Annual reviews for education health and care plans
If your child or young person has an education, health and care (EHC) plan, it must be reviewed at least every 12 months.
This process is called the annual review and schools should arrange this. If a child or young person does not attend a school or other institution the local authority will arrange the review.
The main purpose of the review is to assess the child or young person's progress towards achieving the outcomes specified in the EHCP.
Reviews must take into account the views, wishes and feelings of children, young people and parents.
If you, the school or the local authority believe there is an urgent need for a change to your child/ young person’s EHC plan a review can be requested at any time. These may be called interim or emergency reviews
Reasons to ask for an emergency review could be.
- Your child/young person’s education, health or social care needs have changed and are no longer accurately described in the EHC plan.
- The education, health or social care provision in the EHC plan is no longer meeting your child/young person’s needs.
It is always useful to talk to school about your concerns or speak to the SEND team before an emergency review is requested.
Contact the school or your area SEND Team if you need to call a review.
Review meetings and timescales
The review meeting must be carried out in partnership with the child / young person and parent. Your views, wishes and feelings must be taken into account including the right to request a personal budget You can take a friend / relative or supporter with you to the meeting and a young person over 16 can request an advocate if they choose.
You should receive at least 2 week notice of the meeting date. All Education, Health and Social Care practitioners involved must be invited to the review, they will be asked to produce a written report and these should be sent to those attending 2 weeks before the meeting.
You will be asked to give your views, and those of your child's/young person.
These are important, think about their progress what has gone well/ not so well and does anything need changing.
At the meeting the SENCO (special educational needs co-ordinator) should go through each part of the EHCP and discuss what is working/not working and the progress made.
There should be copies of the EHCP for all attending and you and your child should be at the centre of the discussions, This is your chance to ask any questions and raise any concerns you may have and have your views heard.
Everything discussed in the meeting is recorded (reviews in Year 9 should have a focus on options and choices for the next step in education and begin to consider what provision will be required).
After the meeting the SENCO will produce an Annual Review Summary about what was said and agreed along with any recommendations. This is sent to the local authority SEND team, This must be done within two weeks of the meeting. When the LA receives the above it will produce a report of its recommendations and send to all invited.
Within 4 weeks of the meeting date, the local authority must send its decision to parent/young person and school/ Head Teacher.
The LA's decisions are
- Maintain the EHCP in its current form
- Cease to maintain the EHCP
- Amend the EHCP
Whichever decision is made the authority must notify parents of their right to appeal and with the details of mediation and disagreement resolution services.
If EHCP needs to be amended, the authority should 'without delay' send out a notice of amendment that gives details of the proposed changes , a copy of the original EHCP and any relevant evidence for the changes.
They must inform parents of their right to request their preferred school.
When the amended EHCP is received you have at least 15 days to respond and raise any concerns you may have, you can also request your preferred school and ask for a meeting to discuss your views and raise any concerns if needed.
The new final EHCP must be issued within 8 weeks of receiving your notice of amendment.