CLICK TO DOWNLOAD: Letter to LA when it does not send a draft or final Education, Health and Care plan on time (template letter 10)

This template letter is for general advice purposes and will need to be tailored to your own individual circumstances. Please read all of the information on this page and, if possible, we recommend you take advice on using this letter.  

What are the deadlines for the local authority to send out a draft and a final Education, Health and Care plan?

A local authority (LA) is required to finalise the Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan as soon as practicable but in any event within 20 weeks of the initial request for assessment.

There is no deadline in the law for when the LA must send out the draft EHC plan, but after it sends out the draft it must give you time to make representations about the content of the EHC plan, and then to consult with any school or college you wish to be named in the EHC plan. In order to do both of these things and then finalise the EHC plan within the 20 week time limit, they should send out the draft plan within 14 weeks of the request for assessment.

Are there exceptions to the time limit?

There are some circumstances in which an LA may not be required to comply with the 20 week time limit if it would be impractical for it to do so. These are where:

1. the LA requested advice as part of the EHC needs assessment from the nursery, school or college attended by your child or you as a young person during a time when it was closed for a period of longer than 4 weeks (i.e. in the summer holidays), or in the week immediately before such a closure, and this delayed the process;
2. exceptional personal circumstances affect you or your child, or you as a young person, during that time period; or
3. you or your child, or you as a young person, were absent from the LA’s area for a continuous period of not less than 4 weeks during that time period.

If one of the exceptions applies, the local authority will only be able to rely on it if it can show that sending the draft or final EHC plan on time would be impractical because of the exception. The LA is still required to send out the EHC plan as soon as practicable. 

Additionally, it may take longer than 20 weeks if the LA initially refused to assess or refused to issue an EHC plan, but then is ordered to do so by the SEND Tribunal.

• If the LA refused to carry out an EHC needs assessment but then is ordered to do so by the SEND Tribunal, it must start the assessment within 2 weeks of the date of the order. It must then either decide not to issue an EHC plan within 10 weeks, or issue a final EHC plan within 14 weeks of the date of the order.
• If the LA carried out an EHC needs assessment but refused to issue an EHC plan, and is then ordered to issue a plan by the SEND Tribunal, it must issue the draft plan within 5 weeks, and the final plan within 11 weeks of the date of the order. 

The above deadlines also apply if the LA initially refused to assess or issue an EHC plan, but then agreed to do so at mediation (unless you agreed a different deadline at mediation). 

If the LA agreed to carry out an EHC needs assessment or issue an EHC plan during an appeal to the SEND Tribunal, or was ordered to do either, we have a different template letter you can use if the LA does not do this in time.

When should I write?

You should write to the LA as soon as the 14 week (for a draft plan) or 20 week (for a final plan) time limit has expired.

It is very important for the LA to send a draft EHC plan before it finalises the plan, so that you have a chance to comment on the contents of the plan. See our page on draft EHC plans for more information.

Who should I write to?

You can use this letter to write to the top person at the LA, usually the Director of Children’s Services. You can find this information and contact details for this person on the Association of Directors of Children’s Services website. It may help to copy in the LA’s monitoring officer, your ward councillor, and the LA case worker or officer you have been dealing with as well.

Should I make a formal complaint as well?

Delay in finalising an EHC plan and to your right to mediate and/or appeal if you don’t agree with what it says, is a very serious matter and means the LA is not complying with the law. Therefore, when a final EHC plan is late taking the time to complete your LA’s complaints process may not be appropriate, in which case we recommend you use our template letter to alert the LA to the issue and take advice on starting a process called judicial review instead of making a formal complaint.

You may prefer to complain or be thinking about complaining because, while being slow, the LA hasn’t breached a legal deadline yet but first check your LA’s complaints procedure for how long this would take. This can be found in your LA’s Local Offer on its website.  If necessary, after following the LA’s complaints procedure you can escalate the complaint to the Local Government Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO). If a complaint goes through all stages of the LGSCO’s process, it can take many months to resolve. So again, if the situation is urgent – for example because the final EHC plan is late - we recommend you consider judicial review instead of making a formal complaint.

If you decide to complain, your LA’s Local Offer should clearly set out how a formal complaint can be made in its complaints procedure. This can be found on your LA’s website. If complaining, you should follow the LA’s complaints procedure as well as writing to the Director of Children’s Services. See our page on taking action when things go wrong with a local authority for more information.  

Remember to keep a copy of any letter or email you send.

If you need further advice or you use this template letter and do not get a reply after five working days, you can book an advice line appointment with IPSEA, use our call-in service or take advice and get help with judicial review from a legal aid provider or other organisation.