Annual Review

Once agreed, EHC Plans (EHCPs) must be reviewed every year for Children and Young People over the age of 5-years to 25-years. For Children under 5-years old, the law recommends that the EHCP should be reviewed every 6 months.

The responsibility for the Annual Review is with the Local Authority (LA), however the LA often delegates this responsibility to the Headteacher or Principal of the Education Setting. The Annual Review must review the outcomes and effectiveness of the provisions in place to achieve them.

Once finalised, EHCP's cannot be amended without an Annual Review taking place.

There are specific timelines for the Annual Review which must be adhered to by both the Education Setting and the LA.

Before the Annual Review meeting, Parents, Professionals and the Education Setting that your child attends will share their thoughts about what is going well, what is not going well, any aspirations the Child or Young Person has and anything that they think may need to change within the Plan. The information should be gathered and shared with Parent Carers and Young Person, as well as the Professionals invited to the meeting at least two weeks before the meeting takes place.

All Professionals that provide the support detailed in the EHCP should be invited to contribute and to attend this important meeting.

Before attending an Annual Review meeting, you should:

• Read through all the comments submitted. You should receive this at least two weeks before the meeting. If you don’t feel you have enough time to prepare then you can ask for the meeting to be deferred.
• Make a note of any questions that you would like to ask. There can be a lot of information shared in the Review so it’s really helpful to have a written list to refer to.
• Take notes during the meeting.
• Consider taking an advocate, with you for support.

For an overview of the Annual Review process, how things should work, timelines and what to do if things don’t go as planned, you can visit the IPSEA Site.
Click here to visit the IPSEA Site.