If your local authority (LA) decides to issue an EHC plan following an EHC needs assessment, it must first send you a draft version.

The draft EHC plan will include information on your child’s (or your, if you are a young person) special educational needs (SEN), health and social care needs, the provision required to meet each of those needs, and the outcomes that should be achieved. It will also record the aspirations, views and feelings of you and your child.

This is a chance for you to check whether the draft EHC plan contains everything it should. You can read our page on what an EHC plan should contain, and use our EHC plan checklist, to see whether the draft EHC plan complies with the law.

A draft EHC plan must not include the name of a particular school, college or other educational placement, or what type of placement you/your child will attend. This is because the EHC plan must reflect your/your child’s needs and the provision to meet those needs, rather than the resources which can be offered in a particular placement. The LA must first decide what your/your child’s needs are, then decide what provision is required to meet those needs, and finally decide on a placement that is able to make that provision. These steps have to be taken in this order, which means that the name and/or type of placement will appear only in the final EHC plan, not the draft plan.

Along with the draft EHC plan, your LA must give you notice that you have at least 15 days to:

1.    make comments – known as ‘representations’ – about the draft EHC plan

2.    request a meeting with the LA to discuss the draft (if you want to), and

3.    request that the educational setting you would like is named in the final EHC plan.

Your LA is legally required to do this, because it is set out in section 38 of the Children and Families Act 2014 (CFA 2014) and Regulation 13(1) of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 (The SEND Regulations 2014). If you are not happy with any part of the draft EHC plan, or the reports attached to it, you can suggest changes you would like made.

You can also ask for a meeting with the LA to discuss your concerns. If you want a meeting, the LA must agree to meet you. You should consider taking someone along with you for support. You should also consider writing down the exact points you want to make and the questions you want to ask, so that you can be sure that you don’t miss out anything you want to say at the meeting. You can leave a copy of your points with the LA officer as a reminder to them.

When you make a request for a particular school, college or other institution, the LA must consult with that institution to help the LA decide whether to name it in the final EHC plan (unless your request is for a wholly independent school, where different rules apply). For more information on your rights to request a particular school or other institution, see our page on choosing a school or other setting.

You can use our template letter as a starting point to respond to the draft plan, state anything you’re not happy with in it, to request a meeting, and to request a particular school or other institution is named.

There is no set deadline for your LA to send out the draft plan, however it must send the final EHC plan within 20 weeks from receiving the request for an EHC needs assessment. This is set out in SEND Regulation 13(2). In order for your LA to meet this deadline, the draft EHC plan should be issued within 14 weeks from the request for an EHC needs assessment. If your LA does not send you the draft EHC plan within this time frame, you can use our template letter to take action.

If you haven’t been able to find the answer to your question on this page, you may find it helpful to read our FAQs.