Requesting an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)

An Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) gets your child specific help in school or college if existing Special Educational Needs (SEN) support is not enough.

When you ask for an EHCP, it helps to provide as much evidence as you can, but you don’t need to be certain that an EHCP will be needed. Your Local Authority will decide. And your child does not need to be failing academically to be considered for an EHCP. Issues with communication or mental health can also relevant for an EHCP.

Here’s a letter to send to your Local Authority. Add the information needed inside the square brackets [ ] to personalise the letter. You can see a completed example here. This letter is also available as a Word document.

[Your address and contact details]

[Address of your Director of Children’s Services in your local authority (You can find the names and addresses for England here. You can use either postal or email address or both)]

REQUEST FOR EDUCATION HEALTH & CARE ASSESSMENT

Dear Director,

My child, [full name] born [date of birth], has special educational needs identified in their current [school or setting]. I would like to ask for an assessment of their Education, Health and Care needs.

[Include details of diagnosis, if you have them such as vision impairment, hearing impairment, CHARGE syndrome, Down Syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism, ADHD, global development delay. Try to include detail such as vision impairment measurements, hearing measurements, type of cerebral palsy, developmental scores from assessments etc. if you have them]

Examples

My child has CHARGE syndrome. They have colobomas, are registered as severely sight impaired and have a profound hearing loss.

My child is registered as sight impaired and has cerebral palsy, affecting their arms and legs and uses a wheelchair.

[Add letters/assessments from professionals with this document]

My child is achieving the following levels at their current age. [Include information from the school/setting here about how your child is doing compared to other children of similar age.  It can show how your child needs help to learn.]

Example

My child is achieving at the level of a 2-year-old child as shown by the nursery, but is now 4 years old.

I would like to request an assessment of needs for an EHC plan so that my child can have appropriate support in their education, in addition to the support the [school or setting] can provide. This might include:

  • Equipment
    [add anything you think will help, like a radio aid for hearing impairment, braille technology, specialist seating, etc]
Examples

My child could benefit from a radio aid in the classroom to link their hearing aids to the direct voice of the teacher. 

My child needs a specialist chair for nursery to enable them to access play equipment.

  • Specialist support
    [add anything you think will help, like a qualified teacher of MSI children, or a mobility and habilitation specialist]
Example

My child needs a specialist teacher of hearing impaired children to visit in school and to train staff so that they can learn with other children

  • School support
    [add anything you think will help, like support in the classroom, intervenor, etc. Explain why you believe the child needs more than school can provide now]
Examples

My child needs one to one help for communication because they use signs, pictures, and a communication device. 

My child needs support to join in with activities like painting and play because they cannot handle things unaided)

  • Specialist activities and interventions
    [add anything you think will help, such as particular teaching activities for communication, literacy etc.  Be as specific as you can and use what the school or other professionals have suggested]
Example

My child needs a daily vision programme to help develop their vision in a darkened room

[Add one of the following sentences if you can: 

My child is unable to make their own comments about this assessment request because they are very young or do not have sufficient communication skills. 

OR My child has said they would like to have the following provision in school; or has recognised they need specialist help by saying:

(include your child’s views here).]

Examples

They would like to be able to play with their friends in the playground but can’t get out.

They can’t hear what the teacher says when it’s noisy.

This evidence shows that my child does have special educational needs and that specialist provision is required.  This is in line with section 36 (8) of the Children and Families Act 2014 and meets both the requirements for Needs Assessment, firstly that my child has special educational needs and secondly that they need specialist provision.

This request requires a reply within six weeks and if this is refused, then we can appeal to a Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (First Tier Tribunal). 

Yours faithfully

 [Your name]

Here’s an example of a completed letter:

John Smith
1 Example Street
AB12 3CD

Director of Children’s Services
Forest Authority
ABC 1234

Dear Mr N Example

My child, Alfie Smith, date of birth 32.12.2026, has special educational needs identified in their current school, and I as their parent would like to ask for an assessment of their Education, Health and Care needs.

The needs identified by the school are:

Visual impairment, hearing impairment and cerebral palsy all diagnosed by a paediatrician.  Please see the letters from the hospital attached.

Specifically, my child has vision of 6/24 which means that he can only see things four times closer than other children, he has a 40dB sensorineural hearing impairment and wears hearing aids and has cerebral palsy in his lower body which makes walking much harder for him and he is unstable.    

My child is achieving the following levels at their current age of 5 years 4 months –

Literacy      3 years  6 months

Numeracy   4 years 0 months

Overall development estimated by school at 4 years.  This means that they are showing overall delay which I think is caused by their vision and hearing impairments.

I would like to request an assessment for a plan so that my child can have appropriate support in their education, in addition to the support the school can provide.  This might include:

  • Equipment: a radio aid to ensure that he can hear the teacher; a video magnifier to enlarge print; a walker for the playground
  • Specialist support: visits from a qualified teacher of MSI to ensure he has access to all that is going on in class and training from a specialist teacher about the help he needs.
  • School support: additional teacher assistant help with making materials large enough for him to see, specific teacher assistant help with safety on the playground, and help with checking and supporting his work
  • Specialist activities and interventions; supported help in the classroom to review and preview concepts so that he can see them and hear them when class sessions are taught, school literacy interventions supported by one-to-one assistant, hearing aid checks and a listening programme carried out daily.

Alfie has said that he can’t see what is on the board and he can’t hear the teacher and that this makes him sad. 

This evidence shows that I believe my child does have special educational needs and that specialist provision is required.  This is in line with section 36 (8) of the Children and Families Act 2014 and meets both requirements for a needs assessment.  This request requires a reply within six weeks and if this is refused, then we can appeal to a Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (First Tier Tribunal). 

Yours faithfully

John Smith