SEND FAQs: Education, health and care (EHC) plans

Where a child or young person moves to another local authority, the ‘old’ authority must transfer the EHC plan to the ‘new’ authority.

This must happen on the day of the move, unless the following condition applies: Where the old authority has not been provided with 15 working days’ notice of the move, the old authority must transfer the EHC plan within 15 working days beginning with the day on which it did become aware.

Upon the transfer of the EHC plan, the new authority becomes responsible for maintaining the plan and for securing the special educational provision specified in it. It is important that, whenever possible, you contact the ‘new’ authority to inform them of your imminent move as soon as is practical. This should be at least three weeks before your move.

Where the child or young person moves between local authority areas and this also results in a new integrated care board (ICB) becoming responsible for the child or young person, the old ICB must notify the new ICB on the day of the move or, where it has not become aware of the move at least 15 working days before the move, within 15 working days beginning on the day on which it did become aware.

Where for any other reason a new ICB becomes responsible for the child or young person, for example on a change of GP or a move within the local authority’s area, the old ICB must notify the new ICB within 15 working days of becoming aware of the move. Where it is not practicable for the new ICB to secure the health provision specified in the EHC plan, the new ICB must, within 15 working days of becoming aware of the change of ICB, request the new local authority to make an EHC needs assessment or review the EHC plan. The new local authority must comply with any request.

When you are resident in your new local area we will ask you to let us know this and will need to discuss:

• whether you/your child can stay at their current education setting- this is mostly a practical decision about distance from the new home to school/college/nursery
• whether a temporary education placement will be provided until the EHC plan is amended
• your preference for a new educational placement in the local area
• when the new authority plans to review the EHC plan

When a child or young person needs to move educational placement as a result of a move, we will need to consult with new setting(s). This can take 15 calendar days. In some cases requests will need to be discussed at our weekly panel for a recommendation to be made on appropriate provision and placement where this might be less straightforward. We will do this before your move if enough notice is provided. It can take two weeks for a case to be discussed at panel and for the decision to be relayed, however we will do our best to minimise this.

The new authority must review the plan:

• within 12 months of the plan being made or previously reviewed by the old authority
• within three months of the plan being transferred

When a child or young person is in the process of moving between local authorities while being assessed for a plan, the new authority must decide whether to carry out an EHC needs assessment.

When we receive an EHC needs assessment request electronically (preferred), the SEND service will acknowledge receipt of the request by email within 24 hours. This will advise whether the request has been accepted or rejected (due to missing or incomplete information preventing the application from being processed).

Upon receipt, the SEND statutory team will process the request within 24 hours, which includes sending a letter to the young person and/or parents/carers and school/professionals to inform them of receipt and the next steps.

If you have not received a letter within a week of the request being submitted, please contact the SEND service:

• phone 01793 464641
• email SENDService@swindon.gov.uk

An EHC plan needs assessment should take 20 weeks from the date we receive the request. Within those 20 weeks the following specific requirements apply:

• We must give our decision in response to any request for an EHC needs assessment within six weeks of receiving the request or of the point at which a child or young person was brought to our attention
• When we request information as part of the EHC needs assessment process, those supplying the information must respond in a timely manner and within six weeks of the request being made
• If we decide, following an EHC needs assessment, not to issue an EHC plan, we must inform the child’s parent or the young person within a maximum of 16 weeks from the request for a EHC needs assessment
• The child’s parent or the young person must be given 15 calendar days to consider and provide views on a draft EHC plan and ask for a particular school or other institution to be named in it

Where there are exceptional circumstances, it may not be reasonable to expect us and other partners to comply with these time limits. The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 set out specific exemptions. These include where:

• appointments with people from whom the local authority has requested information are missed by the child or young person (this only applies to the duty on partners to comply with a request under the EHC needs assessment process within six weeks)
• the child or young person is absent from the area for a period of at least four weeks
• exceptional personal circumstances affect the child or his/her parent, or the young person
• the educational institution is closed for at least four weeks, which may delay the submission of information from the school or other institution (this does not apply to the duty on partners to comply with a request under the EHC needs assessment process within six weeks)

You will be informed if exemptions apply so that you are aware of, and understand, the reason for any delays. We will aim to keep delays to a minimum and, as soon as the conditions that led to an exemption no longer apply, we will endeavour to complete the process as quickly as possible. All remaining elements of the process will be completed within their prescribed periods, regardless of whether exemptions have delayed earlier elements.

The EHC plan assessment timeline (PDF) shows the statutory timescales and decision points for the process of EHC needs assessment and EHC plan development that local authorities must adhere to.

We will tell you your key dates in the letter we send after a request for assessment.

Looking forward, we are looking at how we can make this information more readily available to you so you can access this independently through a SEND portal. We will provide further information about this in the future.