Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the statutory timescales are for the production of an initial Education, Health and Care Plan.

A local authority must send the finalised Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan to the child’s parent or to the young person, the governing body, proprietor or principal of any school, other institution or provider of relevant early years education named in the EHC plan, and the responsible commissioning body as soon as practicable, and in any event within 20 weeks of the local authority receiving a request for an EHC needs assessment in accordance with Section 36(1) of the Children and Families Act, or of the local authority becoming responsible for the child in accordance with Section 24 of the Act.

The local authority need not comply with the time limit referred to above if it is impractical for any of the reasons set out in regulation 10(4)(a) to (d) of The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014.