Can a child who is below compulsory school age have an EHC needs assessment?

Yes: the purpose of the Children and Families Act 2014 (“CAFA 2014”) was to extend the benefit of statutory support to those children and young people with special educational needs (“SEN”) from aged from 0-25, so this includes under 5's / preschool / nursery children.

Latest

SEND law- a practical guide for colleges: 28th September

This one day training is designed specifically for college staff, providing an overview of the special educational needs and disability (SEND) legal framework, as well as other related areas of the law
SEND law for SENCos: 2nd November

Our one day training, designed specifically for SENCos, provides an overview of the special educational needs and disability (SEND) legal framework, and will equip you with the knowledge required to overcome the challenges of your role
SEND law and young people (post-16): 9th September

A one-day training session designed specifically for parents, carers and supporting family members of children who are approaching or above compulsory school age
EHC plan masterclass - obtaining a plan: summer series

A series of training sessions for parents, carers and supporting family members of children with SEND, developed to guide families through the process of obtaining an Education, Health and Care plan

Are the rules and processes of an EHC needs assessment different if the child is below compulsory school age (under 5's / preschool / nursery children)?
My LA are saying that my child doesn’t need an EHC needs assessment, because the school should be relying on existing SEN funding streams, but this is not happening in practice. Is this lawful?
We want occupational therapy moved into Section F of our son’s education, health and care plan.

Section B lists fine motor skills and sensory difficulties as some of his special educational needs, but occupational therapy is written in Section G as ‘health care provision’. We do not believe this is right but what else can we do? We had a meeting with the local authority when the EHC plan was at the draft stage but they said it is a service provided by the NHS and it is out of their hands.
The EHC plan has been finalised and we still disagree with the description of our son's needs in Section B and the lack of appropriate provision in Section F of the final EHC Plan.

The provision in Section F is really vague and there is an appendix to the EHC Plan titled ‘steps to achieving outcomes’ which lists all the special educational provision.
Section F of the draft education, health and care plan does not detail any of the special educational provision our son needs.

There is only a paragraph to say the school will decide how much provision he needs and when.
We have just received our daughter’s draft EHC Plan and we are not happy with the way her needs have been described in Section B.

All it says is that she is a friendly and playful little girl (which we already knew) with ‘a general delay with her learning’. In fact she has a specific problem with reading and writing. In other areas her development is fine. What can we do?
Can a particular therapy be included in an EHC plan if it is not available from the local health service?
We had always wanted our son to go to the local primary school along with his sisters. Our son has Attention Deficit Disorder and he is a very slow learner. He has been assessed by the Local Authority and we have just received the draft EHC plan with

the professional advice. We are very concerned about the advice from the educational psychologist. When we spoke to him, he told us that he thought that our son was going to need more specialist teaching support than the local authority would probably be prepared to give him in a mainstream school. We’ve combed through his report and he says nothing at all about the amount of help he thinks our son needs. Does this mean he’s changed his mind, or has he been ‘leaned on’?
The LA agreed to do an EHC needs assessment but now it is complete we’ve received a letter saying they are going to make a ‘My Plan’ for our daughter.

This looks like a EHC plan but the information accompanying it says it is ‘non-statutory’. What does this mean? Does our daughter have an EHC plan?
The local authority has agreed to an EHC needs assessment but when we asked for them to approach Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services for advice they’ve said no because there is a really long waiting list.

Our son is suffering with anxiety and we don’t know what else we can do.

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