Making the most of an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) Annual Review

If a young person has an EHCP, the annual reviews from Year 9 onwards must have a focus on Preparing for Adulthood which includes:

getting ready for employment or other meaningful activity
finding somewhere to live and getting good support
friends, relationships and being part of a community
achieving as healthy a life as possible

How to prepare for annual review meetings

You can find lots of helpful information about annual reviews on our reviewing an EHCP webpage.

A young person may start to think more about what they want to do when they finish their education. Their school or college will have more information about transition planning.

Before the annual review meeting:

the school or college should ask parent’s and young person’s views before the meeting and share this information.
the school or college will arrange the annual review meeting. If families cannot attend this date and let the school know, a different date can be arranged.
the school or college will ask relevant professionals to attend or send up-to-date information about a young person. Families may want to ask them to invite specific professionals if they think their input would be helpful.
discuss with the school or college if it would be appropriate for a young person to attend the meeting, and what support they would need to give their views.
it may be helpful for families to have a discussion with the young person before the meeting, if possible. Talk to them about how things are now, what should happen next and in the future. It may be helpful to write notes to take with you to the meeting or ask someone to support you and attend the meeting with you. Views can also be submitted in writing before the meeting if preferred.
the school or college must send out any reports (including those submitted by parents) at least two weeks before the annual review meeting. They must provide these materials in a suitable format if needed such as braille or large print.

After the annual review meeting:

The school or college will send everyone a report of the meeting within two weeks. This should set out any recommended changes to the EHCP.

The report is considered by the local authority’s SEND Support, Assessment and Review Team (SEND SAR). They will tell families or young people the outcome of the review within four weeks of the review meeting. The outcome could be:

the EHCP is suitable as it is (no changes).
the EHCP needs updating. This might be because a young person’s needs have changed or because their provision needs to change.
the EHCP should be ceased (ended) as a young person no longer needs the specialist support (see section on ceasing an EHCP for more information).

If the local authority decides to update the plan, it will invite the family and young person to comment on the updates. Families must be given at least fifteen days to respond.

They can ask for a meeting with a SEND Caseworker from SEND SAR Team to discuss the changes.