SEND School Provision and Education Health Care Plans (EHCP)

Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) support is available at every stage of education. This can be identified in the early years setting and follow the young person through every stage of their education.

If your child’s school or setting can't meet your child's needs using the support they usually offer to children who need extra help, the County Council may carry out a needs assessment for your child.  This is called an Education Health and Care Assessment or EHC assessment. When your child's needs have been assessed a plan for meeting them may be drawn up. This plan is called an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP).

EHC needs assessment process - tell us about your experience

We are conducting a survey about the EHC needs assessment process. Find our more about the Education Health and Care Needs Assessment Survey

IMPORTANT INFORMATION – WCF Educational Psychology Service capacity

The WCF Educational Psychology Service 

The Educational Psychology Service is currently experiencing significant capacity issues due to a national shortage of Educational Psychologists. 

Whilst the Service is working hard to secure additional psychology support there remains a backlog in the allocation of Psychologists for new EHC Need Assessments. 

There is currently a delay of between 4 to 6 weeks in the allocation of new Educational Psychology Assessments which means that it is likely that your child’s assessment will not take place during the statutory advice giving period. Once an Educational Psychologist has been allocated to provide an advice for a child they then have 6 weeks in which to carry out their assessment and to provide the SEND Service with their report.