{"id":20389,"date":"2024-09-10T14:33:58","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T13:33:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/?page_id=20389"},"modified":"2026-03-20T14:58:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T14:58:27","slug":"who-should-make-a-request","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/send-local-offer\/education-health-and-care-plans\/who-should-make-a-request\/","title":{"rendered":"Who should make a request"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>An EHC needs assessment can be requested independently by a young person if they are aged between 16 and 25 (and have left year 11 at school) or their parents or carers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Educational settings, for example, a school, college or nursery, can also submit a request. In most cases, a setting will have obtained consent from the parents, carers or young person before submitting a request but where this has not happened, the Local Authority must obtain consent before making a decision to assess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other people who know them such as a doctor or health visitor can raise concerns with us and suggest that an assessment may be necessary but cannot submit the request themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If possible, a request for an EHC needs assessment should be made by the educational setting. It&#8217;s no quicker to request the assessment yourself as we will still have to get advice from the educational setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Educational settings often hold the most comprehensive records of a child or young person&#8217;s needs and the support and provision that has already been put in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why a partnership approach is best<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In order to achieve the best outcome, we encourage families, settings and other professionals to work together, firstly to discuss whether a request for a needs assessment is the most appropriate course of action, and if it is, to ensure that the request is made as effectively as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ideally a setting will lead on the request as most often they will be best placed to provide the essential information needed to support your request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Information can include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>details about your child\u2019s SEND and progress<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>the steps that the setting have already put in place to help your child<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Having this information available from the start will help to avoid delays in the decision-making process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The setting must involve you in the process and will need your help to complete the request. They will ask you for information about:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>you and your child&#8217;s views, wishes and goals<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>your child&#8217;s strengths and needs<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>any existing support your child has both at school and at home<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An EHC needs assessment can be requested independently by a young person if they are aged between 16 and 25 (and have left year 11 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"parent":20381,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-step-content.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-20389","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-31 04:03:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20389"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73627,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20389\/revisions\/73627"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/20381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.devon.gov.uk\/children-families-education\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}