Education, Health and Care Plans

An EHCP may be required when the nature and extent of a CYP’s special educational needs or disability means the support they require cannot be provided within resources normally available to mainstream settings. See the section below on Funding for more information.

Most CYP with EHCPs will continue to attend their local mainstream setting.

The Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) is a twenty-week statutory process set out in the Code of Practice. Requests for statutory needs assessment could be considered after following a graduated response (see the section above for more information). A request for statutory needs assessment could be considered where ‘despite relevant and purposeful action to identify, assess, and meet the SEN of the child or young person’ they have not made expected progress (Code of Practice, 6.63).

More information about the EHCNA processes in Somerset can be found in Effective Support and on the Local Offer.

CYP with an EHCP requires the appropriate strategies and support outlined in the Universal and SEN Support sections within this Somerset Graduated Response Tool. Any special educational provision they require will be detailed in Section F of their EHCP. Strategies and approaches included in the Somerset Graduated Response Tool document will not usually be included in Section F as they are considered normally available in all settings. However, an intervention or strategy described in this document might also be included in Section F if it needs to be delivered in a specific or personalised way. The provision included in Section F will usually specify the frequency, duration, and nature of the support required.