Who does the LA have to consult during an EHC needs assessment?

The mandatory advice sources

During an EHC needs assessment, the LA must seek advice from the parents or young person, the school, an educational psychologist, health, social care, and anyone the family reasonably asks it to consult. Regulation 6 of the SEND Regulations 2014 sets the full list the authority must gather before it can lawfully decide whether to issue a plan:

• The child's parent or the young person.
• Educational advice from the head or principal of the school or post-16 institution, or, where the child is not attending, from a person with experience of teaching children with SEN or the person providing education.
• Medical advice from a health care professional identified by the responsible commissioning body (the integrated care board).
• Psychological advice from an educational psychologist.
• Social care advice.
• Preparation-for-adulthood advice where the child is in or beyond Year 9.
• Any other person the authority thinks appropriate, and any person the parent or young person reasonably requests.

The clauses that catch authorities out

These are mandatory sources, not a menu. The authority cannot pick and choose, and it cannot refuse to seek a piece of advice on the basis that it is not yet satisfied the child has SEN; doing so pre-judges the very question the assessment exists to answer. The only lawful way to skip a source is the narrow exception in reg 6(4): the advice was provided before, and the provider, the authority and the family all agree it remains sufficient. Where the parent or young person reasonably requests a particular source, that request stands alongside the authority's own choices, not below them. Section 36 of the Children and Families Act 2014 also requires the authority to consult the parent or young person and to tell them they may give their views and submit evidence.

Each person asked has six weeks from the date of the request to respond (reg 8). Late or missing advice is one of the most common reasons an assessment is later challenged at the SEND Tribunal as incomplete, and the whole process must still finish within 20 weeks. So the timing of the requests, not just the list, is what holds the assessment together.

What the 2026 reforms change (and what they do not)

The 2026 Schools White Paper and the Education for All Bill propose Individual Support Plans and narrowing EHC plans toward the most complex needs over the longer term. That is direction of travel, not operative law. No changes take effect before September 2030, current plan holders are protected, and the reg 6 and s.36 consultation duties remain the law you must apply today. Treat the reforms as a planning signal and run every current assessment against the existing list.

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