EHCP Annual Reviews

An Education, Health and Care Plan, also called an EHCP or EHC Plan, must have a formal annual review within 12 months of the final plan or the last review. The annual review is a way you can raise concerns or suggest changes if you’re not happy with the content of an EHC plan.

In mainstream schools, it is usually the SENCO who parents work with for an EHCP Annual Review.  In our two Learning Difficulties LD schools, EHCP Coordinators, who coordinate our Annual Reviews.

SENCO

Mainstream schools are required by law to have a SENCO.  This is not the case for special schools as all teachers are considered coordinators of special needs teaching and learning.  As you would imagine however, we have several members of staff who have trained as SENCOs as part of their practice.  Nominally, we have named SENCOs at our LD schools, though they play different roles to that you may have experienced in your child's mainstream setting. 

Our named SENCOs

The Collett School - No named SENCO

St Luke's School - Rachel Andrew

Our named EHCP Co-ordinators

The Collett School - Katie Chamberlain

St Luke's School - Lisa Williams

The EHCP remains a legal document, owned by the Local Authority.  

The Local Authority amends the EHCP annually, with information supplied by the child, the parents, the school and additional professionals (e.g. speech and language.)  In addition, information regarding the child's health and social care needs are also included.

Hertfordshire Local Authority: Information about EHCP Annual Reviews

EHCP 'At a Glance'

The EHCP Annual Review Process

At The Collett School and, St Luke's School: 

Annual Review dates are planned in the summer of the previous year.

• We arrange our reviews in year groups.  This ensures pupils' EHCP reviews are undertaken within a year of the last plan review.  Over the years, as the child ages, their review gets slightly earlier in the school calendar.  We arrange the reviews to best suit other impactful circumstances - such as Year 11's application deadline dates for colleges.

Parents and Carers are notified of these planned dates towards the end of the summer term.  An hour and a half is scheduled for these events.

• Parents/carers can liaise with the school if the planned date is not suitable/preferable and rearrange this.
• Parents/carers are asked to consider whether other people should be invited to the Annual Review.  This might be professionals from social care, school staff, county SEN staff members, external tutors etc.

The school and/or the parent/carer can invite who they would like to attend the Annual Review

• We need to be clear in discussions about who is making connection with the invited guests.  

Two weeks before the EHCP Annual Review, parents/carers will be forwarded a copy of the latest EHCP document and, suggested amendments by the school class teacher/ the school.

• Changes will be suggested.  These include:
  • Out of date information to be removed
  • Updated medical information
  • Updated social care information
  • Updtated progress in academic and other learning

You or the school can ask for an early EHCP review.  The school should contact you if they think your child’s EHCP needs reviewing.

You or the school can ask for an early review if:

• your child’s special educational needs change significantly and the description in the EHC plan is no longer accurate 
• the provision in your child’s EHC plan no longer meets their needs
• your child has been excluded or is at risk of exclusion from school
• there's a problem and it seems the school may not be meeting your child's needs

Special educational provision is anything that “educates or trains” your child. This could be anything from individual support to speech and language therapy.

How an early review will affect the EHC plan

The early review should follow the same process as an annual review. Because you're asking for an early review to get specific revisions, your child's provision and outcomes could change. The local authority SEN officer may also attend the meeting to help review the problems with the EHC plan before it's submitted.

Problems with the school

You should only call an early review when you need the EHC plan to change. If you have a problem with the school carrying out the provision, but the plan is accurate, you should talk to the Head of School about your concerns.

The Collett School - Miss Jennie Witter

St Luke's School - Mr Jamie Caple

Or, if your concern includes the Head of School, then the Executive Head - Mr Stephen Hoult-Allen

Services for Young People (SfYP) Personal Advisers (PA’s) will be visiting our year 9 students in school to start chatting to the young people about their interests and aspirations for the future. The Personal Advisers are professionally trained and fully DBS checked to provide the highest level of support to young people with SEN and are very well known to the Blue Tangerine Federation of schools.

During the short informal session in Year 9 a 'Preparing for Adulthood ' transition plan, known as a PfA is created outlining all the possible options young people and their families may want to start exploring based on the discussions with the pupil, to support their transition from school to college post 16.

The PfA guidance is revisited in Year 11 prior to the final Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) meeting to identify the potential destination for the students post 16 and an action plan is created. Parents views are also collated at the EHCP meeting to add to the PfA transition plan.

It is a statutory requirement in Year 9 and Year 11 for the students to have Services for Young People attend their Education, Health and Care Plan reviews and for the Personal advisers to write the Preparing for Adulthood Transition Plan. Having the voice of the pupil is paramount in the plan and it is important the pupil gets the impartial advice and guidance provided by SfYP. The pupils will be asked to sign a data protection form to say they are happy for the Personal Advisers to share their PfA views with their family and the school.

