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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 occasion 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: an EHC needs assessment will not always lead to 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 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.
Who can ask for an EHCNA?
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 directly 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 mush 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.
Will I, as a parent, be involved?
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 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 9.12You may be asked to provide additional information such as:
- any reports you have from school, nursery or childminder
- doctors’ or other practitioners’ assessments of your child
- 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)
How do I make a parental request for an EHCNA?
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 guides that SENDIAS have 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 for the different sections).
What if my child or young person is not on roll at a school?
There are generally two reasons why a child or young person of compulsory school age does not attend an educational setting:
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 would 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 are wanting 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 it is not possible for the LA to agree to an EHC needs assessment, but it may be harder to explain and evidence why one is needed.
Further Information
- The Parental Contribution Booklet – Tips and Examples
- Blog post – How to apply for an EHCNA
- Downloadable leaflets (from our website): SEN Support, EHC Needs Assessment & EHC Plans
- Appealing if EHCNA is refused- Coming Soon
- SENDIAS Webinar (below)
This webinar is about the Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) criteria and how to request for one. It is just over 26 minutes long and was recorded by some of the SENDIAS Team in Feb 2020.
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.