This page explains what an EHC Needs Assessment is, each step, some of your rights and where you can get more information and help from.
The information on this page is taken from the SEND Code of Practice 2015.
It would be helpful to read the following pages and leaflet for further information
Part One: EHC Needs Assessment
What is an EHC Needs Assessment?
An EHC Needs Assessment is an assessment of your child’s (aged 0 to 16) or young person aged (16 to 25) education, health, and social care needs.
It is a legal process, with several steps which may result in an education, health, and care (EHC) plan being issued.
An EHC Needs Assessment requires several professional assessments to happen.
The EHC Needs Assessment steps and time scales must be followed by law.
The process starts (the “clock starts ticking”) from when the local authority receives the EHC Needs Assessment request.
Who can request (ask for) an EHC Needs Assessment?
An EHC Needs Assessment can be requested by:
You.
Your child if they are a young person (aged 16 to 25).
Their education setting (nursery, school, or college).
Useful information
For children aged 0 to 16, you or the education setting can make the request. If your child is a young person (aged 16 to 25), they can usually make the request themselves. However, if they ask you to act on their behalf, or they lack the mental capacity to make decisions about the request, you can make the request for them.
Find out more information about The Mental Capacity Act (Mencap).
When should a request for an EHC Needs Assessment be made?
You, your young person, or their education setting can make the request at any time.
Normally, requests are made when your child’s or young person’s education setting and you feel that they need more support than the setting can ordinarily provide from its own resources.
It is always a good idea to talk to your child’s or young person’s education setting if you are thinking of putting in parental EHC Needs Assessment request.
Useful information
An EHC Needs Assessment, can only be requested if your child or young person has, or may have, SEN (not just health or social care needs).
For more information on the definition of SEN and SEN provision, please read our information sheet on Getting extra help or different types of help at school/college .
How is an EHC Needs Assessment request made?
Education Setting (or Professionals)
If your child’s or young person’s education setting makes a request, they will need to complete Wandsworth Council’s (LA) EHC Needs Assessment request form.
Useful information
You and your child or young person must be involved and be at the centre of the whole process, including yours and their views, wishes and feelings.
Parent or young person request
If you or your young person aged 16 to 25 would like to make the request, you can use one of our EHC Needs Assessment request templates.
Useful information
If you or your young person makes the request, the EHC Needs Assessment process will not be quicker than the education setting submitting it. However, if you would rather the request goes in sooner than the education setting’s timescale, you can make the request yourself.
You can also put in a request if your child or young person’s education setting does not agree to make the request because they feel your child or young person is making appropriate progress with the SEN support they are providing.
You can make an EHC Needs Assessment request at any time unless a refusal to assess decision by the LA was upheld by a SEND Tribunal judge. If this happens, you must wait six months from the tribunal decision date before making a new request.
How long does the EHC Needs Assessment process take?
It takes 20 weeks from the day the LA receives and logs the request to the end of the process, where a final EHC Plan is issued.
Useful information
Not all EHC Needs Assessment requests are agreed.
Furthermore, if an EHC Needs Assessment request is agreed, there is no guarantee that an EHC Plan will be issued at the end of the assessment.
Part Two: The EHC Needs Assessment process in detail
Step 1: The LA receives the EHC Needs Assessment request
The LA receives the EHC Needs Assessment request (in writing or by email) from you, the young person, their education setting, or they are notified by a health professional.
The LA sends a letter to you or your young person to confirm they have received the EHC NA request and must provide the following information:
They have six weeks from receiving the EHC Needs Assessment request to decide whether to agree to start the assessment or not.
Who they are going to write to for information on your child or young person.
Where you can get information, advice and support from. In Wandsworth, this is provided by WIASS.
Step 2: The LA considers the request
To help the LA decide whether to agree to an assessment, they must consider the two main points in law:
Whether your child or young person has or may have special educational needs (SEN); and
Whether they may need special educational provision to be made through an EHC Plan.
If the answer to both questions is yes, they must carry out an EHC Needs Assessment.
This means these are the only questions the LA should be asking when considering whether to carry out an EHC Needs Assessment.
To help them make the decision, the LA will consider all the information sent with the request and other information requested from professionals, you and/or your young person, for example:
Your child’s or young person’s academic achievement and progress at their education setting, or if they are under five, how they are meeting their development milestones. This should include their rate of progress too.
Information about your child’s or young person’s type and level of SEN.
Evidence of any support that their education setting has put in to meet their SEN.
Evidence of any progress your child or young person has made with the extra or different type of help given to them by their education setting, which is over and above what the setting would normally provide.
Evidence of your child’s or young person’s physical, emotional, social development and health needs, including relevant evidence from clinicians and other health professionals and what has been done by other agencies.
Where your young person is aged over 18, the LA must consider whether they require additional time, compared with the majority of others of the same age who do not have SEN, to complete their education or training.
Step 3: The LA makes their decision
The LA will inform you in writing within six weeks of receiving the EHC Needs Assessment request from you, your young person, or the education setting.
That either:
They agree to start an EHC Needs Assessment and list all the professionals/services they will ask for advice and information from, including your child’s or young person’s and your views.
