Educational, Health, Care Plans (EHCP)

Settings and schools have a duty to meet the needs of all pupils and to follow a graduated response to identification and meeting Special Educational Needs. For a small number of children with a higher level of need children and young people the setting/school may need further guidance and resource from the local authority in order to meet their specific individual needs. In these cases, the setting/school have a duty of care to apply for an Education, Health, Care (EHC) assessment and the local authority has a duty to respond within legal timeframes. The Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) is a legal document which sets out a description of a child/young person’s special educational, health and care needs and what provision (what will be done) to meet their needs to enable the child/young person to make progress. It is crucial that the family and child/young person are fully informed of the Education, Health, Care needs assessment process and supported through it. Parents/carers can report that the process can feel like a battle, sometimes with professionals and panels contradicting each other, which can cause understandable frustration. It is the duty of all SEND professionals to have a robust, working knowledge of processes locally and nationally so that parents can be supported through the process amicably.

The video below explains what an EHCP is.

What is an Education, Health and Social Care (EHC) plan? (updated 2019) – YouTube

Who requires an Education Health and Care Plan?

Generally, only a very small number of children and young people with complex and severe needs, who require very high levels of individualised support, are issued with an EHCP. All schools have a budget, called the notional budget, that is available to support children and young people with SEND. Most children and young people will access help in their educational placement through Ordinarily Available Provision and in schools, school SEN Support.

Where provision cannot reasonably be provided through services and resources that are normally available, it may be necessary to request an EHC needs assessment. Schools and settings typically request EHC needs assessments, but parents and professionals can do too. Young people aged 16 and over have the right to request an EHC needs assessment independently. Settings, schools and colleges and other bodies can also request assessments but they can only do this with the knowledge and agreement of the young person and/or person with parental responsibility. The child/young person has to have a special educational need that is severe and/or complex and which has persisted in spite of the setting/school following the graduated response; including taking all expected steps and using the highest level of its resources to identify, assess and meet the need. The Local Authority (LA) SEND panel also considers whether or not the difficulties are having an effect on the child/young person’s emotional wellbeing. The Local Offer in Tameside will enable families and practitioners to find out what is available locally and further afield and should help everyone to make the most of many services and opportunities that are available, without the need to have an EHCP.

The EHC Assessment Process

The Referral

This is the first part of the process in making a request for an EHC needs assessment and is a key document that the local authority will consider when making decisions. It is important for the referral to identify outcomes for the child/young person and any reports should highlight these outcomes. The decision to draw up an EHCP will depend on the severity of a child/young person’s needs and if any resources are identified that need adding to those already available. The referral should be accompanied by evidence of provision made for an individual child/young person from the SEN Notional Funding over three school terms (including the previous, current and next planned school term). This can take the form of a costed provision map. If a child/young person has support in small groups, please ensure that you divide the cost between the number of children/young people accessing the group. The ‘All About Me’ for Tameside documents completed by parents and children/young person should be included. It should be evident that the setting/school have been working on the aspirations highlighted by parents/carers and child/young person. Settings/schools should make every effort to identify strengths in all areas as well as difficulties. It is also helpful to detail what has worked in the last two/three cycles of Assess-Plan-DoReview and what additionality is needed to maintain or enhance the child/young person’s rate of progress. It is really important to include any attainment data/tracking information in the area of need/s identified so it is clear. Lastly, if there is any advice from external professionals, please ensure that this is incorporated into any paperwork, e.g. cycles of assess-plan-do-review, provision maps etc and, where possible, that this input is reviewed.

Please see the referrals/forms in the ‘Requests/Referrals/Forms/Templates’ section

The Timescales