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• Receive and review requests to assess.
• Request additional information if necessary.
• Consider the request to assess at multi agency team discussions previously called Education Governance Board (EGB) or panels.
• Inform parents and carers of the Yes or No to assess decision and next steps.
• Gather information, advice and reports from families, settings and professionals about children and young people (CYP) going through an Education, Health, and Care (EHC) needs assessment.
• Following assessment, consider the request to issue at multi agency team discussions previously called Education Governance Board (EGB) or panels.
• Communicate the decision to families and professionals involved with the CYP. Offer support to the young person and their family to understand the reasons for the decision and what happens next.
• Draft the initial EHC plan, when issuing has been agreed, in collaboration with the family, CYP and professionals.
• Make any amendments and issue the final plan to families, schools or education settings and professionals involved with the  CYP.

• Attend EHC plan reviews for phase and key stage transfers or any other significant change such as change of placement or increase in hours of support.
• Provide information and guidance on the law, the process, and roles of individuals to make sure everyone knows what their responsibilities are.
• ECO's are not decision-makers, but they will record what is said so that it can be shared at the multi agency team discussions to help them make recommendations on decisions. They can also provide information and suggest further support.
• Process annual reviews, referring the EHCP to the multi agency team discussions, where needed, and issue a response or decision on whether the plan will be kept the same, changed or stopped.
• Change an EHC plan where there is agreement to do so.
• Liaise with the Commissioning and SEND Admissions teams to secure placements for children and young people if a change of placement is needed, including for KST.
• Work with families, professionals, and education and training providers about all aspects of the life of the EHC plan.

ECO's spend a large part of their working week in meetings and are not always available to speak to immediately. However you can leave a message for them to contact you.

If they are on annual, sick or unexpected leave, a Duty officer may be able to assist. Duty officers manage calls and deal with any urgent work where the ECO or EHCNA officer is absent. Any queries they cannot answer they can raise with their EHCNA manager (previously called the LSPA Manager) if it's in relation to a request or the ECO Manager (previously called Senior Case Manager) if it relates to an EHC plan.

If an ECO or EHCNA Officer will be away for a long period, their work may be temporarily reallocated to a specific officer to oversee. In the case of a reallocation the Officer taking over will tell the family and school where appropriate.

The Learners Single Point of Access (LSPA) can help answer your queries when your ECO or EHCNA officer is unavailable. They have access to specific notes, decisions and general information recorded on Ñý¾«¶¯Âþ's record keeping system.

When we make decisions, we talk with people who know about your child. We do this to make sure we have the right information and always think about what is best for you your child/young person. For each important step, our team works together and shares ideas to help make the right decision at the right time.

We have multi agency team discussions for each part of our SEND decision-making process::

• request to assess
• request to issue
• annual reviews

Sometimes a decision might be deferred pending  provision of additional information or clarification with parties not present at the meeting. In this situation the EHCNA or ECO Officer will explain the situation to the family, obtain what is needed and resubmit the request.