You may have heard about Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) but what are they, who are they for and how do those children who need one apply for one? 

Mrs Woods, our SEND Leader, has helpfully put together a short guide 👇

An Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) is a document issued by the local authority outlining a child's special educational, health, and social care needs and the provision to meet each of the needs.

They are designed for children with significant special educational needs, who require support beyond that which a school can provide at SEN support. Not all children with a special educational need will qualify for an EHCP. SENAT (Special Educational Needs Team) Luton believe about 1 in 50 children may be eligible for more intensive and specialist support.

The process of applying for an EHCP involves the school, a medical professional, a social worker or a parent / carer making a written request to the Local Authority to initiate this process.  The application process has to be supported by reports from outside agencies, evidence that the school has implemented strategies and advice from outside professionals and proof (behaviour incident logs or assessment levels) that the child has a significant and severe learning need that can’t be supported using the schools dedicated SEN budget.  

After an assessment, the Local Authority must decide whether to issue the EHCP or not.

The local authority may decide not to give additional support to children for various reasons, of which the most common are:

• A lack of diagnosis on the special educational needs of the individual
• No report from an educational psychologist or CAMHs
• The child is not deemed to be far enough behind
• The child's needs are deemed not significant enough and can be supported at a school level
• The child is not making progress with the support in place. If a child is receiving support from a TA and it is not having an impact additional funding for a TA would not be of benefit to them. If this is the case, the local authority would suggest further investigation and information gathering.
• Outside professionals (Edwin Lobo, Speech and Language, Learning support service or Educational Psychologist) have not indicated within their reports that an EHCP would be appropriate at this time.

A referral may also be declined if relevant social care support has not been put in place. For example, the Family Partnership service have not been involved to support parents and carers. 

As a school, we try to ensure that we have all of the required evidence before applying so that that is not a reason for them being turned down!

Here are a couple of useful links that may be of use to parents / carers:

https://sendiasluton.co.uk/support/support-for-parents-and-carers/ehcp/

https://m.luton.gov.uk/Page/Show/Education_and_learning/Special_educational_needs/SENassessmentandstatement/Pages/Special%20Educational%20Needs%20Assessment.aspx