Personal Advisers work closely with the family to ensure the pupils have a robust transition plan which will be an appendices to the EHCP in Year 11.

The school Personal Advisers are Beverly Greenfield and Nicole Chater. If any parents would like to speak with the Personal Advisers prior to the meeting they can email them on Beverly.Greenfield@hertfordshire.gov.uk and Nicole.Chater@hertfordshire.gov.uk.

The EHCP or EHC Plan, is a legal document. This means that legally your local authority must provide the provision agreed in your child’s plan.

Your child’s legal right to support

The local authority is legally responsible for making sure your child gets the support set out in the EHC plan. The school should follow what’s set out in section F of the plan.

The local authority will have consulted the school on your child’s EHC plan, including:

• what resources the school can provide 
• any external expertise that’s needed 
• what additional funding the school might need  

If you think your child is not getting some of the support in the EHC plan, talk to the Head of School  about it first.

Talking to the Head of School

It can be helpful to understand how the school is supporting your child. Some parents think the school is not following the EHC plan because of the way they’re using the provision.

How a school decides to use provision will depend on what’s described in the EHC plan and how specific it is.

For example, the school might use the hours described in the EHCP for both direct and indirect work. 

If your child’s EHCP says

“6 hours of speech and language therapy support per term.”

This might mean 2 hours are your child’s time with the speech and language therapist. The other 4 hours might involve the speech and language therapist:

• doing termly planning
• working with your child’s teachers 
• training staff or teaching assistants on how they can support your child’s needs

If you’re not sure how the school is using your child’s provision, you can:

• ask how the school is allocating the provision 
• talk about how they’re using the EHC plan funding 
• work together to find the best way to use the provision 

Parents' Evenings

These are helpful to discuss issues, such as:

• your child is not progressing as expected 
• you’re worried the school is not following your child’s EHC plan 
• you’re not sure how the school is delivering the support 
• there are problems with health or social care providers, such as physios or speech and language therapists, at the school 
• you want to talk about any team changes and who will be supporting your child

Be clear about what you think is not working. If you can, work with the school to understand:

• what provision and funding is in place 
• how they are following the EHC plan 
• what needs to change 

If there’s a bigger problem, you feel the Head of School or, Executive Headteacher cannot deal with or a problem with the school, you might want to involve your SEN officer from the local authority. Their contact details should be on your child’s EHCP paperwork.

Health and social care support

The local authority is legally responsible for making sure health and social care support is provided. For example, physiotherapy or occupational therapy. The local authority will also need to make sure there’s cover for things like sick leave.

Your school may be able to provide some support internally. For example if they have a speech and language therapist. Talk to the Head of School about who will provide the support and where it will happen. 

If you or the school is having trouble getting the services from a health agency such as the NHS, it’s good to talk to the Head of School first.

Then contact your local authority SEN officer. The local authority are legally responsible for making sure your child has support.  

If your child is still not getting the support, follow your local authority’s complaints procedure. 

Complaining to the school or local authority

If you feel that the school is still not following the EHC plan after a meeting with the Head of School or they do not resolve any problems you raised, talk to someone from the senior management team. For example, the assistant headteacher or headteacher.

If the school still fails to follow the EHCP, contact your local authority to make a complaint. IPSEA (Independent Provider of Special Education Advice) has a template letter you can use.

SEN code of practice and EHC plan parents guide

You can check the school and local authority responsibilities in the:

SEN code of practice (GOV.UK)

Government SEND guide for parents and carers

Disagreement resolution service

If you cannot come to a solution with the school or local authority, ask to see your local disagreement resolution service. This can help you deal with any disagreements between you and the education or health and social care organisations.

The service can also help with disagreements between local authorities and health organisations, like the NHS.

Maintaining your relationship with the school

Dealing with problems with your child’s support can be hard. But it’s helpful to maintain a good relationship with your child’s school and keep communication open. You’ll probably work with them for a few years.

To help maintain this relationship, you can:

• know who your schools' teacher, EHCP Co-ordinator and Head of School are
• use Class Dojo to contact your child's class teacher
• get support from the SEN parent information service provided by the local authority

Meetings can also be more open and productive if you:

• are clear about the purpose of a meeting and who you want there 
• write down any problems you have and what you want to achieve from the meeting before you go 
• agree how long meetings will be to make sure everyone is available for the same amount of time 
• ask how meetings are going to be recorded or who is going to take the minutes if needed
• take someone with you for support or to take notes, such as your partner, family, friend or even someone from the parent information service 
• set a date and time for follow-up meetings, such as in 6 weeks, to check that people are doing what they said they would 
• keep copies of all your records, documents and communications with everyone involved

Parent Information Service

Your local authority must publish all services available to support disabled children and their families in your area. This is called a Local Offer. It covers education, health and social care services.

