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What is an Education, Health & Care Needs Assessment?
The majority of children and young people with SEND (Special Educational Needs and/or disabilities) will have their needs met within local mainstream early years settings, schools, or colleges. This is usually made available through “SEN Support” (please see our SEN Support Page for detailed information about this). Some children and young people, however, may require more support (“provision”) over and above that expected to be given through normal mainstream resources, and this is where an EHC needs assessment should be requested.
A local authority must conduct an assessment of education, health and care needs when it considers that it may be necessary for special educational provision to be made for the child or young person in accordance with an EHC plan. (Code of Practice 9.3)
The Education, Health & Care Needs Assessment (“EHCNA”) is the first step to getting an Education, Health & Care Plan (“EHCP”). It is an assessment of a child’s or young person’s education, health, and care needs. It is a legal process, and as such, there are statutory processes and timescales that the local authority must meet in making their decisions.
In order for the local authority to consider doing an assessment, there must be special educational need(s). If an assessment is agreed, only then will health & social care needs be taken into account and included. It is worth noting though, that there will be occasions where health and/or social care impact on a child’s education or learning and therefore may meet the definition of educational need.
Please note that an EHC needs assessment does not always result in an EHC plan. The information gathered during the needs assessment may indicate ways in which the school, college, or other provider can meet the child or young person’s needs without the need for an EHC plan. Even if an EHC plan is not agreed, the assessment would mean that there should be a much clearer understanding of your child’s or young person’s needs.
An assessment is usually requested by the child’s or young person’s educational setting (with parental/young person’s consent). However, parent carers and young people can make the request themselves. A young person (aged 16-25) must request an assessment themselves or at least give their consent (where there is mental capacity to do so) and must be involved as much as possible in the process.
The local authority can also be notified by anyone else who thinks an assessment may be necessary, including foster carers, doctors, health visitors, teachers, parents, and family friends.
Yes – we would encourage you to be as involved in the process as possible. If you are not making the initial request, your consent should ideally be requested by the setting before the EHCNA request is made. However, please note that whilst this is best practice, consent is not mandatory, and a request can be made without this consent. The setting making the request should, however, sign a form to say they have advised you as a parent carer or young person, as to what will be happening with the information they are submitting, and that you have been signposted to the SENAT Privacy Notice.
You should be involved in the information being given, and you should also be kept informed about the process and know how you will be supported (or where you can get support from).
“In considering whether an EHC needs assessment is necessary, local authorities must have regard to the views, wishes and feelings of the child and his or her parent, or the young person. At an early stage, the local authority should establish how the child and his or her parent or the young person can best be kept informed and supported to participate as fully as possible in decision-making”. Code of Practice 9.12
You may be asked to provide additional information, such as:
- your parental views (this may come in the form of a Parental Contribution Booklet – see the end of this page for tips on how to complete)
- Any reports you have from school, nursery, or childminder
- doctors’ or other practitioners’ assessments of your child
As mentioned above, usually the educational setting will make a request for an EHCNA if they feel that the support they have already been giving is not helping the child or young person meet the desired outcomes, and therefore, more or different resources are required. However, there may be a time when you feel it necessary to make the request yourself (for example, if a school says they are too busy / others need to be done first, or they don’t feel they have enough evidence to proceed). This is known as a parental request.
- If you want to make a parental request for an Education, Health & Care Needs Assessment, then the following ‘Practical Guides’ that SENDIAS has created may be helpful. These explain the law behind what the LA should consider, how you can make the request, the type of information you will need to include, and a template letter that you can adapt (with some helpful advice and examples for the different sections).
Please use the following email address to send your request: EHCNARequest@westsussex.gov.uk
There are generally two reasons why a child or young person of compulsory school age does not attend an educational setting:
1. – because a parent carer has chosen to ‘electively home educate’ them. This can be for several reasons, but it is generally due to a positive, active decision to do so.
2. – because a parent carer feels that the current educational setting(s) available are not able to meet their child or young person’s needs and has therefore made the decision for them not to attend (or the child / young person themselves will not attend).
Whilst the result is the same, the reasons are important when looking at whether to request an EHC needs assessment.
As we read earlier, a local authority only needs to conduct an assessment of education, health & care needs when it considers:
“that it may be necessary for special educational provision to be made for the child or young person in accordance with an EHC plan.” CoP 9.3
If you electively home educate (option 1) and you wish to continue, then the local authority has no legal duty to secure special educational provision, as it is deemed that, as a parent carer, you have made your own, suitable alternative arrangements. This would mean that an EHC plan would not be needed, and therefore neither would an EHC needs assessment.
However, if your child has SEN and you want the Local Authority to make special educational provision (which may well mean attending a setting once the EHC plan is agreed), you can make a parental request in the same way as above. The LA will follow the same process in deciding whether one is necessary. However, it is helpful to understand that, depending on how long your child or young person has been out of school, it may be harder for the LA to identify whether provision is required through an EHC plan. One of the considerations is based on your child or young person not having made expected progress despite there being relevant and purposeful action having taken place to identify, assess, and meet the special educational needs of your child or young person. It may be harder to show evidence of this if your child has been out of school.
That doesn’t mean the LA can’t agree to an EHC needs assessment, but it may be harder to explain and evidence why one is needed.
Is there a better time to request an EHCNA?
Somerset Parent Carer Forum, NHS, and Somerset Safeguarding Children Partnership have co-produced a calendar to help you consider the impacts of when you request an EHCNA.
Further Information
- IASSN Interactive EHCNA and EHCP guidance
- The Parental Contribution Booklet – Tips and Examples – for SENAT once an EHCNA has been agreed.
- Parent contribution form for school requesting an EHCNA
- Blog post – How to apply for an EHCNA
- Downloadable Factsheets (from our website): SEN Support, EHC Needs Assessment & EHC Plans
- Appealing if EHCNA is refused
- SENDIAS Webinar (below)
This webinar is about the Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) criteria and how to request one. It is just over 26 minutes long and was recorded by some of the SENDIAS Team in February 2020.
We also have a couple of factsheets that you may want to have a look at:
If you think you will struggle with any of this on your own then please contact us by email: send.ias@westsussex.gov.uk or call us on: 0330 222 8555 to discuss how we may be able to support you.