This information page is about Education, Health and Care plans.
Click on the links below to download support and EHCP documents.
Please note that these documents are in Word format, so you can complete and email them to the Council.
An Education, Health and Care plan (EHC plan) describes a child’s special educational needs (SEN) and the help they will get to meet them.
An EHC plan also includes any health and care provision that is needed.
It is a legal document written by the Council and is used where children and young people have high support needs.
EHC plans replaced Statements of Special Educational Need and Section 139 Learning Difficulty Assessments (LDA) on 1 September 2014.
EHC plans are for children and young people who need a high level of support. The plans can start from a child’s birth and support them in to further education and training.
You can find easy read guides to EHCPs on our Education, Health and Care Needs Assessments page.
EHC plans are for children and young people who have a special educational need or disability that cannot be met by the support available in their school or college.
Most children and young people with special educational needs will have help given to them without the need for an EHC Plan. This is called SEN support.
SEN support helps most children achieve the outcomes or learning objectives that have been set for them.
Some children and young people may not make the progress expected of them even with this help.
When this happens the Council will carry out an EHC needs assessment.
A few children and young people have such significant difficulties that an EHC needs assessment should not be delayed.
You or your child’s school can ask the Council to make an EHC needs assessment.
If this assessment is completed, the Council will decide whether to issue an EHC plan.
The SEND Code of Practice says that EHC plans should:
• be based on decisions made openly, and with parents, children and young people
• describe what the child or young person can do
• be clear, concise, understandable and accessible
• consider how best to achieve the outcomes for the child or young person. They must take into account the evidence from the EHC needs assessment
• specify clear outcomes
• consider alternative ways of providing support if a parent or young person wishes it.
• show how education, health and care provision will be co-ordinated
• be forward looking – for example, anticipating, planning and commissioning for important transition points in a child or young person’s life
• describe how informal support as well as formal support from statutory agencies can help in achieving agreed outcomes
• have a review date.
Every EHC plan must include at least 12 sections, but each local authority can decide how to set these out. The sections are:
A: The views, interests and aspirations of you and your child or the young person
B: Your child’s or young person’s special educational needs
C: Health needs related to their SEN or to a disability
D: Social care needs related to their SEN or to a disability
E: Planned outcomes for your child or the young person
F: Special educational provision. Provision must be specified for each and every need shown in section B
G: Any health provision required that is related to their SEN or to a disability
H1: Any social care provision that must be made for your child or young person under 18
H2: Any other social care provision required that is related to their SEN or to a disability
I: The name and type of the school, maintained nursery school, post-16 institution or other institution to be attended
J: Details of how any personal budget will support particular outcomes and the provision it will be used for.
K: The advice and information gathered during the EHC needs assessment
Where the child or young person is in or beyond year 9, the EHC plan must also include the provision required by your child or young person to help prepare for adulthood and independent living.
The Council will review the EHC plan at least once every 12 months.
This must be done in partnership with you and your child or the young person, and must take account of your views, wishes and feelings.
The Council must decide whether to keep the plan as it is, make changes, or cease to maintain it within four weeks of the review meeting.
You have a right of appeal if the local authority proposes to cease the EHC plan.
For some young people an EHC plan will continue until they are 25. However the plan will stop if the young person:
• goes to university
• gets a job
• tells the Council they no longer want their EHC plan
• no longer needs special help and the local authority decides that the EHC plan should cease
The Council is responsible for making sure that any needs set out in the EHC plan are met and that the provision is made.
Funding for EHC plans usually comes from a number of sources.
For children in mainstream school some of the funding comes from the school. The Council may top up this funding from their ‘High Needs Block’. Find out more in Funding for SEN support in mainstream schools.
Special schools have a standard amount of funding for each pupil. This can also be topped up when necessary.
For young people in 6th forms or attending college some of the funding will come from the college budget. This may be topped up by the Council if the amount of funding needed is more than the ‘nationally prescribed threshold’. This is an amount of money that is decided on each year.
All young people with an EHC plan and all parents of children with an EHC plan can ask for a Personal Budget.
The Code of Practice states that Education, Health & Care Plans (EHC Plans) must be reviewed by the local authority (LA) as a minimum every 12 months. In the Early Years EHC Plans should be reviewed every 3-6 months.
Annual Reviews must focus on the child or young person’s progress towards achieving the outcomes specified in the EHC Plan. The review must also consider whether these outcomes and supporting targets remain appropriate.