Getting an Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP)

An EHCP is for children and young people from 0 to 25 who need extra support beyond what is ordinarily available at nurseries, mainstream schools and colleges. 

This is a legal document that sets out: 

• the child or young person’s education, health and care needs 
• the additional support required to meet those needs 
• the outcomes the child or young person wants to achieve 

We work with nurseries, schools and colleges to review EHCPs every year to make sure your child is getting the right level of support. 

How to request an EHC needs assessment

Most children or young people would already need to be getting support in mainstream schools before you can apply for an EHC needs assessment. 

Sometimes your child may need more support than is being provided. You, your school, nursery or a professional can apply for a needs assessment.  

Often, a Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo) will work with parents, carers and other professionals to do this.

Find out more about SEND support for your child

Requesting an EHC needs assessment yourself

There may be situations where you need to request an EHC needs assessment on your own. An example of this may be because: 

• your nursery, school or college thinks the level of support your child is receiving is enough to meet their needs 
• you’ve recently moved into the country 
• if you are over the age of 16 

You will need to send us an EHC needs assessment profile and parental request form with any supporting documents. This can include: 

• the child or young person’s level of education or developmental milestones and their rate of progress 
• information about the nature, extent and context of their special educational needs 
• evidence of what the nursery, school or college has done to meet their special educational needs 
• evidence of the progress they’ve made because of the additional support that has been provided 
• evidence of their physical, emotional and social development and health needs

Contact us

Email: special-needs@royalgreenwich.gov.uk 

Telephone: 020 8921 8029 

What happens next

When you submit a request for an EHC needs assessment, we will: 

• gather initial information and evidence 
• request and consider professional advice 
• decide if we can issue an EHCP 

This will usually take around 6 weeks. 

If we do not issue an EHCP, we will either ask for more information or give you the right to appeal our decision.  

If we need more information, we will continue with the needs assessment. This whole process must take under 20 weeks.  

We will decide whether your child needs an EHCP by week 14.  

If we do not issue an EHCP, we will give you feedback on why and how to appeal our decision. 

If we decide to issue an EHCP, we will then prepare a draft EHCP. Once it’s ready for consultation, you will have 15 days to: 

• consider and give feedback on the plan 
• ask for a particular school or college to enrol your child or young person 
• arrange a meeting with us to discuss the plan 

By week 20, we will issue the final EHCP and begin the support as agreed in the plan. 

There are a few times where the process can take longer than 20 weeks. This is when: 

• the child or young person is not in the area for at least 4 weeks 
• the child, young person or parent is going through exceptional personal circumstances 
• the school or college is closed for at least 4 weeks 

While waiting for the assessment process, you can get support from organisations that support parents and carers. 

What to expect in an EHCP

An EHCP should: 

• describe what the child or young person can do 
• show how education, health and care will be coordinated 
• consider alternative ways of providing support 
• specify clear outcomes 
• include the views of you and your child 
• be clear and concise 

We put the child or young person and their family at the centre of the assessment and planning process. This means we’ll: 

• involve the child or young person and you as much as possible in making decisions 
• coordinate services between education, health and social care to make sure care is aligned 
• do a joint assessment so that you only need to say what you need once 

You can also watch a video on what a mapping session is and how you may be involved. 

Personal EHCP budgets

You can ask for a personal budget for the provisions agreed in your child’s EHCP. This can only be done: 

• when the EHCP is being drafted 
• when the EHCP is being reviewed or reassessed 

Find out more about personal budgets

Reviewing the EHCP

The school or college will review your child’s EHCP every year to make sure that the support your child is receiving is appropriate.

If you disagree with an EHCP

If you disagree with our decision or the plan itself, you can appeal this at any stage of the process. 

Find out where to go for appeals, advice and mediation