The Annual Review process ensures that your child’s Education Health and Care (EHC) plan remains relevant to their needs, the support they require and their desired outcomes.

However, if your child’s health, educational needs or situation changes a lot, you may wish to request a reassessment of their needs.

Who can request a re-assessment?

A request for a re-assessment can be made by:

• the child’s parent
• the young person
• the governing body, proprietor or principal of the education setting attended by the child or young person
• the relevant health commissioning body.

You can request a re-assessment at any time, but this usually happens following an annual review.

How to make a request for a re-assessment

You will need to send a request in writing to your child’s Case Officer. You can do this in a letter or in an email using your SEND area team's contact details. You will need to give us details about why you believe a re-assessment is necessary.

You could include:

• Information about why you think the current EHC plan no longer accurately describes your child’s needs.
• Details of any changes in your child's needs or circumstances that support the need for a re-assessment
• Any supporting evidence, such as reports from teachers, therapists, doctors or education specialists.

It may help to speak to your child’s school or college. They may be able to provide evidence to support your request.

What happens after you submit a request?

We consider all the information submitted with the request to help us decide whether to carry out a re-assessment.

The Children and Families Act (CFA) 2014 says that we must carry out a re-assessment if a request is made by any of the people listed, unless one of the following applies:

• We have carried out an assessment or re-assessment within the previous six months, or
• We do not think it is necessary for us to make a further assessment.

We may also decide to carry out a re-assessment without a request if we think one is necessary.

We must respond within 15 calendar days of receiving your request to let you know whether we have agreed to a re-assessment. We will be in touch to let you know and to give you information about what happens next.

If we agree to carry out a re-assessment

We will gather new or updated information and advice from professionals within education, health and social care services to tell us about your child’s needs and the support they require.

This part of the process is the same as an Education, Health and Care needs assessment.

While we carry out the re-assessment, your child’s EHC plan will remain as it is, and the support specified within the plan will continue.

How long does the re-assessment process take?

The overall maximum timescale for a re-assessment is 14 weeks from the decision to re-assess to the issuing of a final EHC plan. However, we will always aim to complete the process as soon as we can.

Once we have completed the re-assessment:

• We must decide whether to make changes to the existing EHC plan or keep the EHC plan as it is.
• We must let you know what we have decided and provide reasons if we decide not to change the current one.

If we decide to make changes to your child’s EHC plan:

• We must send you a draft which indicates the proposed changes and seek your views.
• You will then have 15 calendar days to let us know whether you are happy with the contents and to request a particular nursery, school or college to be named in the EHC plan.
• We must send you the final version of your child’s EHC plan within 14 weeks of the date we agreed to re-assess.

If we decide not to make changes to your child’s EHC plan following a re-assessment

We must notify you of this decision and send you the final EHC plan within 14 weeks of the date we agreed to re-assess.

What happens if you don’t agree with our decision?

If we do not agree to carry out a re-assessment, you have the right to appeal this decision. We will let you know what you need to do if you want to appeal when we write to you to let you know our decision. Find out more, on the mediation and tribunal process webpage.

You also have the right to appeal if we complete the re-assessment and you disagree with the contents of the final EHC plan. This may be because

• we have not made any amendments to the plan
• you disagree with the amendments that have been made
• you disagree with the school or college that has been named.

We will let you know what you need to do if you want to appeal when we write to you with the final EHC plan.

For more information, you can contact SEND Advice Surrey. The national Independent Provider of Special Education Advice (IPSEA) website has resources that may help, including template letters.