Annual Reviews
- Anna
- Aug 27, 2024
- 6 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
This article explains what an Annual Review is, and why they are so important to your child's SEND education.
What is an Annual Review?
The Annual Review is the legal process the LA must undertake to ensure that a child’s needs, provision and outcomes specified in an EHCP remain accurate and up to date.
The following steps must take place in an Annual Review:
Your LA must consult with you and with the school or education setting about the EHCP, and take account of your views, wishes and feelings.
An Annual Review meeting must take place to discuss the EHCP.
Information must be gathered from you as well as from professionals about the EHCP and circulated to everyone invited to the meeting, two weeks before the meeting.
After the meeting, the school must write a report within 2 weeks of the date of the meeting. This must include what happened and all the annual review reports and information and be sent to everyone who attended the meeting and the LA.
After the meeting the LA must use this report to review the EHCP.
The LA must notify you of its decision within four weeks of the meeting.
If the LA decide to amend the EHCP, they must send you the final updated plan within 8 weeks of the date they sent you the decision.
All of these steps – not just the meeting – must be completed in order for an Annual Review to be finished.
Following the Annual Review meeting, there are only three decisions your LA can make:
To maintain the EHCP as it is (not make any changes)
To change the EHCP (and inform you of the changes they are proposing)
To cease the EHCP if it thinks it is no longer necessary for it to be in place, following consultation.
You have the right to challenge the decision made following an annual review by going to mediation or appeal if the LA decide to:
maintain the plan without changes, or
cease the EHCP.
If the LA decide to make changes following the Annual Review meeting, they will send you a draft EHCP and you will have 15 days to make changes. If you are not happy with the final EHCP when you receive it, you will have the right of appeal.
When will an annual review happen?
The LA must review an EHCP
in the period of 12 months from the date when the EHCP was first made; and
every 12 months after, from the date of the last review,
and where the child is within 12 months of transferring from phases of education, nursery to primary, primary to secondary, secondary to post 16, and children in the three-tier system.
Section 44(1) Children and Families Act 2014.
If your child does not attend school this is covered in section 21 of SEND Regs 2014. Your local authority (LA) is still responsible for reviewing your child’s EHCP at least once a year and they will be responsible for calling and chairing the Annual Review Meeting.
If your child is under the age of 5-years, it is best practice for the review to take place every 6-months.
If you child is due to change school because they are moving to the next stage of education at the end of the academic year (phase transition) they LA must complete a review before the end of the Autumn Term in their final year at the current school, even if the Annual Review is not due.
The Annual Review meeting
The Annual Review meeting is likely to be between 1 hour and 1 ½ hours long. This time can easily run away with you, so preparation is key.
Why is an annual review meeting important?
Each Annual Review is extremely important, as without a thorough review of the changes needed to your child’s EHCP, it will soon become out of date. It is not unusual for us to see EHCP for children in Y11 who are getting ready to transfer to college, whose EHCP describes them as being 5 years of age, not yet able to use a toilet and working towards being able to play alongside a peer, when they are just about to take GCSEs, cracked using a toilet independently 10 years ago and are aged 16!
School staff are extremely busy people. SENDCos come and go and can be extremely inexperienced. At best, they are trained and experienced in LA policy rather than SEND law. And your child’s EHCP case officer who will be making the Annual Review decision is likely to hold over 300 cases. So, to ensure that your child’s EHCP Annual Review is thorough, you need to ensure you are equipped with the best understanding possible and lead the process yourself.
As outlined at the beginning of this blog, the initial meeting, arranged by the school, that starts the Annual Review process, is often referred to as ‘the Annual Review’. But it is not. It is purely a meeting to gather information at the start of the Annual Review process. The Annual Review itself will be held at the LA, after the meeting and the decisions made will be based entirely on the information submitted to the LA by the school. So, the update of your child’s EHCP will only ever be as good as the information presented to the LA via the Annual Review meeting process. Our Annual Review Webinar will help you to ensure that the most robust information possible is submitted to the LA following your Annual Review meeting.
Although it is important that background information is updated, remember that the key focus of the EHCP review must be on Sections B and F (with the addition of the Health and Social Care sections if you child has significant health and social care needs) because these sections will dictate the support the child must receive in school. Sections A (the parent and child’s section) and E (outcomes) will not have any influences over the provision a child received. And if you allow it, the entire Annual Review meeting is likely to focus on Sections A and E, resulting in there being no evidence of any changes needed to Sections B and F.
What must happen after the Annual Review meeting?
From the date of the Annual Review meeting, the school has 2 weeks to send the updated annual review paperwork to the LA. The LA then has 4 weeks to send you their decision. Their decision must be one of the following:
To maintain the EHC plan as it is (not make any changes)
To change the EHC plan (and say what changes it is proposing), or
To cease the EHC plan if it thinks it is no longer necessary for it to be in place, following consultation.
If the LA decide to make changes to the plan, they must send you a copy of their proposed changes at the same time as the decision. This means sending you a draft EHCP, outlining the changes that they propose. They must also give you 15 days to respond to the draft EHCP. To thoroughly check and respond to a draft EHCP, use our webinars here: Session 1 Session 2
The LA must then send you the final EHCP within 8 weeks of the date that they sent you the draft EHCP.
What should I do if the LA do not send me their decision or a final plan on time?
If the LA do not send you their decision within 4 weeks of the Annual Review meeting or a final plan within 8 weeks of a decision to amend the plan you should:
Email your case officer, reminding them of the legal duty to send you:
the Annual Review decision within 4 weeks of the date of the Annual Review meeting; or
The Final EHCP within 8 weeks of the date they sent you the decision, giving them 5 working days to rectify this.
If you do not receive the decision/final EHCP within 5 working days, email the case officer again, giving them 5 more working days to send you the decision/final EHCP.
If you still do not receive the decision/final EHCP, put in a formal complaint using the LA’s online formal complaint process. This clip in our YouTube channel will explain how to do this - Top Tips for Complaining to your Local Authority
For a full guide to your child’s Annual Review see our Annual Review Webinar where Anna & Sarah will talk you through this yearly meeting step by step, and identify the potential pitfalls, provide SEND law, together with a fully downloadable resource pack to ensure that you have a productive Annual Review with a successful outcome. Click here for more information: Annual Review Webinar
Empowering Families of Children with SEND Ltd also provide fully bespoke 1:1 Annual Review support as one of their professional services. For details, email annualreviews@empoweringsendfamilies.co.uk
We are, and always will be, Stronger Together.
