We are frequently asked by Parents and Carers about whether they have a 'good' Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan. The problem is that no EHC Plan is the same and whilst they all have to have to include general sections (A to K) very few are actually compliant in law in terms of their actual content.

It is hard to forget that an EHC Plan should be succinct and precise. It is supposed to be a document which is usable by an educational setting. In practice, few EHC Plans are usable and common problems with EHC Plans include:

• Far too long in length, with some EHC Plans exceeding as much as 20 pages. The record plan we have ever seen comes from Lincolnshire Local Authority, who produced a whopping 128 pages EHC Plan. Unsurprising it was undeliverable for the educational setting and resulted in a successful legal challenge. 
• Section A of the EHC Plan is too long and narrative, which makes the document out dated very quickly. 
• Section B of the EHC Plans fails to properly identify the child or young's persons special educational needs. In most cases an obiovus "cut and paste" is undertaken meaning that the EHC Plan is not specific to the child or young person. 
• The special educational needs provision (i.e. the support your child is going to receive) is not specific and quantified). A general rule of thumb is that if you cannot work out how many hours of support are allocated to the EHC Plan, it is not a lawful document.
• Therapy provision (such as speech and language therapy and occupational therapy) is wrongly placed in Section G of the EHC Plan or is not specified clearly in Section F meaning that the child or young person does not receive the support they are entitled to. 

To address these issues, we provide a free e-consultation service where we are happy to review your EHC Plan and provide you with advice on whether it is a compliant EHC Plan. We can give you advice on changes which may be made and how it could be improved. The process takes 5 working days and at the end we will send you a summary of advice. All you need to do is download a full copy of the EHC Plan and appendices. 

Once the consultation has been completed the information provided is destroyed securely and is not retained either in paper of electronic format. All information received is treated in the strictest confidence and is not shared with any third parties.  

To submit you EHC Plan for a free consultation please complete the form below.