SEND Team: Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment

An EHC plan is a legally binding document outlining a child or young person's special educational, health, and social care needs. The document has to list all of the child or young person's special educational needs and provision to meet each of the needs. The provision has to be specific, detailed, and quantified. The plan names the school/setting which is to provide the provision and the plan is legally enforceable. 

EHC plans are for those children (0-16) or young people (16-19) or adults (19-25) with special educational needs who require support beyond that which an educational setting can provide. A child who has educational needs may also have additional health and social care needs and those can be included in the plan so long as they relate to education. You cannot have a freestanding EHCP for health or social care reasons alone.

Go to the EHC Hub website.

If you are an educational professional, log into the EHC Hub with your dedicated password and username.

There is dual authentication (a text message) and a code. If you are a parent or external professional, click ‘Request a needs assessment’ on the right.  

Read through the guidance on what an EHCP is for and then select request if you wish to continue. Please be sure that you wish to refer as when you submit the request this will begin the 20-week process.

Use the drop-down arrows on the right to expand the boxes. Please complete these in as much detail as possible and complete every box that is relevant. There will be the option to upload documents, for schools and settings, this should be used for the provision map, professionals' records and diagnoses only. Where possible based on age and ability, please include the learner/child in this process.

Details about the child or young person’s aspirations and goals for the future. When agreeing the aspirations, consideration should be given to the child or young person’s aspirations for paid employment, independent living and community participation. Details about play, health, schooling, independence, friendships, further education and future plans including employment (where practical). A summary of how to communicate with the child or young person and engage them in decision-making. The child or young person’s history. If written in the first person, the plan should make clear whether the child or young person is being quoted directly, or if the views of parents or professionals are being represented.

All of the child or young person’s identified special educational needs must be specified. SEN may include needs for health and social care provision that are treated as special educational provision because they educate or train the child or young person

Needs in this section require health provision not education provision. This section must specify all the health needs identified through the EHC needs assessment which relate to the child or young person’s SEN. The Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) may specify other health care needs which are not related to SEN but need management in a special educational setting e.g. incontinence. Health needs not related to the child’s SEN should also be included in this section unless there is good reason not to include them.

The EHC plan must specify any social care needs identified through the EHC needs assessment which relate to the child or young person’s SEN or which require provision for a child or young person under 18, under section 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970. The local authority may also choose to specify other social care needs which are not linked to the child or young person’s SEN or to a disability. This could include reference to any child in need or child protection plan which a child may have relating to other family issues such as neglect. Such an approach could help the child and their parents manage the different plans and bring greater co-ordination of services. Inclusion must only be with the consent of the child and their parents.

A range of outcomes over varying timescales, covering education, health and care as appropriate but recognising that it is the education and training outcomes only that will help determine when a plan is ceased for young people aged over 18. Therefore, for young people aged over 17, the EHC plan should identify clearly which outcomes are education and training outcomes. A clear distinction between outcomes and provision. The provision should help the child or young person achieve an outcome; it is not an outcome in itself. Steps towards meeting the outcomes. The arrangements for monitoring progress, including review and transition review arrangements and the arrangements for setting and monitoring shorter term. 

Provision must be detailed and specific and should normally be quantified, for example, in terms of the type, hours and frequency of support and level of expertise, including where this support is secured through a Personal Budget. Provision must be specified for each and every need specified in section B. It should be clear how the provision will support achievement of the outcomes. Where health or social care provision educates or trains a child or young person, it must appear in this section. There should be clarity as to how advice and information gathered has informed the provision specified. Where the local authority has departed from that advice, they should say so and give reasons for it. In some cases, flexibility will be required to meet the changing needs of the child or young person including flexibility in the use of a Personal Budget. The plan should specify:
• any appropriate facilities and equipment, staffing arrangements and curriculum
• any appropriate modifications to the application of the National Curriculum, where relevant
• any appropriate exclusions from the application of the National Curriculum or the course being studied in a post-16 setting, in detail, and the provision which it is proposed to substitute for any such exclusions in order to maintain a balanced and broadly based curriculum
• where residential accommodation is appropriate, that fact
• where there is a Personal Budget, the outcomes to which it is intended to contribute (detail of the arrangements for a Personal Budget, including any direct payment, must be included in the plan and these should be set out in section J)

Healthcare provision reasonably required may include specialist support and therapies, such as medical treatments and delivery of medications, occupational therapy and physiotherapy, a range of nursing support, specialist equipment, wheelchairs and continence supplies. It could include highly specialist services needed by only a small number of children which are commissioned centrally.

Will define the social care provision for the individual, such as pre-arranged short breaks, extra-curricular or out of school activities, as well as home support for the family.

The educational setting will be named in the Final EHCP Plan.