Your rights
Who can request a PEP review, SEND assessment or EHCP?
The rules are different depending on your legal relationship to the child. Below is what each role can ask for, who to send the request to, and the statutory rights that back you up. All of these apply in England under the Children and Families Act 2014 and the SEND Code of Practice 2015.
Foster carer
Can request: a PEP review at any time; that SEND be added to the PEP agenda; that the school or Virtual School consider an EHCP needs assessment.
Cannot (usually) request directly: the EHCP needs assessment itself. Parental responsibility for a child in care normally sits with the local authority, so the formal EHCP request is made by the LA, the school, or the young person if 16+. You can still write to the SEN Team — they must consider any “person acting on behalf of the child”.
Who to write to: the Designated Teacher and Virtual School Head first. Copy in the social worker.
Kinship carer (informal or under a court order)
If the child is looked after: the same rules as a foster carer apply. Request through the Virtual School and social worker.
If you have a Child Arrangements Order or Special Guardianship Order: you hold parental responsibility and can request an EHCP needs assessment directly from the SEN Team.
Who to write to: SEN Team for an EHCP; school for SEN Support; Virtual School only if the child is still looked after.
Special Guardian
Can request: an EHCP needs assessment directly, because an SGO gives you parental responsibility (s14C Children Act 1989). You can also ask for SEN Support in school and request reviews of any existing plan.
Statutory rights: Children and Families Act 2014 s36 — a parent of a child with (or who may have) SEN can request an EHC needs assessment, and the LA must decide within 6 weeks.
Who to write to: the SEN Team at the LA where the child lives. Copy in the school SENCO.
Adoptive parent
Can request: everything a birth parent with PR can — an EHCP needs assessment, annual review, change of placement in Section I, mediation, Tribunal appeal.
Adoption Support Fund: previously-looked-after children are also entitled to Pupil Premium Plus until the end of Year 11, and the Adoption Support Fund can pay for therapeutic assessments that are useful evidence in an EHCP application.
Who to write to: the SEN Team at your LA, copying in the SENCO.
Birth parent with parental responsibility (s20 case)
Section 20 of the Children Act 1989 is a voluntary arrangement — you’ve agreed for your child to be accommodated by the LA but you keep parental responsibility. You can withdraw consent at any time, and you keep the right to request an EHCP needs assessment.
Can request: EHCP needs assessment, EHCP annual review, SEN Support, school place changes, and a PEP review (you should be invited to the PEP).
Who to write to: SEN Team for the EHCP; Virtual School and social worker for the PEP.
Young person (16+)
From the end of compulsory school age (the last Friday of June in the school year they turn 16), the legal rights in the Children and Families Act 2014 transfer to the young person themselves — unless they lack mental capacity for that decision.
You can request: your own EHCP needs assessment, your own annual review, mediation, a Tribunal appeal, and a change of placement in Section I. You can also ask to see — and contribute to — your own PEP.
Who to write to: the SEN Team at your LA. You can ask a carer, advocate or your Personal Adviser (if you have one) to help you write the letter.
Ready-to-copy letters for each of these requests are on the letter templates page.