What is an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA)...
An 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 (EHC plan). An EHC plan can result in additional support and funding for a child or young person with special educational needs (SEN).
Where, despite the school having taken relevant and purposeful action to identify and meet the pupil’s needs, the pupil is still not making expected progress, the school should consider requesting an Education, Health and Care needs assessment. (The parents or young person are also entitled to make such a request.)
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.
If your child has (or you as a young person have) a learning difficulty or a disability which is holding them/you back at school or college, and you believe that the school or college may not be able to provide all of the help and support which is needed, then you should make a request to the LA for an EHCNA. Y
You can only ask for an EHCNA if you/your child has, or may have, SEN – it does not apply where there are only health or social care needs.
Under the law, a child has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or a disability which calls for special educational provision.
For children of compulsory school age or younger, you as their parent or carer make the request. This includes children from age 0 to 5, where you should make a request if you believe that your child will need extra help at nursery or when they start school.
If you are a young person (over compulsory school age and up to 25), you can make the request yourself. If a young person is not able to understand, remember or communicate decisions about the educational support they need, their parent or carer can make the request on their behalf.
Should I speak to the school or college first?
Yes – it will be helpful to speak to the school or college about your worries before writing to the LA. You should speak to the relevant class or subject teacher, the school SENCO or the person at the college responsible for SEN provision, and the head teacher or the principal.
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 EHC Plan.
In other words, you need to explain why you believe the legal test for assessment is met. You can use IPSEA’s template letter for your request.
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.
If a 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), which is statutory guidance issued by the government, contains further detail on what LAs should consider.
Paragraph 9.14 the Code states that “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.
Some LAs have policies or criteria which set the threshold higher than the law. Common examples include policies which require:
- proof that the school or college has already spent a certain amount of money (often £6,000 per year) supporting your child
- evidence that your child is below a certain percentile or is a certain number of years behind academically
- evidence of a certain number of terms SEN support or
- evidence of prior involvement from outside specialists such as an educational psychologist or speech therapist
These things are not included in the legal test and is unlawful for the LA to refuse an EHCNA request because they have not been included.
If your LA refuses to carry out an EHCNA, you can appeal to the SEND Tribunal.
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 your 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.
If the LA agrees to carry out an assessment, various people will need to be asked for advice.
If the LA refuses to carry out an assessment, the refusal letter must give you certain information, including your right to appeal the decision to the SEND Tribunal and details of the mediation service for you to contact.
The deadline for appealing is two months from the date of the decision or one month from the date of the mediation certificate, whichever is the later.
If the LA decides not to issue an EHC plan, it must tell you within 16 weeks of the date when the request for an EHCNA was made.
This is set out in SEND Regulation 10(1).
You can appeal this decision to the SEND Tribunal.
If the LA decides to issue an EHC plan, it will first send out a draft plan for you to review and comment on. It must then send the final EHC plan 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.
A Personal Budget is money set aside to fund support as part of an EHCP.
The funding is not in addition to the funding attached to the EHCP.
A Personal Budget gives choice and control in the way support is delivered and can include funding for Education, Health, or Social Care provision.
A Personal Budget can only be used in a way that enables the child or young person to achieve the outcomes in the EHCP.
Any young person with an EHCP, or their parents, can ask the Local Authority to prepare a Personal Budget for them but this does not mean a Personal Budget is guaranteed.
If you would like to request a Personal Budget for your child, it needs to be during the annual review/drafting process. You need to write a letter to the SEND Team, with the following details:
- The type of provision / educational setting you are requesting.
- How long your child would receive this provision for, as well as how often they will be accessing it (for example, 2 hours a day, for 3 days a week, for 6 months).
- How this provision would relate to your child achieving the outcomes and provisions within their EHCP, and a description on how this would support them.
- How much this provision will cost, both per session and annually.
Once you have all this information and have submitted your letter to the EHC Team, it may be that they take your request to the next provision panel. It may also be that they ask your child’s school to put your requested provision in place.