EHC Needs Assessment Request Letter: What to Include, With a Template

Updated 8 October 2026 · Legal citations verified against legislation.gov.uk

An EHC needs assessment (EHCNA) request letter needs eight things: a clear request under section 36(1) of the Children and Families Act 2014, the legal test in section 36(8), evidence that your child has or may have special educational needs, specific and dated examples, evidence that a plan may be necessary, the professionals you want consulted, a request to confirm the date of receipt and a numbered list of enclosures. You do not need a solicitor, a diagnosis or the school's agreement. This guide takes each part in turn, then gives you a template to adapt, or you can jump straight to the template.

The short version: the letter is not a formality. It is the document that starts a statutory clock: once the council receives it, regulation 5(1) of the SEND Regulations 2014 gives the council 6 weeks to tell you whether it will assess. Make the request unmistakable, frame it around the section 36(8) test, back every point with something checkable and keep proof of the date you sent it.

The eight parts of the letter at a glance

Part of the letter	What it does	Where it comes from
1. A formal request	Makes clear this is a statutory request, which starts the 6 week clock	Section 36(1); regulation 5(1)
2. The legal test	Points the decision-maker at the statute, not at local criteria	Section 36(8); Code paragraph 9.16
3. Your child's needs	Shows your child has or may have special educational needs, with or without a diagnosis	Section 36(8)(a)
4. Dated, specific examples	Turns impressions into facts someone else can check	Code paragraph 9.14
5. Why a plan may be necessary	Covers progress, what the school has done and support beyond the usual	Section 36(8)(b); Code paragraph 9.14
6. Advice you want sought	Names the professionals the council must ask if it assesses	Regulation 6(1)(h)
7. Date of receipt	Anchors the 6, 16 and 20 week deadlines	Regulations 5(1), 10(1) and 13(2)
8. Enclosures	Puts your evidence in front of the decision-maker and, later, every adviser	Section 36(8); regulations 6(3) and 7(b)

Why the letter matters more when a parent asks

Local authorities received 162,700 requests for an EHC needs assessment during 2025, 5.3% more than in 2024, and agreed to assess 65.2% of them (Department for Education, Education, health and care plans, June 2026). For the first time, the release also broke the figures down by who made the request. Councils agreed to assess 75.8% of requests from schools or other educational settings, but only 44.0% of requests from parents or young people.

The statistics do not explain the gap, and a lower figure is not a verdict on you or on your child. It does suggest one practical step. A school's request is normally built on the school's own records, while a parent's request carries only what the parent sends. So your letter should do both jobs: state the law clearly and bring the school's records with it, including attendance, SEN support plans and progress data. The rest of this guide shows how.

Open with a formal request under section 36(1)

Your first paragraph should leave no doubt about what the letter is. A single sentence does it: "I am writing as [child]'s parent to formally request an Education, Health and Care needs assessment for [child] under section 36(1) of the Children and Families Act 2014."

That sentence matters more than it looks. At over 160,000 requests a year, a letter that reads like a general concern can drift; one that is unmistakably a section 36(1) request must be decided within statutory deadlines. Section 36(1) gives the right to ask to the child's parent, to a young person and to a person acting for a school or college, so a parent's request does not depend on the school. The school cannot block, approve or delay it. Our guide on who can request an EHC needs assessment covers the less common situations.

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State the test the council must apply

Next, set out the legal test, so the decision-maker reads your evidence against the statute rather than against internal criteria. Under section 36(8) of the Children and Families Act 2014 the local authority must secure an assessment if it is of the opinion that both of the following are true:

the child has or may have special educational needs
it may be necessary for special educational provision to be made in accordance with an EHC plan

Note the words "may have" and "may be necessary". Parliament chose a deliberately low threshold, lower than the test for actually issuing a plan. No diagnosis is required by law. Councils may publish local criteria, but paragraph 9.16 of the SEND Code of Practice 2015 says they must be prepared to depart from them where there is a compelling reason and must not apply a blanket policy to particular groups of children or types of need. If a council's guidance sounds like a rule that shuts your child out, our guide to unlawful blanket policies shows how to respond.

Evidence limb (a): has or may have special educational needs

If your child has a diagnosis, name it and enclose the report. If not, say plainly that the law does not require one. Referral letters, a place on the CAMHS or neurodevelopmental pathway waiting list, speech and language involvement, school SEN support records and your own dated observations all evidence "may have". Our guide to requesting an assessment without a diagnosis covers this in detail.

