EHCP timescales: how long should each stage take?

If you have asked for an EHC needs assessment and heard nothing for weeks, it is hard to know whether that is normal or whether something has gone wrong. The honest answer is that the law is very clear about the deadlines, and that a great many local authorities miss them.

Here is what should happen, and when.

How long does the whole EHCP process take?

The local authority has 20 weeks from the day it receives your request to the day it issues a final Education, Health and Care plan. Within that window it has six weeks to tell you whether it will assess at all, and 16 weeks to tell you whether it will issue a plan.

When does the 20 week clock actually start?

On the day the local authority receives your request. Not the day it replies, not the day it opens a case, and not the day a caseworker is assigned.

That distinction matters more than it sounds. If you make your request by email you have a dated record of exactly when the clock started, and that is much harder to dispute months later than a phone call. Keep the email.

If you are not sure how to word the request, there is a sample letter (opens the PDF in a new tab) you can adapt.

What should happen in the first six weeks?

The local authority decides whether to carry out an assessment, and must tell you either way.

If it agrees, the assessment begins and the clock keeps running. If it refuses, it has to explain why and tell you about your right to appeal. A refusal at this stage is not the end of the road, and it is worth knowing that plenty of assessments go ahead after an initial no.

What happens between six and sixteen weeks?

This is the gathering stage, and it is usually where the delays creep in.

The local authority asks for advice from everyone involved with your child: the school, an educational psychologist, health professionals, and anyone else with something relevant to say. Each of them has six weeks from being asked to respond.

Speaking from the school side, this is the part I have most often watched go wrong. The request lands, the person who holds the information is not available, and by the time it is pulled together the six weeks are nearly gone. It is rarely anyone being obstructive. It is usually nobody owning the deadline.

By week 16 the local authority must tell you whether it intends to issue a plan.

How long do I get to comment on the draft plan?

At least 15 calendar days, counted from the day the draft is sent to you. Not working days.

Use them. This is your opportunity to say what is missing, to ask for the provision to be written more precisely, and to say which school you want named. Vague provision is very hard to enforce later, so if something reads as “regular support” rather than a specific amount delivered by a specific person, say so now.

One thing worth understanding: those 15 days sit inside the 20 weeks rather than being added on top. The 20 week deadline is for the final plan, not the draft.

Can the local authority take longer than 20 weeks?

Only in a small number of situations set out in the SEND Regulations 2014. The main ones are where your child is away from the area for at least four weeks, where there are exceptional personal circumstances, or where the school or setting is closed for at least four weeks and that delays the information coming in. The SEND Code of Practice covers these exemptions at paragraph 9.42.

What does not count is a local authority being short staffed or having a backlog. In February 2026 the High Court confirmed that the deadlines are mandatory and that staff shortages are not a lawful reason for missing them.

What can I do if a deadline is missed?

Start by writing to the local authority, naming the specific deadline that has passed and the date it passed, and asking what is happening and when. Keep it factual. A dated, specific email is far more effective than a frustrated phone call, and it also builds a record if you need one later.

If nothing moves, you can complain formally, and beyond that there are routes to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman and, in some circumstances, to the courts. That is the point at which you want proper legal advice rather than guidance, and IPSEA (opens in a new tab) is the place to go. Your local SENDIASS service can also help, free of charge.

How long should an annual review take?

The review meeting itself is only part of it. After the meeting, the local authority must tell you within four weeks whether it is leaving the plan as it is, amending it, or ceasing to maintain it.

If you have a review coming up, I have written a separate guide on how to prepare for an EHCP annual review.

Are these timescales about to change?

You may have seen reports about EHCPs being reformed or replaced. The government has set out proposals that would reshape the system, but nothing changes yet. The current 20 week process remains the law, and the published timetable does not begin altering EHCP support before September 2030.

So if you are in the process now, or thinking about starting it, plan against the deadlines above.

Where SEND Guidance can help

If you are stuck, or your local authority has gone quiet, I can help you work out where you actually stand and what to do next. That might mean checking whether a deadline has genuinely been missed, helping you word the email that chases it, or making sense of a draft plan before your 15 days run out.

If you are not sure whether your child needs a plan at all, start with what an EHCP is and when a child might need one. If your school has said it will not apply, that is a different problem with a different answer.