All EHC plans must be reviewed at least every 12 months as part of the Annual Review process. However, EHCPs must also be reviewed when a child/young person is due to move to a new phase of education, such as from infant to junior school, primary to middle or secondary school, and secondary school to a post-16 institution. In order to complete these phase transfer reviews by the statutory deadlines (15th February for all phase transfers other than post-16, which is 31st March), the process must begin in the autumn term.

As we are approaching the busy phase transfer season for Local Authorities and schools/colleges, this guide looks at both sides of the review process – from holding the review meeting and producing the review report(s), to writing an amended EHC plan – and what those involved need to know.

Why is the quality of review reports so important?

The review report is central to what happens next with a child/young person’s plan: the Local Authority will use this report (and any other new and relevant advice) to decide whether the child/young person’s plan should be maintained, amended or ceased, and if an amendment goes ahead, the report will also be central to updating the plan to reflect the child/young person’s current needs and support requirements.

Top 7 tips for effective reviews

1. Encourage the child/young person and their parents/carers to attend the review meeting and support them to provide their views on the current situation and all aspects of the existing plan.
2. Invite other involved professionals to attend the meeting and provide updated information.
3. Provide a comprehensive update on the child/young person’s strengths and needs, including both progress made and ongoing/new needs.
4. Annotate the existing plan to show suggested changes.
5. Review the child/young person’s progress against the outcomes in their plan – do any outcomes need removing/updating/adding?
6. Review the effectiveness of the existing special educational provision e.g. what is working, what is not working, what has not yet been implemented, what new provision might need to be added.
7. From Year 9 onwards, address strengths, needs and support requirements relating to the young person preparing for adulthood.

What is involved in amending an EHC plan following review?

In some cases, writing plan amendments can actually be more complex and time-consuming than writing new plans. This is because writing an amendment involves dealing with both existing information (that may or may not still be relevant) and new information (that may or may not be comprehensive enough); potentially working on a different version of the Local Authority EHCP template since the existing plan was finalised; and, for older children, moving the focus of the plan to preparing young people in Year 9 and above for adulthood.

This means that writing an amendment can require much more decision-making and deliberation than when writing a new plan. Writers therefore rely on review reports and other updated reports from involved practitioners to:

• clearly identify what is or is not still relevant, rather than assuming knowledge of key changes to the child/young person’s needs, outcomes or provision;
• focus equally on both progress made and ongoing (or new) difficulties/needs;
• provide an up-to-date picture of the child/young person.

Further learning

If you’re involved in holding review meetings, preparing review reports and/or amending plans following review, you can learn more about statutory requirements and best practice with our Bitesize Amending EHC Plans online course and/or Preparing for Adulthood in EHC Plans course (both of which can be bought together as a buy-one-get-one-half-price bundle).