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 an annual review is (and isn't)

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.

Before the 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 Read it slowly, and mark three things: what's still accurate, what's out of date, and what was promised but isn't happening.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 the outcomes (Section E) and the provision (Section F), because those are the parts the review can change.

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).

During the 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.

After the meeting

The school sends a report of the review to the local authority, and the local authority must then write to you with its decision: maintain the plan, amend it, or cease it. If it proposes changes, you'll see them and have the chance to respond. 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.

Make it easier on yourself

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.