Get help with your child's progress

Your child and an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment.

Assessment

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 an Educational Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA)

Who should use the form

This form allows Parents/Carers to make an application for an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) for a child or young person for whom they have responsibility.

A child or young person, over the age of 16, can also complete this form for themselves.

Purpose of the form

The form allows the Special Educational Needs Assessment (SENA) team service to progress and support the application in the best possible way.

Benefits of collecting information

Our staff who assess child or young person’s needs have a wide range of expertise in supporting young people with additional or special educational needs. The information we ask for helps them understand the child or young person’s needs and how they can be best supported.

How long it takes to complete

This varies depending on how much information you provide, but it should be expected to take an hour or more.

You can save the form at any point and come back later to complete it before sending a final version.

What happens next

The team will collect other information from school / setting and other relevant partners and a Multi Agency Panel will then review the information to decide how best to progress the application. This will take place within 6 weeks of your application.

What you will need to complete the form - information required

We'll ask for some details about yourselves and your child or young person, and some questions to get an idea what like, how they find school / setting, and what you would like for your child.

If the child or young person already has a diagnosis, you will be required to upload evidence showing this, from a professional - if you don't have an electronic copy of these documents/letters you can ask the person who provided the diagnosis to send you with an electronic copy, or you can take photos of any letters or documents.

Optional: the form allows you to upload a photo of the child or a picture that is important to them, and any electronic documents showing evidence of any measures already put in place or due to be. If you have any evidence of this, it will help your application if you can provide it.

Please note: The form includes an agreement about information sharing - parents or carers completing this section will need to have parental responsibilities.

 

You will need to use a Self account (if you don't already have one) to complete the form. Also, you can read about how we use Automated processing and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

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

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’.

Providing for the needs of children and young people with SEND - guidance for schools

The guidance documents available on our resources website can help a school identify what they can do to meet a child’s needs and when it may be appropriate to ask for an assessment.

Contact SENA

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