The list of people the LA must get advice and information from during an assessment is set out in Regulation 6(1) of The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 (The SEND Regulations 2014):

•   you, as your child’s parent or as a young person
•   educational advice (usually from the head teacher or principal)
•   medical advice and information from a health care professional
•   psychological advice and information from an educational psychologist
•   advice and information in relation to social care
•   advice and information from any other person the local authority thinks appropriate
•   where your child (or you as a young person) is in or beyond year 9, advice and information in relation to provision to        assist your child/you in preparation for adulthood and independent living, and
•   advice and information from any person you reasonably request that the local authority seek advice from.

The LA is legally required to get all of this information as a minimum. 

If your child (or you, as a young person) is hearing impaired and/or visually impaired the educational advice must be given after consultation with a suitably qualified person. This is set out in SEND Regulation 6(2).

The LA should consider whether a full social care assessment or health assessment is also needed. It is best to ask for social care and health assessments separately to ensure the request is received.

The LA must obtain educational advice and information from the head teacher or principal of the school or institution your child or young person is “attending”. If they are not attending temporarily for a short period of time, for example due to a short fixed-term exclusion/suspension or illness, the LA can usually still get this information from the school they are registered at. 

As before, it must cover 

• your child or young person’s needs
• the provision required to meet those needs, and 
• the outcomes expected to be achieved by your child or young person. 

Where the LA cannot get educational advice and information from the head teacher or principal, it must obtain it from a person it is satisfied has experience of teaching children or young people with special educational needs, or knowledge of the differing provision which may be called for in different cases to meet those needs. 

If the LA cannot do this and your child or young person is not currently attending a school or institution, it must get the educational information from the person responsible for their educational provision. 

The law on who the LA must obtain educational information from in an EHC needs assessment is set out in SEND Regulation 6(1)(b). 

You can request the LA seeks advice from anyone within education, health or social care, as long as it is a reasonable request, as set out in SEND Regulation 6(1)(h).

This could include a speech and language therapist, occupational therapist, physiotherapist or someone from CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services).

A request would be considered reasonable where, for example, a child or young person has been identified as needing an assessment already and they are on a waiting list, or where the school, college or other professional has said this advice may be needed.

You can ask the LA to get advice from a particular type of professional (such as an occupational therapist with training in sensory processing difficulties), but it would not normally be reasonable to ask for advice from a named individual.

Equally, it’s not likely to be reasonable for you to request that information under SEND Regulations 6(1)(a)-(g) is sought from a named individual (such as an independent educational psychologist) rather than from the one proposed by the LA.

It is best to request in writing (either in a letter or an email) that a particular professional is approached, so that you have a record of your request. You can use IPSEA's template letter to do this.

The LA must consider the individual circumstances of your request and decide whether it is reasonable. It must not apply blanket rules, for example that it will not seek advice from a particular service unless the child or young person is already known to them.

If the LA does not agree to your request, you can take action by using IPSEA's template letter.

The LA does not have to seek new advice where the same type of advice has already been provided for any purpose – for example, if there is already a recent educational psychologist’s report.

However, this exception will only apply if you, the person providing that advice and the LA are all satisfied that the existing advice is sufficient.

Previous advice can only be sufficient for an EHC needs assessment if it is relatively up to date and accurately reflects your child/yours’s current needs, the provision required to meet those needs, and the outcomes which this provision will aim to achieve. As a rough guide, an educational psychologist’s report which is over two years old will not usually be recent enough to be useful, but this will always depend on individual circumstances.

Yes. If you already have your own advice and reports, these can be submitted as part of your own advice (remember that SEND Regulation 6(1)(a) says the LA must ask for your advice) to ensure that they form part of the assessment process. This evidence must then be considered when the LA makes its decision. 

Sometimes LAs say they cannot consider private reports. This is not true. SEND Regulation 7(b) says that the LA must consider all information provided by or at the request of a child, parent or young person. 

The LA must send copies of your advice and information to all the other people from whom advice and information is being sought. This is set out in SEND Regulation 6(3). 

Paragraph 9.51 of the SEND Code of Practice 2015 (the Code) says

"advice should be clear, accessible and specific. In particular, it should address your/ your child’s needs, the special educational provision required to meet those needs, and the outcomes which this provision will aim to achieve".

