Get help with your child's progress

If the school or college thinks your child needs more help, they may ask us to do an assessment for an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. This is called an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment.

Ask for an assessment

There are two ways you can request an Educational Health and Care Needs Assessment:

Option A: Directly

You can ask the Special Educational Needs Assessment (SENA) service directly for an assessment – complete the form below, if you're either:

• a parent or carer of a child or young person, for whom you have responsibility
• a child or young person (over the age of 16) requesting an assessment for yourself

Request for Educational Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) - parent/carer or young person application  

Please note: The form includes an agreement (including for information sharing). Parents or carers completing this section will need to have parental responsibilities.

Option B: Working with professionals

You can work together with your child's school and they will complete a request on your behalf.

Ask the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) at your child’s nursery, school, or college if you think your child needs an assessment (the SENCO is a teacher who is trained to identify children with special educational needs and make sure the children get all the help they need). 

Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) process

1. After you apply for an assessment, you will receive an acknowledgement that the application has been logged.
2. SENA will review your application and decide whether an assessment is needed:
   • Assessment is agreed: We'll make consistent needs-based decisions on provision to best support the assessed, and eligible needs that have been identified, communicating these effectively. This stage of the process is managed by a Case Manager, who will be in contact to introduce themselves and discuss the next steps with you.
   • Refusal to assess: We'll write to you to explain our decision, which gives you the right to appeal.
3. After the assessment, SENA will consider the information gathered about the child’s needs and progress and decide if a plan should be written. You'll be informed by letter or email of the assessment outcome, once all key information is received and reviewed.
   • EHCP is issued: you will be sent a copy, known as a ‘draft’. You will have 15 days to review this draft and offer your feedback and provide your school preference. We will then consult your preference school and the local authority's preferred school, if different. Schools or settings will have 15 days to respond to the consultation at which point the local authority will finalise the EHCP. Once it becomes a legal document, that must be upheld.
   • Refusal to issue a plan: We'll write to you to tell you our decision and how you can appeal.

SEND assessment pathway infographic

How we decide if your child needs an assessment

SENA will:

• Contact your child’s nursery, school, or college to find out more about your child
• Look at your child’s Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Support Plan, if they have one
• Consider information provided by the child, parents / carers, and other professionals
• Decide whether to carry out an EHCNA
• Write to you to tell you whether or not we’re going to do an assessment

Decisions are made based on the guidance in the Special Needs Code of Practice

One-page profile

You may be asked to create a one-page profile, if you've not already completed this as part of the initial online request above.

Someone to help you

You can get someone to help you during the assessment. They are called an ‘independent supporter’.

Contact SENA

There are a number of ways that you can contact the SENA service.