EHCP Preparation Pack: 6 UK Parent Templates for the Assessment Process (DOCX + PDF)

The SEN Letters are how you ask. This is what you do before, during, and after.

I started building this pack because the letter templates I'd already put together only solved half the problem. The other half — the part nobody warned me about — was the preparation work. The two weeks of trying to remember what Tuesday actually looked like. The slow realisation that "access to speech and language therapy" in the draft EHCP meant nothing in practice. The moment I sat down to write the parent views statement and didn't know where to start.

This pack is the version of that work I wish I'd had when I was doing it for the first time.

This pack is the version of that work I wish I’d had when I was doing it for the first time.

What’s included:

1. Daily Impact Diary

Fourteen dated pages with structured prompts: morning routine, school drop-off, the school day, after school, evening, sleep, what worked, what was hard. Fill in one a day for a fortnight. By the end you have a pattern to point to, not a single bad day that could be dismissed. The patterns you find here feed directly into the formal documents that follow.

2. Evidence Tracker

A running log of every report, email, professional letter, and contact you accumulate during the EHCP process. Two formats — a quick portrait layout for handwriting and a wider landscape one for more detail. Forty rows in total, plus a reference list of what counts as evidence. The thing that stops you losing track when there are seventeen PDFs on your laptop and no idea which one says what.

3. Parent Views Statement Template

The formal contribution the Local Authority asks for during the assessment, structured to map directly onto the sections of an EHCP. Prompts for Section A (your aspirations and your child’s voice), Section B (the four areas of need), Section E (outcomes — with worked examples of weak versus strong wording), Section F (provision), and Section I (placement). Most parents are given a short deadline, no template, and a blank page. This is the template.

4. Section F Examples — Vague vs Strong

The standout document. Four side-by-side worked examples showing common vague provision rewritten as specific and quantified language an LA can actually be held to: speech and language therapy, sensory and OT, teaching assistant support, and emotional regulation. Plus the five tests every line of Section F should pass, a list of the weasel words to push back on, and a bonus section on reasonable adjustments. Section F is the legally enforceable heart of an EHCP. This is the document that helps you make sure yours is enforceable.

5. Draft EHCP Review Checklist

You have at least fifteen days from receiving the draft to comment. Most parents read it once, feel relieved it exists, and miss the vague provision. This checklist walks you through every section (A to K), flags the internal consistency checks, and gives you a structure for writing back to the LA with specific amendments.

6. School Meeting Prep Sheet

For SEN reviews, EHCP draft meetings, annual reviews, and any school meeting you’ve called or been called to. Before / during / after structure. Prompts for what you want to raise, what you want to come away with, the questions you want to ask, and the things you find hard to say out loud. Print it, fold it, take it in.

Format: Each document comes as a DOCX (editable in Word, Google Docs, or LibreOffice — guidance text, examples, and prompts included) and a PDF (blank fields, designed for printing and filling in by hand). Sixty-plus pages across the six documents. A4.

Who it’s for: Parents and carers in England navigating the SEND system. The templates use English SEND terminology (EHCP, EHC needs assessment, SENCO, Local Authority, SEND Tribunal). Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland use different systems and the language won’t fit cleanly.

A note on what this is and isn’t. These are preparation templates, not legal advice. The SEND system is complex and varies between Local Authorities. For complex cases — particularly tribunal appeals, refusals to assess, or disputes about placement — please contact IPSEA (ipsea.org.uk) or your local SENDIASS. Both are free, both have specialist knowledge I don’t, and both are the right next step when the templates take you as far as they can.

Instant download. No subscription. Yours to keep.

— Sarah M., Sensory Sorted