Every EHC plan must be reviewed at least once every 12 months. That duty sits with the Local Authority under section 44(1) of the Children and Families Act 2014: the first review falls within 12 months of the plan being made, and each later review within 12 months of the last one.
The annual review is not just a meeting. It is a short legal process with deadlines on both sides of the meeting, paperwork that should exist at every step, one decision at the end, and a further set of deadlines after that decision. This guide covers England, and reviews where your child attends a school or other institution.
The legal clock at a glance
The deadlines around the meeting come from regulation 20 of the SEND Regulations 2014, headed “Review where the child or young person attends a school or other institution”, so it applies to colleges and post-16 settings as well as schools. The Local Authority or the head teacher gathers the written advice.
| Step | The rule |
|---|---|
| The review itself | At least once every 12 months: within 12 months of the plan being made, then within 12 months of the last review (Children and Families Act 2014, section 44(1)) |
| Notice of the meeting | “At least two weeks’ notice of the date of the meeting must be given” (SEND Regulations 2014, regulation 20(3)) |
| Before the meeting | Written advice and information about the child is obtained and circulated “at least two weeks in advance of the review meeting” (regulation 20(4)) |
| After the meeting | The written report of the meeting must be prepared “within two weeks of the review meeting” and sent to everyone who was invited (regulation 20(9)) |
| The decision | The Local Authority notifies its decision on the plan “within four weeks of the review meeting” (regulation 20(10)), and in any event within 12 months of the date the plan was issued or of the previous review (SEND Code of Practice, paragraph 9.169) |
| If amendments are proposed | At least 15 days to comment on the proposed amendments, then the amended plan, or a decision not to amend, within 8 weeks of the amendment notice (regulation 22(2) to (4); Code of Practice 9.195 and 9.196) |
| Phase transfer years | The plan is reviewed, and amended where necessary, by 15 February in the calendar year of transfer for moves into or between schools, and by 31 March for a move from secondary school to a post-16 institution or an apprenticeship (regulation 18(1); Code of Practice 9.179 and 9.180) |
Step by step through the review
1. The date is set and advice is gathered. You must be given at least two weeks’ notice of the date itself, and a late invitation is a breach in its own right. Regulation 20(2) also sets out who must be invited: you, the head teacher or principal, a Local Authority SEN officer, a health care professional identified by the responsible commissioning body, and a Local Authority social care officer. If no Local Authority officer is coming, say so in writing before the meeting. You will also be asked for your views in writing, usually on a parent views form. Treat that form as the most useful document you control. Write it from your evidence for the year: what was delivered, what was not, what changed at home and at school, and what you want the next year to hold.
2. Two weeks before: the advice lands. Everyone’s written advice, yours and the professionals’, must be circulated at least two weeks in advance of the meeting. The point of the rule is that nobody should walk in blind. If the advice has not arrived on time, ask for it, and ask for the meeting to be moved if you have not had a fair chance to read it.
3. The meeting. Progress towards the outcomes in the plan must be considered at the meeting, and where your child is in or beyond year 9 the meeting “must consider what provision is required to assist the child or young person in preparation for adulthood and independent living” (regulation 20(6)). Bring your annotated copy of the plan, your log of the year, and your questions. Spend most of the time on Section F, the special educational provision: is everything written there actually happening, and is it still what your child needs?
4. Within two weeks after: the report. The written report of the meeting must be prepared within two weeks and sent to everyone who was invited. It is not a neutral minute. It sets out the head teacher’s or the Local Authority’s recommendations on amendments, and it must refer “to any difference between those recommendations and recommendations of others attending the meeting” (regulation 20(7) and (9)). So if you disagree with a recommendation, the ask is not only that the report be corrected: it is that your disagreement is recorded as a stated difference. Put that in writing straight away, because this report feeds the decision that comes next.
5. Within four weeks: the decision. The Local Authority must notify you of its decision within four weeks of the meeting, and in any event within 12 months of the date the plan was issued or of the previous review, whichever falls first. There are three possible answers under regulation 20(10): keep the plan as it is, amend it, or cease to maintain it. Where it proposes to keep the plan as it is or to cease it, it must tell you at the same time about your right of appeal, the time limits, and mediation (regulation 20(11)).
6. If amendments are proposed: 15 days, then 8 weeks. This is the stage where plans go quiet for months, so it is worth knowing the numbers. Under regulation 22 you must be sent a copy of the plan, a notice specifying the proposed amendments, and copies of the evidence supporting them. You then get “at least 15 days” to make representations, to ask for a particular school or other institution to be named, and to request a meeting with a Local Authority officer if you would rather say it out loud. The amended plan must follow as soon as practicable and in any event within 8 weeks of that amendment notice, and if the Local Authority decides not to amend after all it must tell you why within the same 8 weeks.
Phase transfer years move the deadline forward
If your child is changing phase, for example infant to junior or primary to secondary, regulation 18 requires the plan to be reviewed, and amended where necessary, by 15 February in the calendar year of the move, naming the next placement. For a move from secondary school to a post-16 institution or an apprenticeship, the date is 31 March.
A move between two post-16 institutions works differently, and this is where the 31 March date is often applied when it should not be. Where a young person is to transfer from one post-16 institution to another, regulation 18(2) requires the plan to be reviewed and amended, where necessary, at least five months before the transfer takes place. Code of Practice 9.181 adds that where the move is to a new institution in the new academic year, the review should normally be completed by 31 March anyway. In a transfer year, count backwards from whichever date applies and start the conversation early, because the review that names the next setting is the one with the most riding on it.
One small point of precision: regulation 18 puts these as “before” 15 February and “before” 31 March, while Code of Practice 9.179 says the review and amendments “must be completed by 15 February in the calendar year of the transfer at the latest”. Treat the Code date as the outer limit and aim well inside it.
