What is an Annual Review?
You may have heard people talking about your annual review and may be wondering what it is all about?
First of all you might want to know more about what an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC plan) is.
To find out more about what an EHC plan is, you can see our information here: What is an Education Health and Care (EHC) Plan?
If you have an EHC plan, it should be reviewed every year to make sure it is up to date. It is important to make sure your EHC plan is working well for you. It needs to reflect you and the support you need as you grow and change.
What happens at an Annual Review?
An annual review is more than a meeting. It is a process that takes at least 8 weeks to complete. It can be broken down into 5 steps.
Lets look at the process step-by-step:
Step 1 – Gathering information
Request for updated information.
Usually, it is someone in your school or college who arranges the review. They will request advice and views from everyone who will be invited to attend the review meeting. This includes information from:
- you,
- your parents,
- school or college and
- any other professionals that might be working with you, eg social workers, youth workers.
You may be asked to complete an advice form like this one that can be found on the local offer website here: Suffolk County Council Local Offer Annual Review
or you can provide your own information in your own way – see also My Views.
Step 2 – Sending invitations
Invitations will be sent out to attend a meeting. School or college will usually send out the invitations. If you are not attending a school or college the Local Authority will send them.
The invitations must be sent out at least 2 weeks before the meeting. This should give enough notice to make sure everyone who is invited, and wants to can come.
With the invitation they will send the advice and information received during Step 1. This is so that everyone has had the time to read the information before the meeting.
Step 3 – The meeting
The meeting will usually take place where you have your education for example school or college. However, some review meetings can take place in the home or another place, if this would be easier for you.
You could ask for an online meeting, or if the meeting is due to be online and you would find it easier face to face, you can ask for this. You can request whatever is easiest for you.
Usually someone from school or college will run the meeting, they will have some forms to complete. This person is sometimes referred to as the ‘Chair’ of the meeting. It just means the person running the meeting.
The review meeting will focus on the progress you have made towards the ‘outcomes’ that were agreed in the last plan and if they need to be updated.
An outcome is what you and everyone else would like you to be able to do, with the support in your EHC plan, in an agreed amount of time.
Short-term targets (set by school or college) should be reviewed and new targets will be agreed for the next year.
You will be able to ask for any changes you would like made to the plan. This might be with the support in place or the outcomes themselves.
The annual reviews should include think ahead to what support you might need to help you prepare to become an adult from the earliest time and by year 9 at the very latest. This includes:
- further learning, training or employment
- living independently
- planning health services and support to maintain good health
- how to take part in society including using transport
- help to find activities and with friends and relationships
- if you have Autism – your right to request a community care assessment
- considering whether a package of support for you needs to be spread across 5 days.
Step 4 – After the meeting
The person in charge of the meeting must write a report and send it to everyone who came to the meeting and to the local authority / family services team within two weeks.
The report must include any suggested amendments to the EHC plan and explain if there was any disagreement about what should change.
Step 5 – The local authority decision
The local authority will review the paperwork, and within 4 weeks of the review meeting they will write to you with one of these decisions:
• to leave the plan as it is
• to amend the plan
• to cease the plan (an EHC plan will only stop where; the outcomes have all been achieved, if you do not want to continue in further education or training, or when you reach the age of 25)
If they decide to change the plan, you will be sent the original plan plus the suggested changes. You can request a meeting with your Family Services Coordinator to discuss this. Within 8 weeks of sending you the suggested changes, the local authority must send the updated plan (or let you know they have decided not to change the plan, after all).
More information
You might want to watch this video from The Council for Disabled Children
See “Annual review of your Education, Health and Care plan” information leaflet in Easy Read (PDF)