Bullet the difficulties, with frequencies

This is where most letters are won or lost. General adjectives ask the reader to take your word for it; numbers let the reader see it. Compare "mornings are a nightmare" with a bulleted list like:

Refuses to enter the school building 2 or 3 mornings a week
Attendance is 84% this term and falling, confirmed by the school office
Has been collected early 4 times since September, each recorded by the school
Working two year groups behind in writing, according to the autumn teacher report

Every bullet should be specific, dated where possible and checkable against a record someone else holds, so gather attendance figures and school records before you write. Describe your child accurately on an ordinary difficult day. You never need to exaggerate: accurate, ordinary detail is what persuades, and it holds up when the council checks it against school data.

Evidence limb (b): build it around paragraph 9.14

Limb (b) asks whether it may be necessary for provision to be made through an EHC plan. Paragraph 9.14 of the SEND Code of Practice 2015 says the council should consider whether, despite the school or setting taking relevant and purposeful action, your child has not made expected progress, and lists the evidence it should pay particular attention to. Structure this part of the letter around exactly those heads:

Academic attainment and rate of progress, or developmental milestones for younger children
The nature, extent and context of your child's special educational needs
The action the school or setting is already taking to meet those needs
Whether any progress has come only from much additional support, over and above what is usually provided
Physical, emotional and social development and health needs, drawing on evidence from clinicians and other health professionals

The third and fourth heads are the quiet heart of the letter. Describe what the school has tried and what happened. If things improved only while extra adult support was in place, say so: that is exactly the evidence that provision beyond the ordinary may be necessary. Paragraph 9.14 is guidance on weighing the evidence; the test itself is still section 36(8), and no law requires a set number of terms of SEN support before you ask. Our comparison of SEN support and an EHCP explains the difference.

Use your right to name professionals

If the council agrees to assess, regulation 6(1) of the SEND Regulations 2014 requires it to seek advice and information from you, from the school, from a health care professional, from an educational psychologist and in relation to social care. Where the child is in Year 9 or above it must also seek advice about preparation for adulthood. Crucially, regulation 6(1)(h) requires it to seek advice from any person you reasonably request, so name the paediatrician, therapist or specialist you want consulted in the letter itself. If your child has a hearing or vision impairment and the person giving the educational advice is not qualified to teach children with that impairment, regulation 6(2) requires the advice to be given after consultation with someone who is, which is worth flagging too.

There is one more reason to write carefully. Under regulation 6(3), when the council seeks that advice it must give each adviser copies of your representations and the evidence you submitted. The educational psychologist and every other professional will read what you wrote, so clear, factual detail helps them as well as the decision-maker.

Ask the council to confirm the date it received the request

Every statutory deadline runs from the date the council receives your request: the decision on whether to assess within 6 weeks (regulation 5(1)), notice of any decision not to issue a plan after an assessment within 16 weeks (regulation 10(1)) and the final plan within 20 weeks (regulation 13(2)). One line at the end of your letter asking the council to confirm in writing the date it received your request anchors all three. Our 20 week timeline guide sets out what should happen at each point.

Close with a clear enclosures list

End the letter with a numbered list of everything you are sending. Typical enclosures:

Detailed parental views (see our guide to writing parental views)
An attendance printout from the school office
SEN support plans, provision maps or review notes
Referral letters and waiting list confirmations with dates
Any professional reports you hold, including private ones
A short diary of dated incidents

When it decides whether to assess, the council must have regard to the views and evidence you submit (section 36(8)). If it assesses, regulation 7(b) of the SEND Regulations 2014 requires it to consider information provided by you or at your request, including private reports, so nothing on that list is wasted. Our checklist of what evidence to gather goes through each item.

An EHCP request letter template you can adapt

This sample letter to request an EHC needs assessment follows the eight parts above. Replace everything in square brackets, delete anything that does not apply and keep each point short. Treat it as a structure, not a script: the council should hear about your child in your own words. Copy it into your own document and fill it in there.

Template: request for an EHC needs assessment

[Your full name]
[Your address]
[Your email address and phone number]

[Date]

Special Educational Needs team
[Council name]
[Postal address or SEN team email address from the council's Local Offer website]

Subject: Request for an EHC needs assessment for [child's full name], date of birth [DATE OF BIRTH]

Dear Sir or Madam,

1. Request. I am writing as [child]'s parent to formally request an Education, Health and Care needs assessment for [child] under section 36(1) of the Children and Families Act 2014. [Child] is [age] and attends [school or setting], in [year group].

