What is an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan and how to look through a draft plan?
This page explains what an EHC Plan is, how to look through one, some of your rights, and where you can get more information and help.
The information on this page is taken from the SEND Code of Practice 2015.
It would be helpful to read the following leaflets for further information:
Part one: What is an EHC Plan?
What is an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan?
An EHC Plan is for children and young people (aged 0 to 25) who need more support than is available through the funding available for SEN Support at their nursery, school or college.
An EHC Plan is a legal document that describes your child’s or young person’s:
Special Educational, Health and Social Care needs
Provision (extra or different types of help) they will need to meet these needs
The hope is that an EHC Plan will provide your child or young person with the outcomes (steps) needed to reach their aspirations (goals in life). The focus is very much on what is important for your child or young person and what they want to achieve now and in the future.
Why is an EHC Plan written?
An EHC Plan can only be issued after an EHC Needs Assessment (EHC NA) is carried out by the Local Authority (LA). This means the LA has decided, after looking through all the information and advice collected during the EHC Needs Assessment, that your child or young person needs special educational provision to be made through an EHC Plan.
For more information about EHC Needs Assessments, please read our page on EHC Needs Assessments.
Useful information
An EHC Plan can include health or social care needs. However, your child or young person will not get a plan if they only have health or social care needs that do not impact their education, for example taking part in lessons and/or the full school day (lunchtime, play/break times and assemblies).
An EHC Plan can be issued if your child or young person is between the ages of 0 and 25 years and is attending an education or training setting (depending on their age). However, this does not include a university setting, instead your young person can check to see if they are eligible for a Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA) to support them at university.
Writing the EHC Plan
The LA writes and issues an EHC Plan. All the information in the Plan is taken from the information and advice (professional reports, your child’s or young person’s & your views) collected during the EHC Needs Assessment.
Reviewing an EHC Plan
Once a final EHC Plan is in place, it must be reviewed at least every year (12 months) and for children under five, reviews should usually be held every three to six months.
The purpose of an Annual Review is to:
Review your child’s or young person’s progress towards the outcomes in their EHC Plan
Make sure the EHC Plan is up to date (all the information in the Plan is correct)
Help them to meet their outcomes
For more information about Annual Reviews, please read our Annual Reviews of EHC Plans information sheet.
How long does the EHC Plan last and when can it stop?
The EHC Plan can remain in place until your child or young person leaves their education or training setting, or the LA decides that your child or young person no longer needs the EHC Plan to provide support in their education or training setting.
Other reasons:
They go to university (studying a Higher Education course, i.e. a degree)
They get a job
They no longer want the EHC Plan (if they are 16 or over)
Moving to a new Local Authority
If you move to another Local Authority, the EHC Plan will be transferred to this LA and reviewed. There are steps that the old and new LA must follow to make this happen.
Key principles and requirements when writing the EHC Plan
Decisions about the content of EHC Plans should be made openly and together with you and your child or young person.
It should be clear on how your child or young person has given their views, wishes and feelings, and how these are included in the EHC Plan.
EHC Plans should describe positively what your child or young person can do and has achieved. (In Wandsworth, this part of the EHC Plan is called “Strengths”.)
EHC Plans should be clear, short and understandable to you, your child or young person, education or training staff and professionals.
In preparing the EHC Plan, the LA must consider how best to achieve the outcomes sought for your child or young person, using the evidence received as part of the EHC Needs Assessment.
EHC Plans must specify the outcomes sought for your child or young person. Outcomes should be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound.
Where you, your child or young person are seeking an innovative or alternative way to receive support, particularly through a Personal Budget, the planning process should include consideration of those solutions with support and advice available to assist you and your child or young person in deciding how best to receive the support.
EHC Plans should show how education, health and care provision will be co-ordinated wherever possible to support your child or young person to achieve their outcomes. The plan should also show how the different types of provision contribute to specific outcomes.
EHC Plans should be forward looking – for example, anticipating, planning, and commissioning for important transition points in your child’s or young person’s life, including planning and preparing for their transition into adult life.
What information should and must be in an EHC Plan?
It must have 12 sections (parts) that are clearly labelled.
Useful information
It can help to understand that there are three sections on needs (i.e. your child’s or young person’s difficulties) that are matched by provision (the help/support your child or young person will get) to meet those needs:
‘Section B: Special educational needs’ are met by ‘Section F: Special educational provision (help/support)’
‘Section C: Health care needs’ are met by ‘Section G: Health care provision’
‘Section D: Social care needs’ are met by ‘Section H: Social care provision’
The sections in an EHC Plan
Section A: Views, interests and aspirations
The views, interests and aspirations of your child or young person and you. This should be written by you and your child or young person. You can ask for support to write this section. Add links to the Section A templates.
Section B: Special educational needs (SEN)
This section includes the special educational needs identified during the EHC Needs Assessment. These must be specific.
