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If you need a lot of help

If you need a lot of help

Step 1: Local Offer

Your school, college or apprenticeship provider will try hard to help and support you with education, health and social care services. This is known as the Local Offer. However if you are still struggling, you may need a support plan called an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan.

Step 2: Requesting an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan

After speaking with your parents or people who support you and your teacher or tutor, it may be decided that you would benefit from the support of an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan.

Your parents, teacher or tutor can ask for you to be assessed for an Educational, Health and Care (EHC) plan. If you are over the age of 16, you can also ask to be assessed for an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan yourself.

If you ask for an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan you can be helped and supported by the Norfolk SENDIASS (SEND Information and Support Service) .

Step 3: Your story

The information you will be asked to provide for your Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan will include:

  • Where you are being educated
  • What you are good at
  • What you find difficult and need help with
  • What your aspirations, goals, wishes, hopes and ambitions are for your future

This information will help you to tell your story so far and what you would like your future life to be like.

Step 4: Your plan

If it is decided that an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan would help you, it will include:

  • Your story so far and what you would like for your future. These are called your aspirations
  • What you find difficult and need help with
  • What skills you need to learn to reach your aspirations. These are called outcomes
  • What support you need to meet your outcomes. This support is called the provision
  • Who should provide the provision? It could be education, health, social care or maybe yourself

An Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan is a legal document (people must pay attention to it) and it will help you get the support you need.

Step 5: Using your plan

Places like your school, college or apprenticeship provider will look at your Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan and make sure they help you reach your outcomes (the skills you need to learn to reach your aspirations). 

They will do this by making sure that the support listed in your Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan, is put into place to support your learning.

You could also share your Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan with other groups that support you. It may give them good ideas of how to support you better.

Step 6: Your review

As you get older, your views on what you would like for your future (your aspirations) may change. You will have probably learnt new skills, and you may be finding new or different things hard to learn.

It is important that your Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan helps people know what support you need now, and what you would like to do in your future. At least once a year your Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan will be checked (this is called an annual review) to make sure it is up-to-date.

Your school, college or apprenticeship provider will let you know when your annual review will take place, and will support you update the information you used to create Your Story in step 3.