What is an EHCP?

EHCPs are part of many new laws brought in in 2014 called the 'SEND Reforms'.

All colleges have a certain amount of provision available to all young people with special educational needs, this provision will be listed on the ‘Local Offer’ Website sometimes young people need support in addition to this. If you are one of these young people then you may need to have an Education Health and Care Plan, sometimes called an EHC plan or EHCP.

An EHCP has information about you and the support that you need to get the most out of your education, as well as information about the kind of education support that you need it also contains information about your health and social care needs. Most importantly an EHCP contains your aspirations for the future and sets out outcomes that you want to achieve from your education.

You and your college both have a copy of your EHCP but it is YOUR plan for how YOU want to be supported in your education. Your plan is confidential if you want it to be, that means that it is your choice who you want to share the plan with or if you want to share it with nobody at all (apart from your college).

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some questions that we get asked a lot about EHCPs:

Is an EHCP the same as a statement, or a Learning Disability Assessment (sometimes called an LDA or Moving on Plan)?

EHCPs are to replace the old system of statements and LDAs, there are lots of similarities between the old and new system but also some key differences.

Some of the key similarities between the old and new documents are:

Both are legally binding documents.
Both give information about the kind of educational support that you will need in school or college.
Both should be regularly reviewed to see how the kind of support that you need might have changed.

Some of the key differences between an EHCP and a Statement or LDA are:

An EHCP is more personal to you, you will attend a meeting and get to have your say (we can support you with this) on what you want to be in your EHCP, it should also contain information about your aspirations and how you want to be supported
As well as Educational support an EHCP also contains information about the support that you have with your health and any social support that you have.
An EHCP is ‘outcome focused’ which means that it sets out what you want to achieve in your education and details how you need to be supported to achieve those things.

My EHCP won't be ready in time for when I go to college, what should I do?

Your college will still have a legal responsibility to support you in your education whilst you wait for your EHCP.
If you have a statement or LDA (sometimes called a moving on plan) then that will be useful to tell your college how best to support you, you can also ask to meet with the learning support department of your college and talk to them about how you would want to be supported in college, we can help you to do that.

Can anyone have an EHCP if they want one?

Anyone can send a request to their local authority and ask to be assessed for an EHCP you will only get an EHCP if you need support beyond the local offer provision.

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What is an EHCP?

Frequently Asked Questions

Is an EHCP the same as a statement, or a Learning Disability Assessment (sometimes called an LDA or Moving on Plan)?

My EHCP won't be ready in time for when I go to college, what should I do?

Can anyone have an EHCP if they want one?

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