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 you and your child's nursery, schools and colleges to review your child's EHCPs every year. This helps to make sure your child is getting the right support and making progress. 

How to request an EHC needs assessment

Most children or young people would already be getting SEND support before you or their school apply for an EHC needs assessment. 

Find out how to get SEND support

Sometimes if your child is not making progress, they may need more SEND support than is being provided. You, your school, nursery or a professional can then apply for a needs assessment.  

The most effective way to apply for an EHCP is to do this with your school's Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo). An EHCP requires lots of professional documentation as evidence, so working with a SENCo will increase the chances of your application being accepted.

Requesting an EHC needs assessment yourself

There may be situations where you, as a parent or young person over 16, need to request an EHC needs assessment. This may be because: 

• the nursery, school or college thinks your child is making progress with the support they're receiving
• you’ve recently moved into the country and your child needs a high level of support here

You'll need to contact the SEND Assessment and Review Service and ask for an EHC needs assessment profile. 

The Woolwich Centre 
35 Wellington St,  
London 
SE18 6HQ 

Email: special-needs@royalgreenwich.gov.uk 

Telephone: 020 8921 8029 

Once you've completed the profile, send it back with the parental request form and supporting documents. This can include: 

• your 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 already done to meet their special educational needs through ordinarily available provision and SEND support
• 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

What happens next

1. Making a request for a needs assessment

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

• gather initial information and evidence
• request and consider advice from other professionals involved with your child
• decide if we're going to progress with an EHC needs assessment based on this information

This will usually take around 6 weeks. 

If we decide not to issue an EHCP, we'll give you the right to appeal our decision.  

2. Proceeding with a needs assessment

If we decide to proceed with an EHC needs assessment, we'll: 

• ask for advice from a wider group of professionals involved with your child
• consider this advice from professionals
• decide if we're going to issue an EHCP based on this information 

This whole process must take under 20 weeks.  

We'll 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. 

3. If we decide to issue an EHCP

We'll prepare a draft EHCP. Once it’s ready for consultation, you'll have 15 days to: 

• consider and give feedback on the plan
• provide us with preferences for schools you want us to consult with to meet your child's needs
• arrange a meeting with us to discuss the plan if needed

By week 20, we'll issue the final EHCP and start 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 so the consultation cannot happen in this time

During this process, you can get support from organisations that support parents and carers. 

What happens if we do not issue an EHCP

Not all EHC needs assessments end with an EHCP. 

Usually, this is because the outcome of the assessment shows that the child or young person's needs can be met through SEND support. 

If this is the decision, your child's school will use the advice and recommendations from the assessment to plan their SEND support. 

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 

One of the ways you may be involved is through the mapping process. Watch a video on what a mapping session is

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