What is an education, health and care plan (EHCP)?

A child or young person has special educational needs and/or a disability (SEND) if they have a learning difficulty or disability that needs special educational arrangements to be made for them.

School funding for children with SEND without an EHCP

Most children and young people with SEND can have their needs met in inclusive mainstream schools, early years setting or further education. Schools receive funding to meet the SEND needs of children without an EHCP. This is funding that schools already have. It's called the notional SEN budget and is £6,000. The school should use this money to meet a child's SEND needs and put in place a graduated approach.

What an EHCP is meant to do

An EHCP is for children and young people who can't have all their special educational needs met by the help available at their school or setting and need extra support through a person-centred plan. The extra support will mean that for most learners their needs can be met in their current school or setting.

An EHCP describes your child or young person's special educational, health and care needs. It sets outcomes that will help your child learn and prepare for the next stage of their education and adulthood, such as:

skills and abilities you'd like the child or young person to have
employment or higher education
independent living
good health
joining in with the community

The plans are legal documents that belong to the child or young person. They can start from birth and could continue into further education and training, so from the age of 0 to 25 years. They are reviewed every year so that they can adapt to your child's needs as they develop.

How the EHCP can help your child achieve their outcomes

The EHCP describes the extra support your child needs to achieve their outcomes.

In a mainstream school or educational setting this could mean things like:

equipment or resources
extra training for staff
accessing specialist services and advice
accessing particular activities
a level of teaching assistant support
a combination of different options

The EHCP is flexible and responsive. The school or setting normally decides the best way to allocate this support. They do this in discussion with other professionals, parents and learners.

It can also describe support from health or social care, if they're involved. It also shows what friends, family and others in the community will do to help.

Find out more about the EHCP in this short video:

What an EHCP can and cannot help with

An EHCP can help:

collect up to date advice on your child's needs
share the views, wishes and goals of you and your child
people work together to decide support and plan for the future
identify outcomes that will make a difference to your child
define the support your child needs to meet those outcomes

An EHCP is not:

a guarantee of full time or one to one teaching assistance
needed because your child has a particular diagnosis
a guarantee of a place in a special school
the only way your child can get help and have their needs met
guaranteed or always appropriate until the age of 25

What an EHCP looks like

Your EHCP should be based around you, your needs and wishes. Example of good practice for an EHCP.

When an EHCP is right for your child

Most children and young people can have their needs met and receive the support they need without an EHCP.

The graduated approach: assess, plan, do and review

If your child has SEND their current school or setting should put an 'assess, plan, do and review' model in place. This is known as a graduated approach.

The school or setting has funding to support this work and should use the services available on our Local Offer to help meet your child's needs.

All mainstream schools and educational settings have a person called a special educational needs coordinator (SENCO) who will know about the graduated response. It's helpful to talk to your SENCO to discuss your child's needs. Some useful questions are:

what's been done and what support is already in place?
are there services or professionals that could offer further support?
have different approaches been tried and reviewed?
has the school or educational setting got evidence of a graduated response?

If your child or young person needs more help

For a small number of children, a graduated response may not be able to fully meet their needs and they may need extra help. We might need to consider whether that help and support needs to be provided through an EHCP.

We will agree a needs assessment if both of these apply:

the child or young person has, or may have SEND
they may need SEND support that they can only get through an EHCP

If a needs assessment is agreed, it won't always result in an EHCP This could be because there isn't evidence of a graduated approach, or because:

the school or setting can support the child or young person through SEND support
the child or young person's needs are unclear
it's not clear what help they're getting at the moment

We start thinking about an EHCP when a graduated approach is already in place and your child's needs are still not being met.

If you are not sure what to do next you can get further advice if you think your child may have SEND.

Find the Education and Early Help (SEND) Team in your locality for further advice.

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