An Education Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) is an assessment of your child or young person’s education, health and care needs. It is the first step to getting an Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP).
An EHCP maybe necessary when, where, despite the school having taken relevant and purposeful action to identify and meet a child / young person's Special Educational Needs, and expected progress is not being made, an EHC Needs assessment maybe appropriate.
When considering making a request for an EHC Needs Assessment, it is important to look at what SEN Support has been implemented and if advice has been sought from the outreach (advisory) teams.
Early Years 0 to 5 | Central Bedfordshire SEND Local Offer
Inclusion Outreach and Training | Central Bedfordshire SEND Local Offer
Schools have a legal duty to use their “best endeavours” to make “reasonable adjustments” to secure special educational provision for all children they are responsible for.
(Equality Act 2010 & Children and Families Act 2014 section 66)
See our SEN support page for further guidance.
When the local authority determines whether to agree an EHC Needs Assessment, it is based on two tests from the Children’s and Families Act 2014 (section 36)
MAY have special educational needs
and
MAY require special educational provision to such that requires an EHCP.
When the Local authority (LA) is requested to carry out an EHC needs assessment (EHCNA) by a parent, young person, school or college, it must consider:
whether the 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 EHCP.
If the answer to both of these questions is yes, the LA must carry out an EHC needs assessment.
This test is set out in the law (section 36(8) of the Children and Families Act 2014).
The SEN and Disability Code of Practice 2015 (the Code), is statutory guidance issued by the government, contains further detail on what LAs should consider.
Paragraph 9.14 of the Code states...
“the local authority should consider whether there is evidence that despite the early years provider, school or post-16 institution having taken relevant and purposeful action to identify, assess and meet the special educational needs of the child or young person, the child or young person has not made expected progress”.
The Code says LAs should pay particular attention to:
evidence of your child's academic attainment (or developmental milestones in younger children) and rate of progress
information about the nature, extent and context of your child's SEN
evidence of the action already taken by the school or other setting to support your child
evidence that where progress has been made, it has only been as the result of lots of intervention and support over and above what is usually provided for children of the same age, and
evidence of your child’s physical, emotional and social development and health needs, taking into account relevant evidence from clinicians and other health professionals and what has been done to meet these by other agencies.
These are important considerations for the LA to take into account when deciding whether the legal test for an EHCNA needs assessment is met, but it is important to know that they are not legal requirements, and they do not form part of the legal test itself.
We would always recommend working with the SENDCo at your child / young person's education setting when making a request for an EHC Needs Assessment.
Click the link for guidance for professionals on requesting EHC Needs Assessments.
Education Health and Social Care Needs Assessments (EHCNA) | Central Bedfordshire SEND Local Offer
You can still apply for an EHCNA even if your child’s school does not agree that it is needed.
You should make a written request and keep a copy of your letter.
Your letter should set out:
why you believe your child has or may have special educational needs
and
why you believe they may need special educational provision to be made through an EHCP.
In other words, you need to explain why you believe the legal test for assessment is met.
There is no particular form, format or method that is required in law to make your EHCNA request valid.
A request cannot be rejected on the basis that a specific method or form has not been used, nor can an LA insist that you speak with either the relevant educational setting or other services before making a request.
When it comes to writing the letter, you may find it helpful to use this template letter, EHCNAR letter template you should consider the following in relation to Special Educational Needs…
Evidence of the child or young person’s academic attainment (or developmental milestones in younger children) and rate of progress.
- In what ways does your child / young person struggle in school?
- What are their barriers to learning?
- What progress has your child / young person made in school?
- How is their learning ability?
Information about the nature, extent and context of your child or young person’s SEN.
- What is your child / young person’s behaviour like?
- How do they present themselves?
- Does their behaviour differ between school and home?
- Does your child / young person have any social, emotional, and mental health difficulties?
- If so, can you describe them and how this impacts them accessing education.
- Does your child / young person have any Sensory Needs?
- If so, can you describe them and how they impact them accessing education.
- What does your child / young person enjoy and not enjoy in or about school?
