Education, Health and Care Plans (EHC Plan)

What is an Education, Health and Care Plan?

An Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan is a legal document which describes a child or young person’s aged up to 25 special educational needs, the support they need, and the outcomes they would like to achieve.

The special educational provision described in an EHC plan must be provided by the child or young person’s local authority. This means an EHC plan can give a child or young person extra educational support. It can also give parents and young people more choice about which school or other setting the child or young person can attend.

An EHC plan can only be issued after a child or young person has gone through the process of an Education, Health and Care needs assessment.

View this video below from the Council for Disabled Children to find out more:

New Assessments for EHC plans (School and Pre-school)

If a child or young person is identified as having special educational needs the expectation is that, in the vast majority of cases, those needs will be met effectively in school using additional resources that are ordinarily available there (e.g. support from a classroom assistant or small-group work). What this means in practice is that schools are expected to spend up to £6,000 on additional support before they ask the Local Authority for additional funding through an EHCP.

However, if a child continues to fall behind even after being provided with additional support, the school (or Early Years Panel in the case of pre-schoolers not at school) will ask for a Community Assessment Meeting (CAM) to be convened. At the CAM all parties (the child or young person, parents, school, other support agencies) will meet to look at the evidence and plan a way forward. This may result in the Local Authority deciding to start an assessment which could result in an EHCP being produced. The assessment process will be managed by the Assessment Team which is part of our statutory SEN Service.

If issued the EHCP will detail the child's needs, short and long term outcomes and the provision required to achieve those outcomes. In order to ensure that EHCPs produced by the Local Authority address all aspects of a child's or young person's needs the SEN Service has professionals from other agencies embedded within it who can bring their expertise to bear during the assessment process.

At all times parents (and young people if aged between 16 and 25) have the statutory right to request an assessment. To do so please contact the SEN Team on 0121 569 8240 or by email at SEN_Team@sandwell.gov.uk

A request for an assessment can also come from:

  • a school or nursery
  • a local authority


For an assessment request to be successful it must be shown that the child or young person has not made progress even with the provision of the £6,000 of additional support from the school and that progress will be made with the additional resources that will come with an EHCP. This will be discussed at the CAM which would follow a request for assessment

More details of how to request an EHCP assessment and the process that follows can be found in section 6 of the Guide for Parents and Carers which you can access from the downloads section of this page.

New Assessments for EHC Plan (Post 16)

There may be occasions where it becomes apparent, while at college or another education provider, that a young person may have additional educational needs that might require an assessment for an EHC Plan. In this case the young person (or their parents) can indicate their desire for an assessment to be carried out.

This can be done in writing to the Post 16 Officer, Sandwell SEN Service, Connor Education Centre, Connor Road, B71 3DJ or by telephoning the SEN Service on 0121-569-8240 to request that a pre-assessment to be carried out. Through this contact we will begin a discussion and start to gather any relevant written evidence concerning the areas where the young person has a learning difficulty or disability that requires special educational provision. 

Throughout the pre-assessment process, the young person should be supported to participate in discussions about their aspirations, their needs, and the support that they think will help them best. Support should be aimed at promoting independence and enabling the young person to make good progress towards the overarching outcomes of employment and/or higher education, independent living, good health and participating in the community. 

Once all information is gathered a decision whether or not an assessment should be undertaken will be made. Should the decision be to undertake an assessment then the young person, parent/carer and professionals involved will be formally requested to participate in the assessment process. Should the decision be not to assess then parents and/or the young person will be informed of their statutory rights of appeal.

Independent advice and support through the EHC plan process

The process of assessment for an EHCP can be daunting for parents and young people. Families can access support to guide them through the assessment journey. Currently this support is provided through the Special Educational Needs and Disability Independent Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS). Click here for more information about Sandwell SENDIASS.

 The EHCP Journeys website might also be useful. It provides real-life examples of what it is like to go through the EHCP process from the perspective of children, families and young people who are going, or have gone, through it.

The video below from the Council for Disabled Children gives more information on the role of SENDIASS:

Annual Reviews of EHC Plans

An EHCP is a dynamic document and can change to reflect changes in personal circumstances, including changes to a child or young person's special educational needs. The means to reflect these changes is a statutory review of the EHCP. Every EHCP must be reviewed within 12 months of the date it was issued and at least every 12 months thereafter. Reviews must focus on the child or young person’s progress towards achieving the outcomes specified in the EHC plan. The review must also consider whether these outcomes and supporting targets remain appropriate. In some cases it may also consider whether, given the progress the child or young person has made, it is appropriate to discontinue the EHCP.

All reviews must be undertaken in partnership with the child and their parent or the young person and must reflect their views, wishes and feelings including their right to request a personal budget. The vast majority of review meetings will be convened by and held at the establishment where the child or young person is placed and you should receive at least 2 weeks notice in order to maximise your opportunity to attend. You should also receive any reports and documentation at least 2 weeks prior to the meeting.

The meeting will review the targets in the EHCP and set new ones. It may also agree new outcomes for the EHCP. Following the review meeting reports will be sent to the SEN Service and a decision will be made to either:

  • maintain the EHCP in its current form
  • amend the EHCP in light of the review
  • discontinue the EHCP

In all cases the SEN Service will notify you of its decision and you have the right of appeal if you disagree with the decision.

For more information on the statutory review process see section 9 of the SEND Code of Practice.

Personal Education Budgets

If your child has an EHCP you or your child, if he/she is able, have the right to request a personal budget which is the amount of money required to fund any of the provision set out in the EHCP. A personal budget can be delivered in a number of ways:

  • You or your child can request a direct payment instead of the provision so that you can arrange it yourself. This is a payment of money to you instead of the Local Authority arranging the provision.
  • an arrangement whereby the Local Authority or a school holds the budget and arranges the support specified in the plan (this is referred to as a notional budget)
  • a direct payment to a third party where an individual or an organisation receives and manages payment on behalf of you or your child
  • a combination of the above


You can request that the Local Authority identify a personal budget or make a direct payment at two times:

  • when an EHCP is being prepared after a statutory assessment
  • when an EHCP is being reviewed

You cannot request a personal budget if your child has a statement of SEN or a Learning Disability Assessment (LDA). You must wait until a review when a transfer to an EHCP is being considered.

There are a few restrictions on personal education budgets and direct payments:


  • direct payments cannot be used to fund a place at a school or a post-16 institution
  • the local authority can refuse a request for a direct payment if it considers that to do so would have an adverse impact on services which the local authority provides to other children and young people with an EHCP
  • the local authority can refuse a request for a direct payment if it does not consider it to be an efficient use of its resources
  • the local authority cannot make any direct payments in respect of goods or services provided in an early years setting, school or post-16 institution without the written consent of the provider, head teacher or principal

More information about personal education budgets can be found in The Personal Education Budget Policy in the downloads section of this page. 

Information about personal budgets in adult social care in Sandwell
Information about personal health budgets in Sandwell or to request a personal health budget please email continuinghealthcare@nhs.net and mark for the attention of Lisa Reeves

SEN and Disability Tribunal

If you are unhappy with a decision not to assess, not to issue an EHC Plan, or with the special educational content or placement in the plan, you will be offered access to mediation to try and resolve any disagreements. Full details of available SEND Mediation services will be provided by the SEN Team in any communication with families concerning dispute resolution. You must consider going to mediation but if you are still not happy with the outcome you can make an appeal to the SEND Tribunal. The tribunal can make binding judgments regarding the educational aspects of an EHC Plan but there is a national trial starting in April 2018 to allow the tribunal to make non-binding judgments regarding the health and social care aspects. The Government has issued guidance about the national trial

Dispute resolution

Occasionally professional agencies working together will have disagreements over how best to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND. We have produced a Dispute Resolution Protocol which sets out how these differences can be resolved quickly and effectively. You can access the protocol in the downloads section of this page.

Page last reviewed: 09/01/2024

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