This will be an opportunity to discuss your child, their diagnosis and educational difficulties; advice you have received from teachers and Senco at school and allow you to ask as many questions as necessary so that you have a clearer understanding of the process.

Parents should know both Faye and Kate are educationalists, not lawyers. They have a wealth of knowledge and experience writing EHCP’s on behalf of parents and can advise if the situation might potentially require legal representation.

Once you have decided to engage the services of one of our consultants, parents need to share any paediatric and clinical diagnostic reports, Individual Education Plans (IEP’s), and any other information relevant to the diagnosis. We will also ask you to put us in contact with your child’s school.

The initial Education, Health and Social Care Needs Assessment application can then be prepared. This document takes time as there is often a lot of information to collate from different sources. Your consultant will do all of this. You will be asked to provide some specific information such as likes, dislikes, hopes, dreams and aspirations. This information will also be included in the EHCNA.

Before the application is submitted the EHCNA is shared with you. You will see a copy of the whole application, so you can read through it, identifying any information that may be inaccurate or incomplete. Once you are happy with the application, we always recommend it is shared with school before it is submitted to the Local Authority (LA).

If you and school are happy and in agreement with the content, the appendix will be double checked, making sure any reports referenced in the application have been attached to be submitted with the application.

The ECHP process has now begun and must follow the statutory timeline. Click here to see the timeline.