By law, every Local Offer should have a parent information service. They can give you independent advice and support about your child’s EHC plan. While it’s funded by the local authority, the service is there to help parents understand the local system and give impartial advice. They will know the different services and processes involved as well as how the local authority and school manage extra support. They should be able to help you with any problems:

• Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS)

Find your nearest service (Information Advice and Support Services Network)

Where to find more EHCP support

Some charities may be able to offer education advice and support specifically for your child’s condition or impairment. 

EHC plan letter templates and guidance (IPSEA)

IPSEA advice line

Speak to people with experience about EHC plans in our online community

Children under 5 should have more regular reviews, usually between 3 and 6 months. They must have an annual review too.

Children over 5 only have annual reviews. Check with the SENCO if your child has not had an annual review 12 months after the local authority issued the final plan.

Your local authority is responsible for your child's EHC plan and the annual reviews but the school usually organises the review meeting. Most authorities have a template document to help schools collect the information and evidence needed to review your child's progress.

In some areas an SEN or EHCP officer from the local authority will organise the review.

The local authority will then review the reports, documents and recommendations from the meeting.

You should be involved in annual reviews

The local authority must consult you and your child to consider your views, wishes and feelings about the EHC plan. Talk to the SENCO if you have not been included in your child's annual reviews.

The EHCP annual review meeting will check your child's progress against their agreed outcomes. The EHCP Coordinator of the school will usually chair the meeting and invite everyone supporting your child.

To prepare, we get advice and information from anyone involved and share it with everyone 2 weeks before the meeting.

This might be:

• you and, if possible, your child (to express views, wishes and feelings)
• any health or social care agencies involved
• teachers and teaching assistants
• therapists, such as speech and language therapists (SLTs), physiotherapists or occupational therapists (OTs)
• Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) professionals
• any other professionals working with your child

The school will submit the annual review paperwork as a report to the local authority and send it to everyone who attended. It will cover:

• your child’s progress towards the EHCP outcomes
• everyone's views and recommendations
• any provision changes needed to support your child
• any changes to your child’s outcomes or goals
• all the information or reports submitted before the meeting

If you have not received the report within 2 weeks of the review meeting, ask the school for a copy.

The local authority will review this report and decide if they are going to:

• make the suggested changes
• continue to maintain the EHC plan as it is
• stop the EHC plan

The local authority must tell the parents and school their decision within 4 weeks of the review meeting.

How the review will affect your child's EHCP depends on what revisions the annual review report asks for and whether the local authority agrees.

Changes to your child's EHC plan could mean:

• different or additional provision for your child’s support
• changes to the outcomes
• changing schools (or placement)
• changes to social care that affect education
• changes to health that affect your child's educational support needs

If the suggested changes are big, complex or if the local authority disagrees, such as an increase in provision or a change in school, a panel will probably need to review the report. A group of professionals will discuss the report and any other available information to decide. This process might vary between local authorities.

The local authority does not have a deadline for sending you their planned changes. But the SEN Code of Practice does say:

“If the plan needs to be amended, the local authority should start the process of amendment without delay” Paragraph 9.176

Challenging changes to the EHCP

The local authority will send you a draft EHC plan and an 'amendment notice' telling you the planned changes. The notice should include any evidence that supports the changes.

You will have 15 days to make a written objection. You must explain why you disagree. You can also ask for a meeting with a local authority officer. If you ask, they must have a meeting with you within the 15 days.

You can talk to the Head of School about the local authority's decision. If they agree with you, ask them to write a letter to the local authority explaining why. You also need to send your own letter.

The local authority must send the finalised EHC plan to you, the school and the Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) within 8 weeks of sending parents the draft EHCP and amendment notice.

You can appeal the final plan if you're still not happy with the changes.

The legally binding timeframes are:

• 2 weeks before the annual review meeting, the Head of School or case officer gathers information and advice.
• Review meeting
• A maximum of 2 weeks after the review meeting, the local authority shares a copy of the report.
• A maximum of 4 weeks after the review meeting, the local authority tells parents their decision about any intended changes to the plan.
• Parents then have 15 days to make a written objection to any changes to the plan.
• Within 8 weeks of sharing the planned changes, the local authority sends the final EHC plan.

Maintaining or stopping an EHC plan

If the local authority decides to continue the plan without changes or stop it, they must tell you about:

• Your right to appeal
• The time limits
• Availability of mediation and disagreement resolution services 

• Stopping a plan is always a possible outcome at any annual review, but it's unlikely if your child still needs the same level of support.

  If you feel the EHC plan needs changes, or you disagree with the local authority's decision to stop the plan, you can challenge it.

SEND guide for parents and carers (GOV.UK)

EHCP annual reviews (IPSEA)

EHC plan annual reviews (Contact)