They are not agreeing to the EHC Needs Assessment, their reasons why and that you have the right to appeal this decision to the SEND Tribunal. You have two months to appeal from the date you receive the letter informing you of the decision.
The LA will also tell you in this letter where you can get information, advice and support, which is provided by WIASS in Wandsworth.
For more information about appealing, please read our section Challenging EHC decisions on our Challenging decisions, making complaints and appealing page.
Step 4: The LA carries out the EHC Needs Assessment
Where the LA has agreed to carry out an EHC Needs Assessment, they must seek advice (usually written as a report) from a range of people. The list below is set out in Regulation 6(1) of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014:
You or your young person.
Educational advice (usually from the headteacher or principal of the education setting).
Medical advice and information from a healthcare professional.
If your child has a hearing impairment and/or visual impairment, the educational advice must come from a suitably qualified person to teach children with these impairments.
Psychological advice and information from an educational psychologist.
Advice and information in relation to social care.
Advice and information from any other person the LA thinks appropriate. If your child or young person is in or beyond Year 9, this includes advice and information about provision to support preparing for adulthood and independent living.
Advice and information from any person that you, your child or young person reasonably requests that the LA seeks advice from.
The LA is legally required to seek all this advice as a minimum and it must be provided to the LA within six weeks of being asked to do so. If the LA is genuinely not able to obtain one piece of advice (which falls outside the exceptions) they would be expected to obtain an independent report in its place.
Useful information
The LA does not have to seek further information from professionals if this has been provided recently, for example information submitted with the EHC Needs Assessment request or usually within the last 12 months.
What should be in the report (advice and information)?
The LA must ask professionals to provide the following advice and information as part of their report:
A description of your child’s or young person’s SEN.
The provision (support) they will need to meet their SEN.
The outcomes your child or young person could be expected to achieve because of the provision (extra or different type of help) being provided.
Useful information
The advice and information must be clear, accessible and specific. Social care, or any other service required to provide information, stating “not known to this service” should not be accepted by the LA. Information and advice needs to be provided on your child’s or young person’s social care needs.
There are no legal timescales to complete the actual assessment, although it should be completed approximately fourteen weeks from the date the EHC Needs Assessment request was received.
Step 5: At the end of the EHC Needs Assessment
Once the assessment has been carried out, the LA must decide whether:
To issue an EHC Plan; or
Not to issue an EHC Plan.
This decision must be based on the information and advice gathered during the EHC Needs Assessment. The legal test which the LA must apply is:
Where, in the light of an EHC Needs Assessment, it is necessary for special educational provision to be made for a child or young person in accordance with an EHC Plan:
a. The LA must ensure that an EHC Plan is prepared for the child or young person; and
b. Once an EHC Plan has been prepared, the LA must maintain the Plan.
If the LA decides that it is not necessary to issue an EHC Plan, the LA must write to you within 16 weeks from when they received the EHC Needs Assessment request. They must also tell you that you have a right to appeal to the SEND Tribunal.
For more information about appealing, please read our section Challenging EHC decisions on our Challenging decisions, making complaints and appealing page.
If the LA decides to issue an EHC Plan
You will receive a draft EHC Plan with a letter which must tell you that you have fifteen calendar days to:
Make comments (representations) about what is written in the draft EHC Plan, including requesting any amendments (changes) you want made.
Request a meeting with the LA to discuss the draft.
Provide the name of the education setting you want named in the final EHC Plan.
This is an important opportunity for you to check whether the draft EHC Plan contains everything it must and should do in each section.
For more information on draft EHC Plans and tips on how to look through and provide your comments on EHC Plans, please read our information sheet on WIASS EHC plan and looking through a draft plan.
Once the LA receives your comments, they will consult with the education setting you have requested, provided it is on the government approved list of schools and institutions.
Useful information
A draft EHC Plan must not include the name of an education setting, or what type of placement your child or young person should attend, for example a mainstream or special school. Instead, you can request a particular school, college or other institution to be named in Section I of the EHC Plan at this stage.
Step 6: Issuing the final EHC Plan
The final EHC Plan must be issued within a maximum of twenty weeks from the LA receiving the request for an EHC Needs Assessment.
A final EHC Plan will name the education setting your child or young person will attend.
When a final EHC Plan is issued, you or your young person also have a right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal if you are still not in agreement with the following:
Description of your child’s or young person’s special educational needs (Section B).
Special educational needs provision (Section F); and/or
Name/type of education setting (Section I), or the fact that no education setting is named.
You can also appeal the sections of the EHC Plan that deal with health and social care alongside appealing about the SEN and SEN provision.
For more information about appealing, please read our section Challenging EHC decisions on our Challenging decisions, making complaints and appealing page.
Top tips
Keep copies of all reports, emails and letters.
Make a note of important deadlines.
Share your views and your child’s views as early as possible.
Tell professionals about your child’s strengths as well as any difficulties.
Ask questions if you do not understand a report or decision.
Contact us if you need impartial information, advice or support.
Where can I get more information, advice, or support on EHC Needs Assessments?
If you have questions about EHC Needs Assessments, you can:
Speak to the SENCO at your child’s school or named person at their college.
IPSEAs’ page on EHC Needs Assessments
Leaflets and templates
You can download our leaflets and templates:
For a quick read: