with, what you think of the help you are getting and any other help you feel you need.
The EHC Needs Assessment request should also contain detailed information on:
- The reasons for making this request
- Your SEN and the help the school are putting in
- The progress you have made so far, including your SEN support plan, and reports written by any professionals who have seen or worked with you
When the local authority receives the EHC Needs Assessment request, they will read through the information submitted with the request and decide whether to start the EHC assessment or not.
If the local authority agrees to starting an EHC Needs Assessment, then there are number of steps that they have to follow legally. The EHC Needs Assessment process takes 20 weeks from when the local authority receives the request and to the end of the process.
Below is a timeline of each step of the EHC Needs Assessment process, timescales and what happens at each step. Click the timeline to view a larger version.
Leaflets
You can download our leaflets for more information on EHC Needs Assessments and EHC Plans:
- What is an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Needs Assessment?
- Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans
How we can help
We can:
- Go through any questions you and your parent/carer’s have about the EHC Needs Assessment steps
- Support you and your parent/carer’s to give your views during each step and at meetings
- Provide advice on your parent/carer’s options when they have a right of appeal
How to contact us
You can contact us by:
- Phone: Call or text our Children and Young People’s Officer on 07917 504 390
- Phone: Call our office Helpline Number on 020 8871 8065
- Email: wiass@wandsworth.gov.uk