The first step in the process is to request an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment of the child. An EHC Needs Assessment informs a Local Authority’s decision on whether it needs to issue an EHCP for the child or young person.
Once a Local Authority agrees to carry out an EHC Needs Assessment it must seek advice from a number of professionals. Based on the evidence gathered it will then decide whether to issue an EHCP for that child or young person.
Local Authorities must carry out an EHC Needs Assessment first and on the basis of the information gathered from that process, will decide whether to issue an EHCP. An EHCP Needs Assessment request must be made in writing to the Local Authority. The request can be made by a Parent or educational setting. This request needs to be responded to within 6 weeks by the Local Authority.
Please remember, you don’t have to make the EHC Needs Assessment Request through your child’s school. If you want your school to request a EHCP needs assessment on your behalf, often local authorities will require evidence of all the interventions the school have put in place to consider it. It is therefore essential that if you have any concerns regarding your child’s progress you must raise it with the school at the earliest opportunity so they can start to put things in place and begin to gather evidence. If school are concerned about putting in the request for you, remember that you are able to do this yourself directly to the local authority.
