All about special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)

The Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessment process starts the moment your local authority (Herefordshire Council) receives the request to carry out an EHC needs assessment.

It ends when your local authority:

• Decides not to carry out an EHC needs assessment; or
• Carries out an EHC needs assessment, but decides not to issue an EHC plan; or
• Issues a finalised EHC plan.

The EHC needs assessment process from start to finish should take no more than 20 weeks. You can find a detailed timeline of what happens at each stage of the EHC needs assessment process below:

• Request made
• Within 6 weeks - we decide whether to assess
• Within 16 weeks - we complete the EHC needs assessment and inform parent carers of our decision whether to issue an EHC plan. At this stage, a draft EHC plan is issued if appropriate
• Weeks 16 to 20 - the parent carer or the young person has 15 days to comment on the draft EHC plan and to state a preference for a setting. Settings have 15 days to respond to consultation
• By week 20 - we must complete all stages and send the final EHC plan

Week 0 to 6

You will receive a letter from the SEN team telling you they have received your request. If you have any more information that will help the SEN team, let them know.

You will be asked for your written consent to share information with relevant professionals if this has not been included in the original request.

Week 7 to 12: seek advice

You will receive a letter and/or a phone call from the SEN team telling you if we agree to carry out the assessment or not.

Where an assessment is not agreed you will be able to discuss the decision in a Moving Forward meeting.

If we agree to carry out the EHC needs assessment, the SEN team will request advice from education, health and social care professionals.

Advice will also be requested from:

• Educational Psychologist
• Paediatrician/GP
• Social Worker (if applicable)
• Other professionals involved with your child, for example, a Speech and Language Therapist or Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) professional

Replies must be received within six weeks of the request for advice.

Week 13 to 16: advice gathering and decision to issue an EHC plan

Following receipt of professional advice, the SEN team have 4 weeks to decide whether to issue an Education, Health and Care plan (EHC plan) or not.

By week 16 we will inform you in writing and/or a phone call that, either:

• We have decided to issue a statutory EHC plan. The SEN case officer will contact you to discuss a co-production meeting to develop the plan together, or send you an initial draft of the proposed plan, if preferred
• We have decided not to issue an EHC plan. If this is the case, we would issue a special educational needs support plan. This is shared with the child's existing educational setting. You have the right to appeal this decision. Mediation is available

Week 17 to 20: consult and finalise

Week 17 to 19

You have 15 calendar days to consider the proposed EHC plan and also to request a particular school or education setting.

Once you agree to the draft plan, we will send the draft plan to the preferred school or setting. We will always consult with the nearest school or setting as well as any that you would prefer to ask if they can deliver the provision and meet the outcomes in the EHC plan. The school or setting has 15 days to respond.

Week 20

By week 20 we will send you the final EHC plan. This will also be issued to the school or setting that your child will be attending.

Next steps

The EHC plan will be reviewed within 12 months of the date of issue by the school or education setting. The plan will continue to be reviewed every year to ensure it remains an accurate description of your child's needs. It is not intended that the plan will be updated every year, but it will be updated if there is a significant change, or your child changes school, for example moves to high school.

Your child's EHC plan will cease when either:

• They reach 25 years of age
• They complete their education
• Your child's special educational needs can be supported through universal provision which does not require additional funding or an EHC plan
• They attend university
• They leave the UK for more than 6 months