Get information and support Free legal guides and template letters Template letters Letter to the local authority when it does not seek the correct advice during an EHC needs assessment: Template letter 7 CLICK TO DOWNLOAD: Letter to the local authority when it does not seek the correct advice during an EHC needs assessment (template letter 7) 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. How do I know which professionals my local authority should be contacting for advice? When your local authority (LA) agrees to carry out an education, health and care (EHC) needs assessment for your child, or for you if you are a young person, the law requires it to get information and advice from a specified list of professionals. Most of those professionals should provide their advice and information within 6 weeks of being contacted by your LA (subject to limited exceptions). The advice and information provided must cover: what special educational, health and social care needs have been identified the special educational, health and social care provision required, and what outcomes are intended to be achieved by the provision being in place. The list of professionals your LA must get this information from is contained in Regulation 6(1) of The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014. When should I write to the LA? If your LA has not approached and received this information from all of the people that are listed in SEND Regulation 6(1), it is in breach of its legal duties and you can take action. You can also take action if you have asked your LA to get advice from a particular person under SEND Regulation 6(1)(h) and it has refused to do so, even though your request was reasonable. Our page on what happens during EHC needs assessments contains further information on what a ‘reasonable’ request could be, along with the full list of professionals your LA must get advice from. Finally, you may wish to take action if any of the professionals send an inadequate response to the LA – for example, a very vague report which doesn’t deal with your/your child’s needs, provision and outcomes. We are aware some services respond with a letter saying something like “not known to this service”. However, this does not meet your LA’s legal duty to get advice in relation to needs, outcomes and provision. 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. Remember to keep a copy of any letter or email you send. Should I make a formal complaint as well? Failing to carry out an EHC needs assessment properly is a very serious matter and means the LA is not complying with the law. The LA needs this information to be able to decide if an EHC plan is necessary. Without it, the LA may also breach the legal deadlines that apply (if the LA decides an EHC plan is not necessary, it must tell you this within 16 weeks of the request for the assessment and if it decides an EHC plan is necessary, the final version to you within 20 weeks of the request for the EHC needs assessment. For more on the timescales see ‘What will happen when my LA makes a decision?’ at the bottom of our what happens in an EHC needs assessment page. Therefore, taking the time to complete your LA’s complaints process may not be appropriate (perhaps because it will take too long and the information needed is essential to understanding your child’s needs), 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. If the situation is not urgent, you may prefer to complain 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. 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, 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 taking action when things go wrong with an LA page for more information. If you need further advice or you use this template letter and do not get a reply to your request 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. Manage Cookie Preferences