2. The legal test. I understand that the council must secure an assessment if [child] has or may have special educational needs and it may be necessary for special educational provision to be made in accordance with an EHC plan (section 36(8)). I believe both parts of the test are met, for the reasons below.

3. [Child]'s needs. [Child] has difficulties with [describe in plain words, for example following spoken instructions in class or managing anxiety at the start of the day]. [If there is a diagnosis: [Child] was diagnosed with [condition] by [professional] on [date].] [If there is no diagnosis yet: [Child] was referred to [service] on [date] and is on the waiting list.] The school has recorded [child] as receiving SEN support since [date].

4. What this looks like day to day.

[A specific, checkable fact, for example: attendance this term is [X]%, school printout enclosed]
[A dated example from school records, for example: collected early [X] times since [month]]
[An example from home and how often it happens]

5. Why an EHC plan may be necessary.

Attainment and progress: [where [child] is compared with age expectations and what the school's tracking shows over the past year]
What the school has already done: [each intervention, for how long and what changed]
Progress only with extra support: [where progress happened only with help over and above what is usually provided, and what happened when that help stopped]
Wider development and health: [emotional, social, physical and health information, with where it comes from]

6. Advice I would like the council to seek. If the council agrees to assess, I ask it to seek advice from [name and role, for example the community paediatrician or speech and language therapist already involved] under regulation 6(1)(h) of the SEND Regulations 2014.

7. Next steps. Please confirm in writing the date on which you received this request, and let me have your decision within 6 weeks, as regulation 5(1) of the SEND Regulations 2014 requires. I would welcome the chance to discuss [child]'s needs and can be contacted by [preferred method].

Enclosures

Parental views
School attendance printout dated [date]
SEN support plans and review notes from [dates]
[Reports, referral letters and waiting list confirmations, each with its date]

Yours faithfully,

[Your name]
Parent of [child's full name]

If you are a young person writing for yourself, put the letter in the first person ("I am writing to request an EHC needs assessment for myself under section 36(1)...") and see the section for young people below.

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Do you have to use the council's own form?

No. Section 36(1) says a request may be made to the council, and nothing in section 36 of the Act or in the SEND Regulations 2014 requires a particular form or format. IPSEA, the independent SEND legal advice charity, makes the same point. Many councils still publish a request form or an online portal on their Local Offer website, and using it can make the SEN team's job easier.

A sensible approach is to complete the council's form if there is one and attach your letter and enclosures to it. Make sure the words "request under section 36(1)" appear somewhere. If the form has small boxes or a word limit, write "see attached letter" rather than squeezing your evidence to fit.

Send it so you can prove the date

Send the request to the council for the area where your child lives, because that is the council responsible for them under section 24, even if the school is in a neighbouring area. Email it to the SEN team and keep the sent email, or post it by recorded delivery, then keep dated copies of everything. The address is on your council's Local Offer website. Tell the SENCO you have applied at the same time, so the school is ready to share records when the council asks. The council must notify the head teacher that it is considering an assessment anyway (regulation 4(2)).

If you are a young person writing your own request

A young person, meaning someone over compulsory school age and under 25, can make the request themselves (section 36(1), section 83(2) and paragraph 9.8 of the Code). The structure is the same: write in the first person and describe your own needs, the support you have had and what is not working. Two points are specific to you. If you are over 18, the council must consider whether you need more time than most people your age without special educational needs to complete your education or training (section 36(10)), so say what you are working towards and why it is taking longer. And paragraph 9.15 of the Code recognises that someone well supported at school may move to a college where the same support is not available; if that is your situation, describe the gap plainly. Our guide to EHCPs at college and post-16 covers the rest.

What happens after you send it

During the 6 weeks

As soon as practicable after receiving your request, the council must consult you before it decides (regulation 3). If it is considering an assessment, it must tell you so and tell you that you have the right to express views (orally or in writing) and to submit evidence (section 36(7)). It must also notify the head teacher, the health service and its own social care team (regulation 4(2)). Your letter is not your last word: if a new report or school record arrives during the 6 weeks, send it with a short covering note.