- How is your child / young person with their peer group?
- What is your child / young person’s communication and interaction like with peers and adults?
- How about socially?
- What support does your child / young person have in the classroom and the wider school?
- What impact does this have?
- How do you and your child / young person find the support in school?
- Has your child / young person had any suspensions or been on a reduced timetable?
- How is your child / young person’s attendance?
- Can your CYP travel independently or with support?
- Do they know how to do this?
- Would they be able to use public transport?
- Can they get themselves from A to B?
- Do they have transport already?
- Does your CYP understand the use of money?
- Can they use money independently or with support?
- Does your CYP know how to read the time?
- Do they know about time management?
- Evidence of the action already taken by the school or other setting.
- Has the school discussed with you what they feel your CYP struggles with?
Evidence of the action already taken by the school / educational setting.
- Has the school discussed with you what they feel your child / young person struggles with?
- Do they have a SEND support plan?
- Has this been updated recently?
- Have the targets been achieved?
- What SEN Support has been implemented and reviewed?
- What support do you and your child / young person feel they need at school?
- Have they had any exclusions? How long for and what were the reasons?
- Has the school/college setting discussed anything that they feel your child or young person struggle with?
Evidence of the child or young person’s physical, emotional, and social development and health needs, drawing on relevant evidence from clinicians and other health professionals and what has been done to meet these by other agencies.
- Has your child / young person been involved with any services or professionals, advisory services, such as the Outreach Teams?
- Has the advice been implemented and reviewed?
- Click the link for information on the Outreach services in Central Bedfordshire. CBC LO Outreach services
- Does your child / young person have any diagnosis?
- If so, send the diagnosis letter with your request.
- How does your CYP’s diagnosis affect them day to day?
A DIAGNOSIS IS NOT REQUIRED FOR SEN SUPPORT OR AN EHCP.
Evidence that where progress has been made, it has only been as the result of additional intervention and support over and above that which is usually provided.
- SEN Support plans, Plan Do, Review, Action
Click the links for further information.
Explain why you feel your child / young person needs an EHCP and how this will benefit them.
- Is there any other information you would like to add to your letter?
- SENDIASS can read your letter draft if you would like this – send to support@sendiass.co.uk
- When you are ready to submit you can email your letter and supporting evidence to ehcassessments@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk marked FAO Ms. Amana Gordon Director of Children’s Services
The LA must reply within six weeks to let you know whether it agrees to carry out an EHCNA.
This is set out in Regulation 5(1) of The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014.
The LA should always reply to you as a parent or young person – even where the request was made by the school or college.
You should make a note of the six-week deadline for the LA’s reply.
If the LA does not respond in time, you can take action.
Please see information on what you can do if your LA does not respond within 6 weeks.
Following the EHCNA process the LA will then make a decision to whether they feel an EHCP is necessary.
If the LA decides not to issue an EHCP, it must tell you within 16 weeks of the date when they received the request for the EHCNA. This is set out in SEND Regulation 10(1).
You can appeal this decision to the SEND Tribunal.
If the decision is to issue an EHCP, a draft plan must be issued for you to review and comment on.
See our EHCP draft check guidance for further information on how an EHCP should be written. EHCP DRAFT CHECK GUIDANCE
(If you are requesting a change of school placement, you should do this when you respond to the draft plan)
It must then send the final EHCP to you within 20 weeks from the date the EHC needs assessment was requested. This is set out in SEND Regulation 13(2).
There is no deadline for the LA to send the draft plan. However, in order to meet the deadline to send the final plan, it would need to send out the draft a maximum of 14 weeks from the date the assessment was requested.
If the LA refuse to assess, it will write to you and let you know the reasons for its decision.
The decision letter must be dated and provide you with information on rights to appeal.
You can request a way forward meeting with your allocated EHCP Coordinator. The details will be on the letter.
The Way forward meeting is not a statutory requirement and the EHCP Coordinator cannot change the decision.
If you wish to appeal the decision, SENDIASS can support you with this.
Please see our appeals page for further information.