The EHCP 20 Week Timeline Explained
Once your request for an EHC needs assessment reaches the local authority, the law puts the whole process on a timetable. From the day the council receives the request to the day any final EHC plan must be issued is at most 20 weeks, with fixed decision points along the way. Knowing those points changes how the process feels. Instead of waiting and hoping, you are tracking deadlines the council has a legal duty to meet.
Week 0: the request starts the clock
The timeline begins on the day the local authority receives a request for an EHC needs assessment, whether it comes from you as the parent, from a young person over 16 or from the school. Ask the council to confirm the date of receipt in writing when you apply. Every deadline that follows counts from that date, so one dated confirmation protects the whole timetable. Start a dated folder the same day, paper or digital, and put every letter, email and report into it as it arrives. If you later need to chase or appeal, that folder is your timeline. If you are still preparing the request, our guide on what to include in the request letter covers the legal framing and the evidence.
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See a free section →Weeks 0 to 6: the decision whether to assess
Under regulation 5(1) of the SEND Regulations 2014 the council must notify you of its decision whether or not to secure an assessment as soon as practicable and in any event within 6 weeks of receiving the request. The question it must answer is the one in section 36(8) of the Children and Families Act 2014: whether your child has or may have special educational needs and whether it may be necessary for special educational provision to be made through an EHC plan. That threshold is deliberately low. There is nothing you are required to do during this window, but it is a good time to keep gathering. Attendance printouts, referral letters and anything new from school can still be sent in, because under regulation 7(b) the council must consider information you provide.
Weeks 6 to 16: the assessment itself
If the council agrees to assess, regulation 6(1) sets out whose advice it must seek: yours as the parent, the school's, an educational psychologist's, health and social care. Where your child is in Year 9 or above it must also seek advice about preparation for adulthood. It must additionally seek advice from any person you reasonably request, so if a paediatrician, therapist or other specialist knows your child well, name them in writing. If your child has a hearing or vision impairment, the educational advice must come via a suitably qualified teacher (regulation 6(2)).
Your job at this stage is to respond quickly and fully. The request for parental advice is your formal chance to put the home picture on record, so give it the same care as the original application. Our guide to writing parental views shows how to structure it.
Week 16: the decision whether to issue a plan
If the council assesses but decides not to issue an EHC plan, regulation 10 requires it to notify you within 16 weeks of the original request. That decision can be challenged, and nothing about the assessment is wasted if it happens: the advice gathered becomes the evidence base for the next step. Our guide to what to do after a refusal covers the options in detail.
The draft plan stage
If the council decides to issue a plan, it prepares a draft and sends it to you before anything becomes final. You will be given a formal opportunity to comment on the draft, to ask for changes and to say which school or college you want named. Use it. The draft stage is where vague wording about provision can still be tightened into something specific and enforceable, so read every section closely and reply in writing with the exact changes you want. Check three things in particular: that every need identified in the advice appears in the plan, that each need has provision attached to it and that the provision is specific enough to be delivered without argument. If the educational psychologist's advice says one thing and the draft says less, point out the gap in writing.
Week 20: the final plan
Regulation 13 requires the final EHC plan to be issued within 20 weeks of the original request, with limited exceptions. If a council tells you an exception applies, ask it in writing to identify exactly which exception it is relying on. The default position is 20 weeks and the burden of explaining any departure sits with the council, not with you.
When deadlines slip
The system is under real pressure. At January 2026 there were 718,800 children and young people with EHC plans in England, 12.5% more than a year earlier and the largest annual rise since 2014. Councils received 162,700 assessment requests during 2025 and issued 110,700 new plans, both sharply up on the year before (Department for Education, January 2026 release). That pressure explains delay. It does not excuse it, because the deadlines in regulations 5(1), 10 and 13 are statutory duties, not targets.
If a date passes, chase in writing, naming the regulation and the date it set, then ask for a response by a stated day. If nothing moves, use the council's formal complaints procedure and keep every dated reply. Parents sometimes worry that chasing will sour the relationship with the SEN team. It will not, and holding a public body to a legal duty is not confrontation. It is how the timetable was designed to work, and the delay is a failure of the system, not something you caused by asking.
If the answer at week 6 is no
A refusal to assess is common and very challengeable. You can appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (SEND) on form SEND35A within 2 months of the decision letter or 1 month of a mediation certificate, whichever is later. You must contact a mediation adviser and obtain a certificate first, but you only have to consider mediation, not attend it. There is no fee, refusal-to-assess appeals are normally decided on the papers without a hearing and in 2024/25 99% of decided SEND appeals went in the family's favour (Ministry of Justice tribunal statistics). In other words, the week 6 letter is a checkpoint, not a verdict.
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Frequently asked questions
When does the 20 week clock start?
On the date the local authority receives the request for an EHC needs assessment. Every later deadline counts from that day, which is why it is worth asking the council to confirm the date of receipt in writing when you apply.
Can the council extend the 20 weeks?
Regulation 13 of the SEND Regulations 2014 allows limited exceptions, but the default legal duty is a final plan within 20 weeks of the request. If a council says an exception applies, ask it in writing to say exactly which exception it is relying on and why.
What actually happens between week 6 and week 16?
This is the assessment itself. Under regulation 6(1) the council must seek advice from the parent, the school, an educational psychologist, health and social care, from Year 9 onwards about preparation for adulthood and from any person the parent reasonably requests. Under regulation 7(b) it must also consider information the parent provides, including private reports.
What can I do if a deadline passes?
Chase in writing, naming the regulation and the date it set, then ask for a response by a stated day. If nothing moves, use the council's formal complaints procedure. The deadlines are statutory duties, not targets, so you are not being difficult by holding the council to them.