Birmingham SENDIASS

Step 4:

Where the Local Authority has agreed to carry out an EHC Needs Assessment they must seek advice (usually, written as a report) from a range of people. The list below is set out in Regulation 6(1) of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014:

• You or your young person
• Educational advice (usually from the head teacher or principal of the education setting).
• Medical advice and information from a health care professional.
• If your child has a hearing impairment and/or visually impaired the educational advice must come from a suitably qualified person to teach children with these impairments.
• Psychological advice and information from an educational psychologist.
• Advice and information in relation to social care.
• Advice and information from any other person the Local Authority thinks appropriate; if your child or young person is in or beyond year 9, advice and information in relation to provision to assist them with preparing for adulthood and independent living; and
• Advice and information from any person that you or your child or young person, reasonably requests that the Local Authority seek advice from.

The Local Authority is legally required to seek all this advice as a minimum and must be provided to the Local Authority within six weeks of being asked to do so. If the Local Authority is genuinely not able to obtain one piece of advice (which falls outside of exceptions), during this time frame, they would be expected to obtain an independent report in its place.

Useful Information: The Local Authority does not have to seek further information from professionals if this has been provided recently, for example, information that was submitted when the EHC Needs Assessment Request was made or usually within the last 12 months.

What should be in the report (advice and information)?

The Local Authority must ask professionals to provide the following advice and information as part of their report:

• a description your child’s or young person’s SEN
• the provision (support) they will need to meet their SEN
• the outcomes your child or young person could be expected to achieve because of the provision (extra or different type of help) being provided.

Useful Information: The advice and information must be clear, accessible, and specific. Social Care or any of the other services required to provide information, stating, ‘not known to this service’ should not be accepted by the Local Authority. Information and advice needs to be provided on your child’s or young person’s social care needs.

There are no legal timescales to complete the actual assessment, although it should be completed approximately fourteen weeks from the date when the EHC Needs Assessment Request was received.