If the local authority decide to issue an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), they will send a draft plan to you, along with all reports collected during the assessment process.
You will have 15 days from the date the plan is sent to comment on the draft EHCP.
You will be offered a Proposed Plan Meeting. This meeting is to discuss the content of the draft EHCP, including the outcomes for your child or young person. At this meeting you can put forward your suggestions for amendments or additions to the EHCP.
At that point you will also be able to request a specific school, or other setting, you want your child or young person to attend. This could be a mainstream school or special school.
Ahead of the meeting, it can be helpful to check the draft EHCP. You may want to make some notes about the questions you have or the changes you would like to request.
Find out how to check a draft EHCP.
The Proposed Plan Meeting is optional. You may prefer to put your amendments and preferred school in writing. In this case, you should send your amendments back to the case officer who sent the draft plan to you. Their contact details will be at the top of the letter you received with the draft EHCP.
Your local authority then contacts your chosen school, college or other place of learning. They share:
- your child or young person's needs
- the support outlined in the draft EHCP
- that you have requested for them to be named in Section I of the EHCP.
This is called a consultation. The school or college should respond to this consultation within fifteen days. If they raise objections, the local authority will consider these and decide if the school should be named in the EHCP.
The local authority will then finalise the EHCP and name a school or school type. Your local authority has 20 weeks from the date they receive the request for EHC needs assessment to issue the final EHCP to you.