Starting the Annual Review Process
It is recommended that at least 4 weeks before the planned Annual Review meeting, the school / education setting invite parents and all professionals involved with your child/young person to the annual review meeting. If the meeting is considered urgent, it may not be possible for 4 weeks’ notice to be given.
At this stage, the school will also be asking for any reports that professionals may have already written or a report of their recent involvement, since the issue of the EHC Plan (or the last annual review meeting).
Two weeks before the Annual Review meeting, the Plan Co-ordintor will circulate a copy of the draft annual review form and any reports that other professionals have sent to all those invited to the meeting.
The Annual Review meeting
The meeting should be held in a ‘person-centred’ way. This means that the meeting should focus on what is important to the child/ young person, now and in the future, what support your child/ young person needs and what is working and not working in their life.
Every child/ young person should be invited to attend the review meeting, however it is understood that, depending on the child / young person’s age and special educational needs, it may not be appropriate for them to attend the meeting, for all or part of the meeting. If the child /young person is not able to attend, then they should be able to contribute to the Annual Review process by completing the ‘This is Me Now’ form or giving their views in another way which may include a presentation / video. Parent carer views will also be very important. The Plan Co-ordinator may have met with the parent carer before the meeting and discussed their views and how they can contribute to the meeting.
After the Annual Review meeting
Within two weeks of the Annual Review meeting, the Plan Co-ordinator will complete the annual review paperwork and ask you to sign the form before giving you a copy and sending the form to all the professionals involved with your child/ young person, even if they did not attend. The Plan Co-ordinator will also send a copy of the final review paperwork to the SEN Team who have a further four weeks to propose that the Local Authority will keep the EHC Plan as it is, amend the EHC Plan or cease to maintain the EHC plan. The SEN team will write to you with the Local Authority recommendation.
Part of the process in making the recommendation may require your child / young person being discussed at the Inclusion Support Panel to ask their advice. If the recommendation is not to amend the EHC Plan or to cease to maintain the EHC
Plan, then you will have a right to appeal the decision.
If the recommendation is to amend the EHC Plan, then the SEN team will start the process and you will be sent a copy of the proposed amendments in due course
