Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what statutory guidance her Department issues to local authorities on maintaining written records of communications and decisions during the Education, Health and Care assessment process.

The department has consulted on proposals to make the education, health and care (EHC) needs assessment process clearer, simpler and more reflective of the voice of parents or carers and the child or young person. The department is carefully reviewing and taking into account all responses submitted to the consultation alongside feedback from engagement events. The department will set out its response in due course.

Under the current system when securing a needs assessment a local authority must consult the child's parent or the young person and take into account their views, wishes and feelings. Where a local authority has carried out a needs assessment, it is under a statutory duty to notify the child's parent or the young person of the outcome of the assessment, whether it proposes to secure an EHC plan and the reasons for that decision.

Keeping accurate and proportionate records of decisions and why decisions were taken is a principle of good administrative practice and something the department expects of all local authorities.

Statutory guidance on the needs assessment process is set out in the Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice 2015.