Section C: Health needs related to your child’s or young person’s SEN
This section includes health needs related to your child’s or young person’s health needs obtained during the EHC Needs Assessment. These must be specific.
Section D: Social care needs related to your child’s or young person’s SEN
This section includes social care needs related to your child’s or young person’s social care needs obtained during the EHC Needs Assessment. These must be specific.
Section E: Outcomes – how the extra of different types of help will benefit your child or young person
These must be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound).
Section F: Special educational provision (support)
This must contain all the provision for each SEN in Section B. It should say what support will be provided, how often, for how long, and who will provide it.
Section G: Health provision
This section sets out the support needed for each health need in Section C.
Section H1: Social care provision
This includes social care provision which must be made under section 2 of the ‘Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970’.
Section H2: Social care provision
This includes other social care provision reasonably required to help with the developmental and/or learning difficulty/disability which has resulted in your child having SEN. This will include any adult social care provision being provided to meet a young person’s eligible needs under the Care Act 2014 (through a statutory care and support plan).
Useful information
Health or social care provision made wholly or mainly for education or training must be treated as special educational provision. For example, speech and language therapy is generally considered education provision and should usually be placed in Section F.
Section I: Placement
Type and name of the education setting, (nursery, school, college or training provider). This is only added when the final EHC Plan is issued.
Section J: Personal Budget arrangements
This section includes Personal Budget arrangements, where requested and agreed.
Section K: Advice and information
A list of all advice and information (reports from all the professionals and yours, your child or young person’s views) gathered during the EHC Needs Assessment.
When you receive an EHC Plan
When you receive the draft EHC Plan, it must include copies of all the advice and information (reports) collected during the EHC Needs Assessment.
The draft EHC Plan is usually issued by week 14 of when the initial EHC Needs Assessment request was received. However, this is not a legal timescale.
A draft EHC Plan can only be issued after an EHC Needs Assessment, or if your child or young person already has an EHC Plan which has been updated after an Annual Review or for another reason. In this instance it will be called a ‘Proposed Amended EHC Plan’.
For more information on timescales for Proposed Amended EHC Plans, please read our page on Annual Reviews of EHC Plans information sheet.
What to do when you receive a draft EHC Plan
This is an opportunity to check whether the draft EHC Plan contains everything it should and must.
You must receive a draft EHC Plan with a letter explaining that you have 15 calendar days to:
Make comments (representations) about what is written in the draft EHC Plan, including requesting amendments (changes) to be made.
Request a meeting with the LA (usually your child’s or young person’s EHC Co-ordinator in the SEN team) to discuss the draft
Request that an education or training setting is named in the final EHC Plan
A draft EHC Plan cannot include the name of a nursery, school, college or other education setting, or the type of placement (mainstream or special school) your child or young person should attend. This is because only you or your young person have the right to say which education setting you would prefer to be named in the EHC Plan.
If the LA agrees to make amendments, they must re-issue a draft plan and give you a further 15 calendar days to comment before the 20-week deadline – when you must receive the final EHC Plan.
The education or training setting being consulted must respond to the consultation within 15 calendar days.
Useful information
When a draft EHC Plan is issued, this does not mean your child or young person has to leave their current education setting. Most children and young people remain at their setting unless you ask the LA to consult another setting and the LA agrees to name it in the final EHC Plan.
Requesting an education setting to be named in Section I of the EHC Plan
The law assumes that children and young people will be educated in a mainstream setting, unless you or your young person wants to attend a SEN education setting (special school/college), or the LA decides mainstream education would not be reasonable.
You have the right to request the following types of education settings to be named in your child’s or young person’s EHC Plan:
A maintained school or nursery (mainstream or special)
An academy or free school (mainstream or special)
A Further Education (FE) or Sixth Form college
A non-maintained special school. These are charitable foundations and ‘not for profit’ schools.
A Section 41 school or college. These are independent schools or specialist colleges that have been approved by the Secretary of State (Government).
The LA must consult and name one of the above settings if you ask them to and name one of the above settings unless it can prove one of the following:
It would be unsuitable for the child’s or young person’s age, ability, aptitude or SEN of the child or young person, or
The attendance of the child or young person there would be incompatible with the efficient
a. education of others, or
b. use of resources (usually this means money)
Useful information
You can ask the LA to consider (this is not a right) a request for an independent school or college that is not a non-maintained or Section 41 setting. If you request the LA to consult an independent school or college, please ensure you first have a confirmed offer of a place from this school/college.
Personal Budgets
When a draft EHC Plan is issued, you or your young person have a right to request a Personal Budget.
A Personal Budget is an amount of money identified by the LA to deliver provision in the EHC Plan. Personal Budgets are optional so you do not have to have one, but if you do request one, the LA must consider the request.