The downgrade push: watch the wording, not the mood
A plan is not always weakened by an announcement. It can be weakened by a softened phrase in Section F. The wording matters because of one line of law: under section 42(2) of the Children and Families Act 2014, the Local Authority “must secure the specified special educational provision” in the plan. Specified is the hinge. Provision that is specific and quantified must be delivered. Provision described vaguely is hard to measure, and therefore hard to enforce.
So at review time, put every proposed change side by side with the current wording, and watch for these patterns:
| If the wording drifts to… | The problem | What to ask for instead |
|---|---|---|
| “Access to speech and language support” | Access is not delivery; nothing measurable is promised | How much, how often, for how long, delivered by whom |
| “Regular sensory breaks” or “as appropriate” | “Regular” cannot be measured, so it cannot be enforced | A stated frequency and duration |
| “Opportunities for small-group work” | An opportunity is not provision | The sessions themselves, specified and quantified |
| “Staff will be aware of her needs” | Awareness is not support | What staff will actually do, and when |
| “He has made excellent progress, so this can reduce” | Progress made with support is evidence the support works | Evidence that the underlying need has changed, not just progress made while supported |
None of this needs a hostile meeting. One calm sentence does most of the work: “Can we keep this provision specified and quantified, please, so everyone knows exactly what is being delivered?”
There is one more reason to press for delivery rather than quietly fill a gap yourself. Section 42(5) says the duty to secure the provision does not apply “if the child’s parent or the young person has made suitable alternative arrangements”. Paying privately for therapy the Local Authority should be securing can therefore be used to argue the duty has fallen away. If you are funding something because it is not being delivered, say in writing that you are doing so because of the failure to deliver, and that you are not taking the provision on permanently.
If the decision goes the wrong way
All three outcomes of a review can be challenged. Under section 51 of the Children and Families Act 2014, you can appeal a decision to cease the plan (section 51(2)(f)), a decision not to amend or replace the plan following a review when you asked for changes (section 51(2)(e)), and the content of the plan once an amended plan has been issued (sections 51(2)(c) and 51(3)(b)). That last route covers the special educational needs described, the provision specified, and the setting named.
Before you can register most of those appeals, there is a step to take first. Under section 55(3) you “may make the appeal only if a mediation adviser has issued a certificate”. You do not have to go through with mediation itself: you can take the information, say you do not want to mediate, and the adviser must issue the certificate. The exception is an appeal about nothing but the school or other institution named, the type named, or the fact that none is named, where no certificate is needed (section 55(2)). The deadline is two months from the Local Authority’s decision letter, or one month from the mediation certificate, whichever is later (Code of Practice 11.47).
If the decision is to cease the plan, two protections matter. A plan can be ceased only where the Local Authority is no longer responsible for your child or determines that the plan is no longer necessary (section 45(1)), and it must inform and consult you, and consult the setting named in the plan, before deciding (regulation 31(1)). And it “may not cease to maintain an EHC plan” until the time for appealing has run out with no appeal brought, or until any appeal has been finally determined (section 45(4)). The plan, and the provision in it, keeps running in the meantime.
The Ministry of Justice’s figures show how often families are right to press the point: 61% of SEND appeals registered in 2024/25 were about the content of EHC plans, and of the cases the Tribunal decided that year, 99% were decided in favour of the appellant (MoJ tribunal statistics, published 11 December 2025). That second figure covers the cases the Tribunal decided, not every appeal registered, but it says something clear about how these disputes tend to end once independently examined. Free, expert advice exists for exactly this moment, from your local SENDIASS and charities such as IPSEA.
Two different problems, two different routes
This one saves a lot of wasted months. If you disagree with what the plan says, that is the SEND Tribunal, on the routes above. If the plan says the right thing and it is simply not being delivered, or the deadlines in this guide have been missed, the Tribunal has no power to help you.
Non-delivery and delay go instead to a formal complaint to the Local Authority, and then to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, which says it can investigate a “failure to ensure a child receives provision set out in their EHC plan” and “delays within the EHC needs assessment and review process”. It cannot investigate anything that carries a right of appeal to the Tribunal, which is exactly why the two routes have to be kept apart. The Ombudsman expects you to complain to the Local Authority first and give it a reasonable time to reply, which it puts at up to 16 weeks in most cases.
When you cannot wait for the anniversary
Section 44(1) sets a floor, not a ceiling: reviews happen at least once every 12 months. If things change materially mid-year, a placement under strain, provision not being delivered, a significant new report, you can ask for an early review rather than watching problems compound for months. We publish a free template for exactly this: the emergency annual review request letter, part of our free SCOPE course.
Know what that request is, though. An early review is something the Local Authority can decline, and there is no right of appeal against a refusal. If your child’s needs have genuinely changed, the stronger route is a written request for a re-assessment under section 44(2), which says the Local Authority “must secure a re-assessment of the educational, health care and social care needs” of the child or young person when a parent asks. It must tell you whether or not it is going to re-assess within 15 days of receiving the request (regulation 25(1)), it can decline only on the two narrow grounds in regulation 24 (it has assessed within the previous six months, or a further assessment is not necessary), and a refusal can be appealed to the SEND Tribunal (section 51(2)(d)). Many families ask for both: the early review to fix things quickly, and the re-assessment request to keep a route open if it is refused.
The review is won in the twelve months before it
The strongest position at any annual review belongs to the parent with a year of dated evidence: what was delivered and what was not, what the school said, what changed and when. Nobody can reconstruct a year accurately from memory in the fortnight before a meeting, and you should not have to.
So start the record now. A dated note after anything that matters, written the same day and kept somewhere you can search, turns a year of memory into a year of evidence.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Everything we publish is checked against primary sources; the law is stated as at August 2026.