LAs should not have policies stopping professionals from giving advice on the amount of provision required.

There is guidance for educational psychologists involved in EHC needs assessments, which makes clear that:

• their input must focus on the needs of the child or young person, be independent, and not be driven by financial or other constraints (paragraph 3.19)
• their advice should not be influenced by consideration of specific educational settings (paragraph 3.22)
• provision recommendations should be clear and specific enough so there can be agreement about whether or not they are being followed (paragraph 3.24)
• best practice would be to give robust advice leading to clear, specific and quantifiable provision (paragraph 3.27) and guidance should be provided in terms of ‘no less than’, ‘at least’ or ‘always’ (paragraph 3.28), and
• the expert should be given enough time and resources to provide advice.

The Code also says that the educational psychologist should consult any other psychologists known to be involved with your child or young person (paragraph 9.49). This will include for example a clinical psychologist. If they don’t do this, you should ask that they do.

When seeking advice and information in relation to social care, it is common for LAs to receive a response from social care stating, “not known to this service”. It is important to remember the LA must get information and advice from the list of professionals contained in SEND Regulation 6(1), which covers your/ your child’s needs, provision and outcomes.

A response stating “not known to this service” is not going to fulfil this duty. If you don’t want support from social care, you may be content with this, but if you do require support, you should insist on a fuller response. 

If you make a request under SEND Regulation 6(1)(h) for advice from a speech and language therapist, it will be helpful for you to know that guidance from the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists makes clear advice should be based on an up-to-date comprehensive assessment of all areas of communication functioning, and that provision should be clearly specified and quantified, and should relate directly to the needs of the child or young person, not to the level of services available (see paragraph 9.4).

In addition to guidance for specific professionals, many health care professionals are bound by the standards set out by the Health and Care Professions Council. These standards can be relevant when they are providing advice as part of an EHC needs assessment. If a registered professional (such as an occupational therapist or speech and language therapist) identifies a special educational provision your child or young person needs, then states that a member of school staff, such as a teaching assistant, can deliver that provision, it may be helpful to refer to paragraph 4.1 of the standards. This states that professionals can only delegate work to people who have ‘the knowledge, skills and experience needed to carry it out safely and effectively’ and the professional must ‘continue to provide appropriate supervision and support to those they delegate work to’. This appears to imply that if your child’s provision is to be delivered by somebody other than the health care professional who identified the need for it, there should also be an explanation of how this person will be trained and supported, and the arrangements for supervision. 

If you feel the EHC needs assessment is not being carried out properly, you can use IPSEA's template letter to take action.

This includes where the advice you receive does not specify your/your child’s needs, provision and outcomes.

The LA should then go back to the professional concerned and ask them for advice which complies with SEND Regulation 6(1) and the relevant guidance.

As well as the duties relating to advice and information, the LA must:

• consult with you and your child.  It must take into account your views, wishes and feelings
• consider any information that you provide 
• engage you and your child and ensure that you are able to participate in decisions, and
• minimise disruption for you and your family.

This is set out in SEND Regulation 7.

The LA must also consider whether you need any information, advice and support, so that you are able to fully take part in the EHC needs assessment.

If you do need help, then this must be provided. This is set out in SEND Regulation 9.

Certain people and bodies (such as a local NHS service) asked for information and advice must respond within six weeks. This is set out in SEND Regulation 8(1) and paragraph 9.52 of the Code.

The only exceptions to this are if:

• during that six week period, exceptional circumstances affect you or your child
• you or your child are away for a continuous period of not less than four weeks, or
• you fail to keep an appointment for an examination or a test.

The LA must either decide not to issue an EHCP within 16 weeks of the date your EHC needs assessment request was received, or (if a plan is to be issued) to issue a final EHCP within 20 weeks of that date. These are legal duties which must be complied with. 

If the LA is genuinely unable to get one of the necessary pieces of advice during the time frame in its usual way, it should consider alternative ways of getting the advice (for example, getting an independent report).

The LA must decide whether the advice and information gathered during the EHC needs assessment shows that it's necessary for your child or young person to have an EHCP. If it does, then it must issue an EHCP.

This is set out in section 37(1) Children and Families Act 2014.