What evidence do I need for an EHCP application?

There is no fixed legal checklist for an EHCP application, and you do not need a diagnosis. Gather your child's school SEN records, progress data showing slow progress despite help, and any reports you already have. An EHCP application is really a request for an EHC needs assessment, and the legal test the council applies to agree one is deliberately low.

The test is low, and a label is not part of it

The council has to carry out an assessment if your child has, or may have, special educational needs, and it may be necessary for support to be put in place through an Education, Health and Care plan (section 36 of the Children and Families Act 2014). The words has or may have set a low bar on purpose. What matters is your child's needs and the effect on their progress, not a diagnostic label. You can request an assessment with no diagnosis at all.

What you actually provide at the request stage

Your job is to evidence the need and the lack of progress despite support already given. Useful evidence includes:

• The school's SEN support records: any SEN support plan, the assess-plan-do-review cycles, provision maps and notes of what has been tried.
• Progress and attainment data showing your child is not making the progress expected, even with that support in place.
• Your account and your child's: what you both see at home and at school, in your own words.
• Any professional reports you already hold, from an educational psychologist, speech and language therapist, occupational therapist, paediatrician or CAMHS. Helpful, but not required.

You do not have to commission private reports to apply. Many parents pay for assessments they were never asked to provide.

After the council agrees, it gathers the rest

Once the council agrees to assess, the heavy professional advice becomes its job, not yours. By law it must seek advice across a set list: parent and child views, educational advice, psychological advice from an educational psychologist, medical advice, social care advice, and preparation-for-adulthood advice from Year 9 (regulation 6 of the SEND Regulations 2014). The burden of getting reports from professionals sits with the council, as both IPSEA and Contact confirm.

If the council refuses to assess

A refusal is not the end. You have the right to appeal a refusal to assess to the SEND Tribunal, and many such appeals succeed because the legal test is low. If you are told no, ask for the decision and the reasons in writing, then read what to do if your application is refused.

Reform watch: the 2026 Schools White Paper and the Education for All Bill propose a new Individual Support Plan duty and would, over the long term, narrow EHCPs to the most complex needs. The proposals are out for consultation, with no change expected before 2030 and current plans protected to the next phase. The request route and the evidence above are the law today and are unchanged.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.