How to Ensure a Visually Impaired Child Gets the Right Support at School

Requesting an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment

Making a request for an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) should be a straightforward process. All that’s required is for the parent (or school) to request for an EHCNA from the Local Authority, setting out why you think one is necessary and submit any evidence you have of your child’s Special Educational Needs (SEN).

The Local Authority must then consider the request and respond within six weeks, saying whether an assessment will be carried out or not. Some Local Authorities have specific forms available online which can be helpful to ensure relevant information is included, although they cannot require you to use these.

The Local Authority must decide whether to assess based on the test set out in law, which states that if, having had regard to views and evidence submitted, it’s of the view that a child has or may have Special Educational Needs, and that it may be necessary for special educational provision to be made in accordance with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan, it must carry out an assessment.

This is quite a low standard for assessment. Unfortunately, Local Authorities sometimes have policies that set a higher bar and turn down a request. If this happens, you’ll be able to appeal this decision to the SEND Tribunal, and your Local Authority must give you information about this.

The purpose of EHCNA is to establish all of a child’s Special Educational Needs and what provision may be required to meet those needs and to provide relevant outcomes. This would include establishing what provision would be required to meet the child’s visual impairment needs, potentially including using Braille.

As part of the assessment, the Local Authority must seek any advice from a child’s parent or anyone a young person reasonably requests that the Local Authority seek advice from, such as a teacher for the visually impaired or other professionals that are familiar with the child’s needs. A parent can also submit any private reports they think relevant if available.

At the end of the assessment process, the Local Authority may decide that your child’s needs can be met through the school’s own resources and decide that it’s not necessary to issue an EHC plan, or it may decide that an EHCP is necessary. A Local Authority must issue a plan, generally speaking, within 20 weeks of the initial request for an assessment. If these deadlines aren’t complied with, parents may wish to seek free initial legal advice from our Education Law Solicitors.

Similarly, if you disagree with a decision not to issue an EHCP then you’ll be able to appeal this to the SEND Tribunal, and again, the Local Authority must provide you with information on how to do this and legal advice is available.