Requesting an EHC Needs Assessment

When to request an EHC Needs Assessment (EHCNA)

Most children and young people with SEN or disabilities will have their needs met within local mainstream early years settings, schools, or colleges.

Where you have taken relevant and purposeful action to identify, assess and meet the SEN of the child or young person and the child or young person has not made expected progress, you may want to consider requesting an Education, Health and Care needs assessment.

Before you start

1. Do you need to get in touch with DerbySAL? They can help you to look at ways to help the child or young person without the need for an EHC assessment, or to make sure that you have everything you need to support your request for assessment
2. Make sure that you have discussed this with the child's parent/carer in full and can provide evidence of how the parents/carers have been involved in the graduated response

How to request an EHC needs assessment

Complete our online request form

The form will ask you to provide the family and child views if you have gathered them. These can also be provided as an attachment if the parent has completed our Family views form, and/or the young person has completed the Child and young persons views form.

At the end of the request form you will need to attach:

1. Any reports from professionals you have gathered as part of the graduated response
2. Living My Best Life Derby Inclusion Tool (we are aware that some settings are unable to upload the Excel spreadsheet due to the size of the file. If this is the case please email it to EHCP@Derby.gov.uk whilst the issue is being investigated).
3. Copies of recent SEN Support plans (IEPs/MEPs)

Please only use this form to make a new request for assessment. If we need information from you as part of the request we will send you an alert through your WeCare Portal.

Tips for completing the request form:

• Provide detailed personal information - this will help us to make sure other agencies can access the correct information
• Provide as much detail about needs as possible, including academic levels and developmental milestones and how they have been assessed.
• Tell us information about attendance levels.
• Set out details of the SEN Support or graduated response plan including the progress made against outcomes set.
• Explain how you have involved the parent/carer in the process of planning and implementing a graduated response. The SEND Code of Practice is clear that the parent should be involved in planning the graduated response.
• List the professionals who have been involved so that we can see what has been considered through the graduated response and to enable us to get their input into any future assessment. Provide reports if you commissioned private services
• Give us details of how your notional funding has been allocated, the interventions used, and the impact that this has had.
• The Derby Inclusion Tool (DIT) must be submitted alongside all other paperwork clearly showing the child's needs, the school's setting readiness and if applicable, the home confidence rating. The data in the DIT provides a richer picture of the types of needs present and the types of provision required that we need to assess the child and inform panel decision-making. If the DIT is not submitted, we will follow up with you to request this information and to understand if there are any issues with completing the DIT. As such, please prioritise completing a DIT prior to every request, as this will also help to inform you as to whether an assessment request is suitable at this stage.

What will happen after you submit your request

1. The request will be allocated to a SEND (EHCP) Officer
2. The officer will contact the parent by phone/email to discuss the request and to gather their hopes and expectations of the process. The officer will be available for contact with the parent throughout the process
3. We will contact health providers, social care and early help, educational psychology service and STePS, to find out about their involvement with the child or young person and to request relevant reports from the past 18 months
4. Within 6 weeks the case will be scheduled to be heard by the weekly EHC Assessment panel. A decision will be made at the panel as to whether a full assessment of need is required or whether the child's needs can be met at SEN support.

For more help and advice, please speak to your linked SEND (EHCP) Officer.