EHCP: What an Education Health Care Plan Is and How to Get One

You have been told your child might need an Education Health Care Plan, or you have found the term yourself after months of the school telling you support is in place when it clearly is not. Either way, you are probably at the stage where you need to understand what an EHCP actually is, whether your child qualifies, and what the process of getting one looks like in practice — including the parts the LA's leaflets tend to leave out.

What an EHCP Is (and What It Is Not)

An Education Health Care Plan is a legally binding document that describes a child's special educational needs and the specific provision that must be put in place to meet those needs. It replaces the old Statement of Special Educational Needs and is governed by Part 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014.

The critical word is "legally binding." The provision written in Section F of a finalised EHCP creates an absolute, non-delegable duty on the local authority under Section 42 of the CFA 2014. The school must deliver it. The LA must secure it. This is what distinguishes an EHCP from a school-based SEN support plan, an IEP, or a provision map — none of those documents carry the same legal force. They can be changed, reduced, or abandoned without your agreement. An EHCP cannot.

As of January 2025, 638,745 children and young people in England hold EHCPs. That figure represents a 10.8% increase year on year — evidence of both growing need and, in many cases, families pushing harder for formal plans because informal support has failed.

EHCPs are a feature of the England SEN system specifically. Wales has Individual Development Plans (IDPs) under the ALNET Act 2018. Scotland has Coordinated Support Plans (CSPs). Northern Ireland has Statements of Special Educational Need. The underlying purpose is similar — a statutory document binding the authority to specific provision — but the legislation, the process, and the appeal routes differ in each nation. If you are in Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland, an EHCP does not apply to you and will carry no weight in your local authority.

Who Is Eligible

Eligibility for an EHC needs assessment — the process that precedes a plan — is intentionally broad. The legal test is whether the child has or may have SEN, and whether it may be necessary for special educational provision to be made through an EHCP.

"May have" and "may be necessary" are deliberately low bars. The child does not need a formal diagnosis. They do not need to have already been through a certain number of years of SEN Support at school. What matters is whether the available evidence suggests the school-based graduated approach is unlikely to be sufficient to meet their needs without additional resource from the LA.

Common grounds for requesting an assessment include:

• The child has been on SEN Support for a significant period without adequate progress
• The level of support being provided is disproportionately high relative to what the school can be expected to fund from its own budget (typically the first £6,000 of provision)
• Assessments from external professionals (educational psychologist, speech and language therapist, occupational therapist) indicate needs that cannot be met within standard school-based provision
• The child has a diagnosis associated with complex or significant needs

Parents have a statutory right to request an EHC needs assessment directly. You do not need the school's permission, though their input — including evidence — will be important during the process.

How to Request an Assessment

The request goes to the LA's SEND team in writing. There is no prescribed form in law, though many LAs have their own submission forms. You can submit the request as a straightforward letter.

The request should include:

• A clear statement that you are requesting an EHC needs assessment under Section 36 of the Children and Families Act 2014
• A description of your child's difficulties and the impact on their education
• Any existing reports, assessments, or professional letters supporting the request
• Evidence of what has already been tried through SEN Support and why it has been insufficient

Keep the letter factual rather than emotive. The LA decision-makers are looking for evidence of need and evidence that existing provision is not meeting it. Advocacy organisations such as IPSEA publish guidance on what to include and offer free advice for England parents.

IPSEA also runs training courses for parents navigating the EHCP process; their courses cost £99 each, which is a significant cost, but their free written guidance covers the legal framework thoroughly.

If navigating the request and the process that follows feels overwhelming, the UK SEN Parent Rights Compass walks through each stage of the England system alongside the equivalent processes in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

The 20-Week Process

Once the LA receives the request, they have six weeks to decide whether to proceed with a needs assessment. They must notify you of their decision, and if they refuse, they must give reasons. You have the right to appeal a refusal to the SEND Tribunal.

If they agree to assess, the statutory assessment gathers evidence from education, health, and social care. The LA commissions an educational psychologist report, requests input from the school, and must seek views from health and social care agencies. They must also seek and consider the views of you and your child throughout.

The full process — from the date the request is received to the finalised EHCP — must take no more than 20 weeks. The interim milestones are:

• 6 weeks: Decision to assess (or refuse)
• Week 16: Draft EHCP issued to you
• Week 20: Final EHCP issued

The reality is that this timeline is routinely breached. In 2024, only 46.4% of new EHCPs in England were issued within the 20-week statutory deadline. This is not a technicality — it is a significant systemic failure that leaves children without provision while LAs process a backlog of 154,489 assessment requests received in 2024 alone. Missing the deadline is a breach of the LA's statutory duty and is a ground for complaint, escalation to the Local Government Ombudsman, and Judicial Review in extreme cases.

The Draft Plan and What to Do With It

When you receive the draft EHCP, you have 15 days to request amendments before the plan is finalised. This is the most important window in the entire process.

The draft is frequently inadequate on first issue. Common problems include:

• Section B understates needs identified in the professional reports
• Section F specifies provision in vague or quantified terms that cannot be enforced ("regular speech and language therapy" instead of "45 minutes of direct speech and language therapy, delivered one-to-one, twice per week")
• Needs identified in reports do not appear in the plan at all
• The LA names a school in Section I that you believe is inappropriate

You have the right to request specific amendments to any section of the draft. If the LA finalises the plan in a form you disagree with, you have the right to appeal to the SEND Tribunal on sections B, F, and I. Understanding what each section should contain and what enforceable provision actually looks like — written specifically enough to be measurable — is essential before you sign off on the final plan.

The UK SEN Parent Rights Compass covers what to look for in each section of a draft EHCP, how to write amendment requests that the LA must formally respond to, and what happens if you need to take the case further.

Maintaining the Plan

Once an EHCP is in place, it must be reviewed annually. The Annual Review is not optional and cannot be waived. The LA must invite you and your child, the school, and relevant professionals. Following the review, the LA must decide within four weeks whether to maintain the plan unchanged, amend it, or cease to maintain it. Cessation decisions are separately appealable to the Tribunal.

EHCPs extend to age 25 for those in further education or training. Phase transfers — moving from primary to secondary, or from secondary to post-16 — have their own deadlines and must be planned for in advance. The February 15 deadline for secondary phase transfer is a separate legal requirement that the LA must meet.

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