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Timeline for an Annual Review

Step 1

Settings should obtain advice from all relevant professionals, from parents and from the child or young person themselves.

Step 2

The setting should circulate all reports received along with the invitations to attend the arranged Annual Review meeting.

This should be done AT LEAST 2 weeks before the date of the meeting.

Step 3

The Annual Review meeting should take place. The following things should be considered:

  • The child/young person’s progress towards achieving the outcomes specified in their EHCP;
  • Whether the outcomes still remain appropriate;
  • The child or Young Persons aspirations, and whether these have changed;
  • Targets from the EHCP should be reviewed and new ones set;
  • Whether any changes need to be made to the provision including whether the placement is still appropriate.

Step 4

Within 2 weeks of the Annual Review meeting, the setting must prepare a report that includes recommendations for amendments to the EHCP; including details where views differ between people. This must be sent to everyone who was invited to the meeting – including the Local Authority.

Step 5

The Local Authority has 2 weeks (4 weeks from the date of the Annual Review meeting) to decide whether to

  1. Leave the plan unchanged;
  2. Amend the plan;
  3. Cease the plan;

and then to notify parents of the decision.

  1. Parents need to have received the plan within 12 weeks from the Annual.

Overview

The Annual Review is the statutory process by which a child's progress against the outcomes set out in the EHC Plan are reviewed in order to ensure that the provision and targets are up to date and relevant. The review also helps to plan the outcomes for the coming year, setting new outcomes if necessary, and to consider whether the EHC Plan is still necessary to support the child's needs in the future.

Statutory requirements

  • An Annual Review must be undertaken in partnership with the child and their parent, or the young person (if over 16), and must take account of their views, wishes and feelings, including their right to request a Personal Budget.
  • A Personal Budget is the amount of money identified by the LA to deliver aspects of provision set out in an EHC Plan where the parent or young person (over 16 years of age) is involved in securing that provision. The funds may be held and managed either by the LA, setting; the family; a third-party arrangement; or a combination of the aforementioned.
  • The Annual Review process must be completed on or before the anniversary of when the EHC Plan was first issued or the anniversary of the last review.
  • In the Early Years an EHC Plan should be reviewed every 6 months up to the child’s 5th birthday (SEND Code of Practice, pg. 198, 9.178).