Since the introduction of the Children and Families Act 2014, Statements of special educational needs (“SEN”) have been gradually replaced by Education, Health and Care (“EHC”) plans.
Children and young people who had Statements have been going through a process referred to as ‘transition’, in which they are being moved over to EHC plans. For this to happen the local authority (“LA”) must carry out an EHC needs assessment, which involves obtaining advice and information from a range of professionals. The process should take 20 weeks maximum. Further detail about this process can be found in IPSEA's Transition Timeline resource.
All LAs are meant to have completed this process for children with statements living in their area by 1 April 2018. This means that all transitions should already have begun.