St Pauls Chambers

This Practice Note focuses rules for education, health and care (EHC) assessments and the format and content of EHC plans. It provides a guide to carrying out EHC assessments and drafting EHC plans, with an emphasis on the mistakes to avoid.

This Practice Note provides a guide to the law on special educational provision for young people aged 19–25 in England. It covers what constitutes relevant post compulsory school age education, relevant considerations for a local authority (LA) when deciding provision post 19 and whether to maintain an Education, Health and Care plan (EHC). It also deals with the ‘five day offer’ and the need to improve local provision. It also outlines the related primary legislation including the Children and Families Act 2014 (CFA 2014) and Special Needs and Disability Regulations 2014, SI 2014/1530.

This Practice Note considers the circumstances in which a local authority must carry out an EHC assessment of special educational needs (SEN). It covers the statutory test, the local offer, assessment of whether a learning difficulty is present, is special provision required, threshold for assessment, who can request an assessment, and assessment for older children and young people.