What evidence to send with an EHC needs assessment request

The legal test is lower than many schools think

Under section 36(8) of the Children and Families Act 2014, a local authority must carry out an education, health and care (EHC) needs assessment if the child or young person has or may have special educational needs, and it may be necessary for special educational provision to be made through an EHC plan. The test is about possibility, not certainty. The school does not have to prove that a plan is needed; it has to show that one may be.

Even so, refusals to assess accounted for 24% of the 25,002 appeals registered with the SEND Tribunal in 2024/25. The authority has six weeks to decide (SEND Regulations 2014, regulations 4 and 5), so it decides largely on the paper in front of it, and most of that paper comes from the SENCO (or SENDCo). This guide is about making that paper do its job.

What the Code of Practice says the authority should consider

Paragraph 9.14 of the SEND Code of Practice says that, when deciding whether to assess, the authority should consider whether the pupil has made expected progress despite the school taking relevant and purposeful action, and should pay particular attention to:

• Evidence of academic attainment (or developmental milestones in younger children) and rate of progress.
• Information about the nature, extent and context of the special educational needs.
• Evidence of the action already taken by the school to meet those needs.
• Evidence that, where progress has been made, it has come only as the result of much additional intervention and support over and above what is usually provided.
• Evidence of physical, emotional and social development and health needs, drawing on relevant advice from clinicians and other health professionals, and what other agencies have done to meet them.
• For a young person over 18, whether they need more time than their peers to complete their education or training.

This list is the closest thing to a published marking scheme, so organise the request around it. Authorities may publish criteria as a guide to their decisions, but the Code says they must be prepared to depart from them and must not apply blanket policies to groups of children or types of need (9.16). A fixed period on SEN support, or a set level of spending, cannot be a precondition; the test remains section 36(8).

An evidence checklist for the SENCO

1. Attainment and progress over time

At least two, ideally three, data points showing attainment against age-related expectations and the rate of progress. Include standardised scores where you have them (reading, spelling, number) with the test name and date, and say in one sentence what the trend shows. A tracking screenshot without commentary leaves the caseworker to work out the story; tell it.

2. The graduated approach, with dates

Show the assess, plan, do, review cycles (Code of Practice 6.44 to 6.56): what you tried, from when to when, how often, who delivered it and what happened. A table works. Two or three completed cycles that honestly record limited progress are more persuasive than a long list of interventions with no outcomes. The recording model in SEN support and the graduated approach is designed to be reused here.

3. Current provision, in hours

Describe exactly what the pupil receives now: adult support (hours per week and group size), specific programmes, adaptations, equipment. If the school is already providing more than it can sustain from its notional SEN budget, say so plainly and show the hours. Describe the provision as a fact, not the pupil as a cost.

4. Professional reports

Attach any educational psychology, speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, paediatric, CAMHS or specialist teacher reports you hold, with dates. Older reports still help if they show a long-standing need. Do not delay the request to wait for a report; name the referral and the date it was made.

5. The pupil’s and parents’ views

The authority must consult the child and parents, or the young person, throughout the assessment (Code of Practice 9.21). Include a short, dated record of the pupil’s own views, in their words or through a method that suits them, and the parents’ views and concerns. A parent form sent before the request and quoted in it covers this. The authority will seek these views itself, but a request that already contains them reads very differently.

6. Attendance, behaviour and wellbeing

Attendance percentages, suspensions, recorded incidents and any pastoral context that bears on learning. Keep the tone factual and focused on need rather than on the difficulty the pupil presents to the school.

7. Health and other agencies

Diagnoses, medication, hospital letters and social care involvement where relevant to the special educational needs, with parental agreement to share them.

Putting the request together

1. Write a two-page covering summary: who the pupil is, the needs, what has been done, what the evidence shows, and why a plan may be necessary. Use the words of section 36(8). Cross-reference the attachments by number.
2. Number and date every attachment and include a contents list. It saves the caseworker time and shows nothing is missing.
3. Use the authority’s request form if it has one, but do not let the form limit what you send; attach the covering summary to it.
4. Send by the authority’s stated route and ask for written acknowledgement with the received date. The six-week decision clock runs from that date, and the EHCP timeline calculator will give you the dates to diarise.
5. Give the parents a copy of everything, including the covering summary, and tell them what happens next and when.

If the six weeks pass without a decision

The authority’s decision is due within six weeks of receiving the request. If it has not arrived, email the SEN team the following day, quote regulations 4 and 5, give the received date and ask for the decision date in writing, with the parents copied in. The guide on EHCP timescales explains the later deadlines, and logging local authority communication covers how to keep the record of every chase.

Gaps that lead to a refusal

• No dates on interventions, so the authority cannot see that the graduated approach ran for long enough or recently enough.
• Progress described as “slow” or “limited” with no numbers.
• Provision described in generalities (“1:1 support where needed”) rather than hours and group sizes.
• No record of the pupil’s own views.
• Reports referred to but not attached.
• A covering letter that argues the school cannot cope, rather than describing what the pupil needs.

If a refusal comes anyway, the parents or young person can appeal, and the Tribunal applies the section 36(8) test to the same evidence. Keep the pack together, dated, in one place, and give the family a complete copy. In Sendiphany, evidence documents, staff feedback forms, parent contributions and termly targets sit on the pupil’s record, so the request pack is largely assembled before you start writing it.