What is an EHCP and why does evidence matter?
An Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) is a legal document for children and young people in England aged 0-25 who have special educational needs or disabilities. It describes the child's needs and the support they should receive from education, health and social care services.
Applying for an EHCP can feel overwhelming. Local authorities receive far more applications than they approve, and the quality of evidence you provide makes an enormous difference to the outcome. Assessors look for specific things: a clear picture of how your child's needs affect their daily life, documented patterns over time, and evidence that existing support is not sufficient.
The Helpset tools below won't write your EHCP application for you — but they will help you gather the evidence that makes a strong one.
⚖️ Important: This page provides general information only. For specific legal advice about EHCP applications, contact IPSEA (ipsea.org.uk), SOS!SEN (sossen.org.uk) or your local SENDIASS service — all of which provide free specialist advice to families.
What evidence do EHCP assessors look for?
When a local authority decides whether to carry out an EHC needs assessment, they look for evidence that:
- The child has significant special educational needs
- Those needs have a substantial impact on daily life and learning
- The needs cannot be met through normal school support alone
- There is a pattern of need over time — not just isolated incidents
The strongest applications include detailed records kept over weeks and months — not just a summary written when you submit the application. Starting to record now, even if you are early in the process, will strengthen any future application significantly.
Helpset tools that help build EHCP evidence
🔥 Meltdown & Incident Tracker
One of the most powerful pieces of evidence you can provide is a detailed log of meltdowns, emotional outbursts and difficult moments over time. Assessors want to see patterns — how often incidents occur, what triggers them, how long they last and what support is needed to recover.
The Helpset Meltdown Tracker lets you log each incident quickly with notes on time, trigger, duration and recovery. Over weeks and months, this creates a clear documented picture of your child's needs that is far more compelling than a written summary from memory.
Open Meltdown Tracker →😴 Sleep Logger
Sleep difficulties are extremely common in children with autism and ADHD and can be central to an EHCP application — particularly when poor sleep affects the child's ability to access education. If your child regularly has disrupted sleep, documenting this over time provides valuable evidence.
The Helpset Sleep Logger lets you record sleep times, night wakings and sleep quality each day. A month of sleep records showing consistent disruption is far stronger evidence than a parent's verbal account.
Open Sleep Logger →💊 Medication Tracker
If your child takes medication for ADHD, anxiety, epilepsy or any other condition, documenting medication, dosage and any side effects or missed doses provides important medical context for an EHCP application.
Open Medication Tracker →🗣️ Communication Cards
If your child uses communication cards, visual supports or alternative communication methods, this is itself significant evidence of their communication needs. Being able to show assessors the specific supports your child relies on — and document when and how they are used — strengthens the communication section of an EHCP.
Open Communication Cards →🧠 Brain Dump — Parent Evidence Notes
Use the Brain Dump tool as a quick way to capture thoughts, observations and incidents as they happen — before you forget the details. Many parents find it useful to do a quick brain dump after a difficult day or significant incident, creating a running record they can refer back to when writing their EHCP application.
Open Brain Dump →🔋 Energy / Battery Tracker
Tracking your child's energy and emotional regulation levels over time helps demonstrate the cumulative effect of their needs on daily functioning. If your child consistently arrives home from school in a state of exhaustion or emotional dysregulation, documenting this pattern provides evidence of the hidden effort involved in accessing education.
Open Battery Tracker →📋 Now / Next Board & Visual Timetable
Using — and documenting your use of — visual supports like Now/Next boards and visual timetables demonstrates your child's need for structure and predictability. Include screenshots or printouts of the supports you use at home in your EHCP application to show the level of scaffolding your child requires.
Now / Next Board → Visual Timetable →How to use these records in your EHCP application
When you submit an EHCP application or respond to an EHC needs assessment, you can include supporting evidence as appendices. Your records from Helpset tools can form part of this evidence. Tips for presenting them effectively:
- Print or screenshot your records — include at least 4-6 weeks of incident logs, sleep records or tracker data
- Add a brief summary — for each set of records, write 2-3 sentences explaining what the records show and how they demonstrate your child's needs
- Note the frequency — highlight patterns: "As these records show, my child experiences significant emotional dysregulation on average X times per week"
- Connect to educational impact — explain how the documented needs affect your child's ability to access education and reach their potential
Other sources of evidence for an EHCP application
As well as your own records, the strongest EHCP applications include reports and letters from professionals. Contact these people and ask for written reports supporting your application:
- Your child's school (SENCO and class teacher)
- GP and any hospital consultants
- Occupational therapist, speech and language therapist
- Clinical psychologist or CAMHS
- Any private assessors (autism, ADHD, dyslexia)
- Any other professionals involved in your child's care
⏰ Timing tip: Local authorities have 20 weeks from receiving an EHCP request to issue a final plan. Keep copies of everything you send and note the dates. If deadlines are missed, IPSEA or SENDIASS can advise on your rights.
Start recording today — even if you haven't applied yet
The most common regret parents express during the EHCP process is not having started keeping records earlier. You don't need to be mid-application to start using these tools. Starting now — even months before you formally apply — means you will have a much richer body of evidence when the time comes.
All Helpset tools are completely free. No login required. No data collected. Just practical tools for families who need them.
All Helpset tools are completely free — no login, no account, no cost.
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