Education Health Care (EHC) Assessments
The information below explains how to request an EHC assessment and what happens when you do.
Initial request for an Education, Health and Care assessment
By following the Special Educational Needs Pathway on our website, available HERE you can review and consider whether an Education, Health and Care needs assessment is the appropriate next step for you or your child.
If after reviewing the pathway you are of the view that an assessment is necessary, you may want to discuss your decision with your child’s education setting. The majority of requests for assessment are submitted by education settings and you may reach an agreement with them that they will submit the application. However, you can also apply yourself via our EHC Hub, available HERE. You are able to apply for an assessment in writing if you wish to, however this can sometimes add an extra day or two to it being processed while it is delivered and then sent through to the SEN Service to be actioned.
It is a good idea for you to discuss your intention to make a request for assessment with your child’s education setting as they will be able to help and advise you on the support available to help your child with their special educational needs.
A young person over the age of 16 can also request an assessment on their own behalf.
Proposal to assess
As soon as the request is received you will be invited to register on the EHC Hub. This will allow you to add additional information and see what has been added by your child’s education setting. If their education setting has requested the assessment, this will be your opportunity to add your information.
The local authority is required to reach a decision on whether to undertake an EHC needs assessment within six weeks of receiving the request. We will make this decision and publish it in a letter on the EHC Hub. You will receive an email to inform you that a decision has been made and ask you to login to the Hub to review it.
EHC needs assessment
If the local authority decides an assessment should take place, the authority will request advice from a number of practitioners/professional services. These include (but are not limited to):
- Parents and carers (in addition to your own comments you can include any independent written advice you have obtained)
- You (if you are a young person aged 16+) or your child
- Education setting (nursery, school, college etc.
- Health services
- Hampshire and Isle of Wight Educational Psychology Service (HIEP)
- Social Care (child or adult depending upon age)
- Any other relevant people (e.g. specialist teacher adviser, speech and language therapist, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, education welfare officer, etc)
- If the child/young person being assessed is Hearing or Visually Impaired, advice will also be sought from a Qualified Teacher of the Deaf/Visually Impaired
As the reports are received they will be uploaded to the EHC Hub. You will be able to access the Hub at any time to see how this process is progressing.
The local authority is required to make a decision whether to issue an EHC Plan within 16 weeks of the original request being received.