How to Prepare for an EHCP Annual Review

Your child's EHCP must be reviewed at least once a year. That meeting, the annual review, is the formal opportunity to look at whether the plan is working and whether anything needs to change.

Here's the thing most parents aren't told: the annual review is not just a progress update. It's the main route through which an EHCP gets amended, strengthened or brought up to date. Walking in prepared makes a genuine difference, and preparation is mostly about doing a few simple things in the right order.

This guide takes you through it step by step.

What is an EHCP annual review?

The annual review is a legal requirement. The plan must be reviewed at least every twelve months, and the process includes a meeting where your views, and your child's views, are a formal part of the record, not a courtesy.

It isn't a parents' evening. It isn't a chat about how things are going in general. The purpose is to answer specific questions: is the plan still accurate, are the outcomes being met, is the provision being delivered, and does anything need to change?

After the review, the local authority must decide whether to keep the plan as it is, amend it, or cease it, and tell you that decision. So the meeting genuinely feeds into a formal process.

When does the annual review have to happen?

At least every twelve months. The first review must be held within twelve months of the date the EHCP was issued, and after that within twelve months of the previous review.

That deadline belongs to the local authority, not to the school. If a review is late, the local authority is the one that has missed a legal duty, even if the school is the one organising the meeting.

Two things sit outside the twelve month rule:

• Children under five. The SEND Code of Practice says local authorities should consider reviewing the plan at least every three to six months, so that it keeps pace with how quickly things change at that age (paragraph 9.178). These reviews sit alongside the annual one rather than replacing it, and may be shorter, without the full range of professionals attending.
• Early or emergency reviews. You can ask for a review before the twelve months are up if something has changed. A placement that is breaking down, a significant change in your child's needs, an exclusion or the risk of one. You ask the local authority, and it is worth putting the reason in writing.

What should I do before the annual review meeting?

Read the current plan with a highlighter

Sit down with the current EHCP a couple of weeks before the meeting. Read it slowly, and mark three things: what's still accurate, what's out of date, and what was promised but isn't happening. Pay particular attention to your child's needs (Section B), the outcomes (Section E) and the provision (Section F), because these are the parts a review can change. It's easy to focus on outcomes and provision and skip past Section B, but it matters just as much: it sets out your child's needs, and those change as they grow. The provision in Section F has to match the needs in Section B, so if Section B is out of date, the support will be too.

If you spot support in Section F that isn't being delivered, note it factually: what the plan says, what's actually happening, since when.

Gather your evidence

You don't need a solicitor's bundle. You need a small, honest collection of things that show how the year has really gone: school reports, notes from meetings, examples of work, anything from outside professionals, and your own observations from home. Homework battles, sleep, anxiety on Sunday nights, friendships, these all paint the picture of how your child is really doing.

Write your parental views

Schools should ask for your views before the meeting. Even if they don't, write them anyway, one to two pages at most. A simple structure works well: what's going well, what's not working, what's changed this year, and what you'd like to see changed in the plan. Send it in before the meeting so it must be considered, and bring a copy with you.

If your child can share their views, in words, pictures or with help, those belong in the review too. Person-centred reviews start with the child.

Ask who's attending and what reports are coming

A week or two before, ask the school two simple questions: who will be at the meeting, and can you have copies of any reports in advance? You're entitled to see the information the meeting will discuss. Reading reports at the table, under time pressure, helps nobody.

Related reading: EHCP Outcomes Explained in Plain English (coming soon).

What happens during the annual review meeting?

Bring your annotated plan, your written views, and a short list of questions. Useful ones include:

• Which outcomes has my child met, and what's the evidence?
• Is all the provision in Section F being delivered as written? If not, why not?
• What does school think should change in the plan?
• What will be recommended to the local authority after this meeting?

If you disagree with something, say so calmly and ask for your disagreement to be recorded in the paperwork. You don't have to resolve every difference in the room. A recorded disagreement is far more useful later than a polite silence.

What is the EHCP annual review timeline?

The meeting is the start of the clock, not the end of it. From the review meeting, the local authority has four weeks to tell you what it has decided, and if it is changing the plan, a further eight weeks to issue the final version. Twelve weeks in total.

One point is worth knowing because local authorities get it wrong often. If the decision is to amend the plan, the local authority must send you the decision and the proposed amendments within the same four weeks. It cannot tell you it intends to amend and then send the draft months later. That was settled in the High Court in 2022, in a case brought against Devon County Council, and the ruling applies everywhere.

If you want the deadlines for the original EHCP process rather than the review, the full EHCP timeline is set out here.

If you disagree with the decision, you have formal rights, and organisations like IPSEA explain them clearly.

Diary two dates: when the school's report should be sent, and when you expect the local authority's decision. A polite chase at the right moment keeps things moving.

What can the local authority decide afterwards?

There are three decisions available, and you must be told which one within four weeks of the meeting.

• Maintain the plan as it is. No changes. If you disagree, you have a right of appeal.
• Amend the plan. The local authority must send the proposed changes at the same time as the decision, give you at least 15 days to comment, and then issue the final amended plan within eight weeks of sending you the draft.
• Cease to maintain the plan. The plan stops. This should only happen where the special educational provision in it is genuinely no longer needed. You have a right of appeal.

A decision letter should tell you which of the three it is, the reasons, and your right of appeal along with information about mediation.

The most common problem is not a decision you disagree with. It is no decision at all. If four weeks pass and nothing has arrived, the local authority has missed a legal deadline and it is worth saying so in writing, to the caseworker, with the date of the review meeting in the first line.

What if I disagree with the outcome?

You have a right of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) against a decision to amend the plan, to keep it unchanged when you asked for changes, or to cease it. The decision letter itself must set out that right and the deadline for using it.

Before appealing most points you have to contact a mediation adviser, though you do not have to go through with mediation itself. The letter should explain this. The deadline is two months from the date on the decision letter, or one month from the date on a mediation certificate, whichever is later.

Two things worth saying plainly. First, an appeal is not the only route, and a badly run review can often be sorted out by writing to the local authority and pointing at the missed step. Second, SEND Guidance provides professional advice and practical support, not legal representation. If you need legal advice, IPSEA, SOS!SEN and your local SENDIASS (the free, impartial SEND information and advice service every local authority has to provide) are the places to start, and they are free.

What happens if my child is moving to a new school or college?

The deadlines change, and they get much tighter. If your child is within twelve months of moving between phases of education, the local authority must have reviewed and amended the plan, naming the new setting, before a fixed date:

• 31 March in the year of transfer, if the move is from secondary school to a post-16 institution
• 15 February in the year of transfer, in every other case, including infant to junior and primary to secondary

Those dates exist so that you have time to appeal the named setting before the new academic year starts. Working backwards from 15 February with a twelve week process behind it, the review meeting needs to happen in the autumn term. If your child is in Year 6 or Year 11 and nothing has been arranged by October half term, that is worth chasing.

From Year 9 onwards, the review must also consider what your child needs in order to prepare for adulthood and independent living. That is a legal requirement, not an optional extra, and it should be visible in the plan afterwards.

Where SEND Guidance can help

Preparation is a checklist, not a talent. We've turned everything above into a free, printable EHCP Annual Review Checklist you can work through in an evening.

And if you'd like support that's personal to your child's situation, from making sense of the current plan to preparing your views, that's exactly what our annual review support is for. A clarity call is a good place to start.