One limit to know about: if your child was assessed in the previous six months, the council does not have to consider a new request, although it may choose to (section 36(6)(b) and paragraph 9.11 of the Code).

The decision

The council must tell you within 6 weeks of receiving the request whether it will assess (regulation 5(1)). It can lawfully miss that deadline only in the situations listed in regulation 5(4):

exceptional personal circumstances affecting your child or you
your child or you being away from the area for at least 4 weeks in a row during the 6 weeks
a school or early years closure of at least 4 weeks around the time the council asked for the setting's advice

If it agrees, the assessment begins and the 20 week clock keeps running from the date of your request. Our guide to what happens during an EHC needs assessment explains the next stage.

If the council says no

Councils decided not to assess 26.6% of requests in 2025 (Department for Education, June 2026), so a refusal is common and is not the final word on your child. The council must give its reasons (section 36(5)) and tell you about your right to appeal, the time limits, mediation and where to find information and advice (regulation 5(3)). Our guides to what to do after a refusal and the refusal to assess appeal take you through it, and the free Refusal Analyser checks each of the council's reasons against the section 36(8) test.

If you hear nothing

Write to the SEN team, quote regulation 5(1) and ask for the decision by a specific date. If that does not work, use the council's complaints procedure. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman can look at delays in the EHC needs assessment process, normally once you have completed the council's own complaints process. It generally cannot investigate decisions that carry a right of appeal to the tribunal, such as a refusal to assess, which is why an appeal is the route for a "no".

Common mistakes that weaken good letters

Emotional narrative without numbers. The exhaustion is real, but a page about how desperate things feel gives the council nothing it can measure. Keep the feeling to a line or two; put the weight on frequencies, dates and records.

No legal framing. A letter that never mentions section 36(1) or the section 36(8) test invites the council to judge your request against its own local criteria instead of the statute. Name the test.

Forgetting attendance. The attendance percentage is one of the easiest numbers to obtain and one of the most telling. Ask the school office for a printout before you send anything.

Waiting for the school to agree. Some parents hold back because the school says it is too early. The right to request is yours under section 36(1), and the council must still decide within 6 weeks. If the school is reluctant, our guide on what to do when the school will not apply shows how to go ahead without it.

Describing the worst day as every day. Accuracy persuades more than intensity. Say what happens and how often, and let the records back it up.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a solicitor to write the request letter?

No. The process is designed for parents to use directly. What matters is that the letter makes the request under section 36(1), addresses the section 36(8) test and is backed by specific evidence. Help preparing the documents is guidance, not legal advice, and no council expects a lawyer's letterhead.

How long should the request letter be?

There is no required length. Keep the letter itself tight and factual and let the enclosures carry the detail. A clear page or two that states the legal test, summarises the evidence and lists the enclosures is easier for a busy SEN team to act on than a long narrative.

What if I do not have any professional reports yet?

You can still request an assessment. The test is whether your child has or may have special educational needs, so school records, referral letters, waiting list confirmations and your own dated observations all count as evidence. The council must have regard to the evidence you send when it decides whether to assess, and if it assesses, regulation 7(b) of the SEND Regulations 2014 requires it to consider information you provide, including private reports if you have them.

Do I have to use my council's request form?

No. Nothing in section 36 of the Children and Families Act 2014 or in the SEND Regulations 2014 requires a particular form. Many councils publish one on their Local Offer website and using it can help the SEN team, but a clear letter asking for an assessment under section 36(1) is a valid request. If you use the council's form, attach your letter and enclosures to it.

Does the letter go to the school or the council?

The request goes to your local authority's SEN team, because the duty to decide sits with the council, not the school. Send it to the council for the area where your child lives, even if the school is in another area. It is sensible to tell the SENCO you have applied at the same time, so the school is ready to share its records when the council asks.

What can I do if the council does not reply within 6 weeks?

Write to the SEN team, quote regulation 5(1) of the SEND Regulations 2014 and ask for the decision by a specific date. If there is still no answer, use the council's complaints procedure. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman can look at delays in the assessment process, normally after you have completed the council's own complaints process.

Can I send more evidence after the letter has gone?

Yes. When the council is considering an assessment it must tell you that you have the right to express views (orally or in writing) and to submit evidence (section 36(7)), and it must have regard to them when it decides (section 36(8)). Send new reports or records as soon as you have them and keep a dated copy.