Details of the proposed Personal Budget (if requested and agreed by the LA) should be included in Section J of the draft plan.
The LA does not have to agree to a request for a Personal Budget. If the LA refuses, it must set out its reasons in writing and give you the right to request a formal review of their decision.
For more information about Personal Budgets, please read: the SEND Code of Practice (January 2015), paragraphs 9.95 to 9.124.
Finalising the EHC Plan
If you make any requests for changes to the draft plan and these are agreed by the LA, the final plan should be sent to you as quickly as possible. The final EHC Plan must be issued and received by you within 20 weeks of when the LA received (logged) the request for an EHC Needs Assessment.
The final plan can only differ from the draft plan because of your request for changes, including a request for a Personal Budget, and adding the name of the education/training setting.
When a final EHC Plan is issued, you or your young person has a right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal if you disagree with the following:
Description of your child’s or young person’s special educational needs (Section B) and/or
Special educational provision (Section F) specified in the EHC Plan; and/or
Name or type of education setting or training provider in Section I, or the fact that no education setting or training provider is named
You can also appeal Sections C, D, G and H of the EHC Plan that deal with health and social care, if you are also appealing Section B, F and/or I too.
For more information about appealing, read the WIASS Right of Appeal to the SEND Tribunal information sheet.
You have two months from the date you received the letter accompanying the final EHC Plan to lodge your appeal if you decide to.
Funding for an EHC Plan
If your child or young person attends a mainstream school or college, some of the funding comes from the school’s or college’s budget. The LA usually tops this up from the ‘high needs block’ (this is the money the LA releases when an EHC Plan is issued).
Special schools already have a set amount of funding for pupils already. This can also be topped up from the LA’s ‘high needs block’ if needed.
For more information about schools and colleges and their funding, please read the following paragraphs in the SEND Code of Practice.
School’s Funding: Paragraphs 6.95 – 6.99
College (Further Education) Funding: Paragraphs 7.28 – 7.34
Children and Young people in Youth Custody
If your child or young person is in youth custody and it seems they may need support from an EHC Plan on release, an EHC Needs Assessment can be started while they are in custody.
The LA must not cease (end) an EHC Plan if your child or young person enters custody. They must it while they are detained and maintain and review it when they are released.
If your child or young person has an EHC Plan before entering custody and/or EHC Plan is completed while they are in custody, the LA must arrange appropriate special educational provision (Section F) and, if the Plan specifies health care provision, that must be arranged too.
Part two: Looking through the draft/proposed amended EHC Plan
This section explains one way of checking a draft EHC Plan and how to provide your representations (comments/views) on the content to your child’s or young person’s EHC Co-ordinator in the SEN Team - Special Needs Assessment Service (SNAS) in Wandsworth.
Why is it important to check a draft/proposed amended EHC Plan?
As mentioned earlier, one of the key principles the LA must follow when writing an EHC Plan is that it should be clear, short and understandable to you, your child or young person, education/training staff and professionals.
Therefore, at this stage, you are checking that the plan contains all the necessary information about your child or young person, including their needs and the support they require to meet their aspirations, by checking the following:
Is everything in the right section?
Has anything been left out and/or is incorrect?
Is everything written about your child or young person clear. For example, if someone who has never met them would know what their aspirations and needs are, and the support they require for each need to meet their outcomes?
Useful information
As explained earlier, you have 15 calendar days from the date you receive the draft or proposed amended EHC Plan to look through it and provide your comments.
Before you start reading the EHC Plan
Check that you have received with the draft/proposed amended EHCP all the advice and information (usually written as reports) collected during the EHC NA/Annual Review process.
Section K of the draft EHC Plan must list all the advice and information (reports) obtained for the EHC Needs Assessment or Annual Review of an EHC Plan.
If any copies of advice or information is missing, make a note and ask your child’s or young person’s EHC Co-ordinator to send these to you straight away.
Make a photocopy of the draft/proposed amended EHC Plan and/or ask the EHC Co-ordinator to email you an electronic copy for you to add your notes on.
Have three different colour pens (felt tips or highlighters) or for an electronic copy, use the ‘Text Highlight Colour’ tool.
Looking through the draft/proposed amended EHC Plan
First
Read through the draft/proposed amended EHC Plan and circle and/or underline or make a note of anything you think is:
In the wrong section
Incorrect and/or
Not clear or contradicts another part of the EHC Plan
Next
Take the two pens (felt tips/highlighters) and decide which colour you will use to highlight the ‘Needs’ sections and the other to highlight the ‘Provision (help/support)’ sections in the advice and information reports you have received and listed in Section K.
Go through each advice and information report one at a time, usually it is a good idea to start with the nursery, school or college report, followed by the Educational Psychologist’s report and then specialist professional reports, i.e. speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, CAMHS or literacy support.
