Education, health and care (EHC) needs assessments and plans

How schools and education settings can request an EHC needs assessment

Educational settings such as schools, in partnership with the young person and/or their parents or carers, can request an EHC needs assessment using our form and adding relevant up-to-date evidence.

Such requests should be discussed at the review meeting as part of the Assess, Plan, Do, Review cycle. Parents/carers and professionals involved in the support for the child or young person should be invited to the meeting.

In deciding whether an assessment is necessary, we must consider the views, wishes and feelings of the child and the parent or the young person.

What you need to know before you start the assessment

Information you will need to provide

You will be required to provide:

• parent/carer declaration
• child's details
• parents and carer details
• referrer details
• child or young person's views
• parents' views
• the child’s journey
• current and previous social care involvement (if relevant)
• current and previous health service involvement (if relevant)
• current and previous additional involvement (if relevant)
• details of identified needs against the SEND ranges
• supporting evidence (via upload fields within the form)

Make a request

Uploading your supporting evidence

Please include your supporting evidence from professionals with the online form - failure to do so will delay the process.

If the file size is too large for the form, you may need to send it by secure email to [email protected].

If you have uploaded your documents to the form, you don't need to email them.

Last updated 13 October 2025