Annual Reviews: Your Yearly Chance to Change What Isn't Working

Every EHCP must be reviewed at least once a year. For many parents, this sounds like a formality — a chance for the school and Local Authority to confirm everything is still on track. In practice, it's something far more useful: your regular, built-in opportunity to change provision that isn't working, update outdated targets, and make sure the plan still reflects your child as they are now, not as they were a year ago.

What actually happens at an annual review

The school (or setting) is responsible for arranging the meeting and inviting relevant professionals, the Local Authority, and you as the parent. Ahead of the meeting, everyone involved — including you — should be asked to provide written views on progress, concerns, and any changes needed. This is not a box-ticking exercise; your written contribution becomes part of the official record and can directly shape what's decided.

Following the meeting, the Local Authority has a legal duty to decide, within four weeks, whether to keep the plan as it is, amend it, or cease it altogether.

Where annual reviews go wrong

The most common issue isn't the meeting itself — it's preparation. Parents often arrive without having gathered evidence of what genuinely isn't working, relying instead on a general sense that "things aren't quite right." A review meeting responds much better to specifics: which targets have or haven't been met, what provision has or hasn't actually been delivered, and what's changed in your child's presentation or needs since the plan was last written.

It's also worth knowing that the annual review is where many parents first realise their EHCP was never specific enough to measure properly. If a target simply says a child will "make progress" with no baseline or measure attached, nobody — including the school — can honestly say whether it's been achieved.

How to prepare well

- Request the current plan and any recent reports well ahead of the meeting, not on the day
- Write down specific examples of what isn't working, tied to actual provision or outcomes in the plan
- Decide in advance what you want to change, rather than reacting in the room
- Bring any external evidence (medical letters, private reports, school communication) that supports your position

Has this become a placement dispute?

If the final EHCP names an unsuitable school, refuses the specialist placement your child needs or leaves Section I unresolved, I can review the decision and confirm whether the case falls within my placement appeal work.