Before the Review Room: A One-Page Brief for Your Child’s EHCP Annual Meeting

The letter arrives with its familiar weight: your child’s annual review is due. For many parent carers, the invitation brings a quiet tightening in the chest — a sense that the meeting will somehow measure not only the plan, but also you. It will not. Under the SEND Code of Practice, the annual review is a statutory checkpoint: an opportunity to ask whether the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) still describes your child’s needs accurately and whether the provision in it is still doing its job. The subject of the review is the plan. You are the person who knows the child the plan is for.

That distinction matters. Meetings about our children can feel like referendums on our care, especially when the room contains professionals, paperwork and a limited slot of time. But the annual review is a planning space. It exists to gather evidence, notice change and agree next steps. Approaching it as a structured conversation — rather than an examination — makes it easier to contribute the knowledge only you hold.

The review is a checkpoint, not a report card

An annual review is not a fresh assessment of your parenting. It is a review of whether the special educational provision remains appropriate, whether outcomes are being met, and whether the plan should be maintained, amended or, in some circumstances, ceased. The local authority makes the final decision, but the review meeting feeds into it. Your role is to bring evidence and ask clear questions, not to defend your family’s character.

It helps to keep one sentence close: the plan is being reviewed, not my love or my competence. That sentence can steady you when a discussion drifts towards general observations about home life or behaviour. You can acknowledge the context and bring the conversation back to provision: what is written in the plan, what is actually happening, and what needs to change.

Before you open the envelope

Read the invitation with a pen nearby. Note the date, time and location, and who is expected to attend. Check whether any reports have been sent with it. If papers have not arrived, ask the school’s SENCO or the local authority for the documents in advance — ideally at least five working days before the meeting. Reading a report in the room, while everyone waits, is not a fair way to prepare.

You can also ask, now, for the meeting to fit your family. Requests for a different time, a shorter meeting, a break in the middle, a telephone or video link, an interpreter, or a supporter to sit alongside you are reasonable adjustments. Put the request in a short email: what you need, why it would help, and what you are asking for. You do not need to write an essay or apologise for asking.

The one-page brief: four headings

Meeting rooms run on attention. A single page is easier for everyone to read and easier for you to hold. It does not replace reports; it sits on top of them. Write it in plain language and keep it factual.

What my child needs now

Describe current needs concretely, not as a list of diagnoses. For example: needs adult support to move between lessons; needs a quiet space at lunchtime; needs a visual timetable for changes to routine; needs support with toileting and personal care. Use the present tense. If a need has changed, say so and give an example.

What is working

Protect the provision that is helping. If a teaching assistant’s approach is settling your child, name it. If a particular intervention is building confidence, note it. This section prevents the review from becoming a catalogue of difficulties and shows which parts of the plan should be preserved.

What has changed

Since the last review, what is different? A new school, a change in medication, disrupted sleep, the onset of puberty, increased anxiety, a drop in attendance, a new diagnosis. Add dates where you can. Since September 2026, he has needed support at the start of every morning is more useful than things have got worse.

The questions I want answered

Choose three to five. For example: Is the speech and language provision still matching the need described in the plan? What happens when the usual teaching assistant is absent? How will progress be measured, and by whom? Who is responsible for reviewing the behaviour support plan? What will the local authority do with the review notes, and when? Write the questions down so they do not dissolve in the room.

In the room: language that keeps the focus

Bring your one-page brief and ask for a moment to read it, or to hand it round. If a discussion becomes general, try a neutral redirect: That is useful context. Could we check whether the provision in the plan still matches the need we have just described? If you are asked about home routines, answer briefly and return to the plan. You are not being evasive; you are keeping the conversation on the question the review is meant to answer.

If something is said that you do not understand, ask for it to be explained. If a decision is being made without evidence, ask what evidence will be used. You are allowed to take notes, to pause, and to say that you would like to think about a proposal before agreeing to it.

Leaving with actions, not intentions

Before the meeting ends, ask for a short round of commitments: who will do what, by when, and how you will be told. Request that the action notes be sent to you within ten working days. If the plan is to be amended, ask when you will see the draft and what the timeline is. Keep the language specific. The SENCO will arrange a review of the lunchtime provision by 5 December and email me the outcome is a follow-up action. We will keep an eye on it is not.

Afterwards, keep one small file — digital or paper — with the invitation, your one-page brief, the notes and any emails. If an agreed action does not happen, a short factual email is usually enough: I am writing to check on the action agreed at the annual review on [date]. Could you confirm the current position? You do not need to escalate every delay, but a gentle record protects the plan and reduces the mental load of remembering it all.

A final word

The annual review can feel like a judgement because it asks us to describe our children’s difficulties in a room full of people. But the meeting is not there to grade your parenting. It is there to check that a legal document still fits a growing child. Your evidence — the ordinary, detailed, lived knowledge of what happens at home, at school and in between — is exactly what the review needs. Bring one page, a few questions and the reminder that the plan is the subject, not you.