Then
Check that all identified SEN from the advice and information reports are included in Section B of the plan. (Circle any needs that are not included from the advice and information reports in Section B.)
Check that all SEN provision (sometimes these are written as Recommendations in some reports). Circle any provision/s that are not included from the advice and information reports in Section F.
Check that each identified SEN (Section B) has corresponding ‘provision’ in Section F of the EHC Plan.
Section F must contain anything which ‘educates’ or ‘trains’ your child or young person, for example this will usually include occupational therapy or speech and language therapy.
Then
Repeat the same process for health needs in Section C and social care needs in Section D. Followed by health provision in Section G and social care provision in Section H (H1 and/or H2) of the EHC Plan.
Lastly
Check that every need (health and social care) identified has corresponding provision. If you cannot see this in the EHC Plan, then go back and check the advice and information reports to see whether the provision in the advice and information reports to see if they are in these - if yes, put a tick next to it.
Useful information
If your child or young person is in Year 9 or above, check that the EHC Plan includes needs and provision to support preparation for adulthood and independent living.
Is the EHC Plan clear?
Description of your child or young person’s needs and support needed (provision): Specification and Quantification:
Without specification and quantification, a final EHC Plan can be open to interpretation by the reader.
Check that the wording is specific and quantified (where appropriate).
Specification: (Sections from B to D),
See below for examples of specific wording.
“Sam has problems with his spelling” is not specific because it does not say whether this relates to all spellings or types of spelling patterns.
“Sam has problems following instructions” is not specific because we do not know whether it’s all types of instructions?
Instead, the wording should be specific, for example:
Sam has difficulties spelling c-v-c words, for example cat and dog, independently.
Sam is unable to follow two-step instructions, for example “take off your coat and hang it on your coat peg”.
Specification and Quantification: (Sections F to H),
Section F:
“Sam will need phonic sessions during the week” is not specific or quantified because it does not say how many times, for how long, what type of phonics activities or who will deliver the support.
Instead, the wording should be specific and quantified,
Sam will need 15 minutes of phonics sessions daily to practise building up a bank of c-v-c words, for example dog, cat and bat, with a teaching assistant trained in the school’s phonics scheme.
Useful information: Words like “access to”, “opportunities for” and “regular” are not specific or quantifiable. If these are in the plan, check the advice and information reports to see whether there is clarification about how often (daily, weekly etc.) and duration (15 minutes, an hour etc.) If not, make a note of this.
How to make your representations to the EHC Co-ordinator
You can add your representations (give your views/comments) directly onto the draft/proposed amended EHC Plan, or write a letter/email.
If you are posting your representations, leave enough time to ensure your views reach the EHC Co-ordinator within the 15 calendar days.
Useful information
If you want changes made to the draft/proposed amended EHC Plan, it is important to refer to evidence from the reports in Section K or any additional advice and information you have obtained to show why this change should be made.
Template letter/email
Dear [insert EHC Co-ordinator name],
[Insert your child’s or young person’s name and date of birth]
My views on the draft EHC Plan
I am writing/emailing as the parent of [child’s or young person’s name] and would like the attached/enclosed changes/additions made to their draft/proposed amended EHC Plan, which I/we received on [insert date].
I/we would also like to meet and/or discuss our representations over the phone and are available on the following dates and times: [insert dates/times]. Please delete this sentence if not required.
Finally, the [nursery/school/college] we wish to be named on the EHC Plan when it is finalised is [name of nursery/school/college].
Please do get in touch if you have any questions.
Yours sincerely,
[Your name]
Next steps
Email/post your representations to the EHC Plan Co-ordinator (please ensure they receive them by the 15th calendar day from when you received them). If posting, it may be helpful to use recorded delivery and keep the receipt.
If information has not been specified and/or quantified in the EHC Plan, it will be the EHC Co-ordinator’s role to clarify this with the relevant professionals. However, you can also go directly to the professionals directly to ask them to provide this information, to try to save time.
The EHC Co-ordinator will consider your representations and should make the changes where you have referred to the advice and information report it came from. They must send you a copy of the amended version and give you a further 15 calendar days to comment on the changes.
The EHC Co-ordinator will consult with your preferred education setting(s) and issue the final EHC Plan. The final plan should name the nursery, school, college or training provider you requested unless there is a lawful reason why this cannot be agreed. The final EHC Plan must be issued within 20 weeks of the LA receiving the request for an EHC Needs Assessment.
Leaflets and templates
You can download our leaflets and templates:
Where can I get more information, advice, or support about EHC plans?
If you have questions about an EHC plan, you can:
Speak to and or ask to meet with the EHC plan co-ordinator
Read Chapter 9 (paragraphs 9.61 onwards), of the SEND Code of Practice 2015
Read IPSEA's What is an EHC plan?
Contact WIASS for impartial information, advice and support