Reviewing an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan

The meeting

Before the meeting

You will receive a letter from your child’s school inviting you to the Annual Review meeting and asking you for your views on your child's progress.

The letter will give you the date, place and time of the meeting. The meeting will usually take place at your child’s school and invitations will also be sent to other people who work with your child such as:

  • Head Teacher
  • Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO)
  • Class teacher
  • A representative from the LA
  • Anyone else who supports your child

You can really make a difference to the meeting by going along and sharing your views. You can take a friend or someone else for support to the meeting. As a courtesy, please let the Head Teacher know if you decide to do this.

It may not be possible for everyone invited to attend the review meeting, but the Head Teacher will try to make sure that the date fixed for the meeting is convenient for those people who have had the most contact with your child.

The school will ask you and the professionals who work with your child for written reports or comments. You should receive copies of these two weeks before the meeting. Make a note of any questions that you want to ask in the meeting about the reports.

As parents/carers it is important to send your comments to the school, your views are an important part of the review.

Is my child involved?

Pupils should be actively involved in the review process, attending all or part of the annual review meeting. They should be encouraged to give their views. You may wish to talk to the school about how your child can be involved in the review process. You may wish to contact either our Children’s (0-16) or Young Person’s (16-25) Information Officers for support for your child/young person to document their views.

During the meeting

Each school will organise the annual review in its own way. The SENCO will usually chair the meeting and introduce everyone.

If you are given any extra reports on arrival at the meeting do ask for a few minutes to read through them before the meeting starts.

During the meeting you will be able to discuss:

  • The progress your child has made over the past year
  • If the targets agreed at the last Annual Review or the objectives set out in the EHC plan have been met. Your child should have been working towards these through their SEN Support Plan
  • New targets for the coming year, these will be broken down further and used in their next SEN Support Plan
  • The support to be given in school to help meet the new targets
  • Any further action that may be needed and the person responsible. This may include arrangements for provision, inclusion programmes, split placements between mainstream and special school etc.
  • If the EHC plan needs changing or is no longer needed

Make sure you ask for a copy of your child’s new SEN Support Plan and that you understand it. You may want to know who will tell you when your child has reached one of the targets and is ready to move on. Some parents use a home-school diary as a way of keeping in touch and sharing information about their child’s progre

Take a look at our Youtube video. This video explains the Annual Review process and provides some practical hints and tips on things to consider if you intend to ask for changes to the plan, including changes to section I (the school named).