The draft EHC plan has finally arrived. Here is the headline: you have at least 15 days to respond, the law is specific about your rights in that window, and three checks will use it well.
This guide covers England. The draft stage matters more than any other piece of paper in the process, because what the final plan says is what the Local Authority is legally bound to deliver. Two focused weeks now can save months of challenge later.
Where your fifteen days come from
Section 38 of the Children and Families Act 2014 requires the Local Authority to consult you about the plan’s content while the draft is being prepared, to send you the draft itself, and to tell you about your rights to make representations on it and to request a school.
Regulation 13(1)(a) of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 then sets the clock: you must be given “at least 15 days, beginning with the day on which the draft plan was served” to make your representations.
Two details hide in that wording. The clock starts on the day the draft was served on you, so find the exact deadline in your covering letter and diarise it now. And “at least” means 15 days is the legal minimum, not your allowance: if you genuinely need longer, ask in writing straight away, not on day fourteen.
Why the draft stage deserves your best fortnight
Once a plan is final, section 42(2) of the Children and Families Act 2014 gives it teeth: the Local Authority “must secure the specified special educational provision” for your child. That duty is absolute, and it attaches to what the plan specifies. Precise wording becomes enforceable support; vague wording becomes an argument you have to win later.
The wider picture says the same thing. DfE figures published in June 2026 show 110,708 new EHC plans were issued during 2025, up 13.3% on 2024, and only 46.1% of new plans were issued within the 20-week statutory time limit, a figure that excludes cases where exceptions to the time limit applied. Many families wait a long time to see this document, and then get a short window to respond to it, so it pays to arrive with a checklist.
There is a second reason to invest now: plan content is what families end up appealing. Ministry of Justice figures published in December 2025 show 61% of the SEND appeals registered in academic year 2024/25 were in relation to the content of EHC plans. The cheapest moment to fix a plan is before it is final.
The three checks
Print the draft, line up every report the assessment gathered, and work through these three checks in order.
| Check | Where to look | The question to ask |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Is every need in? | The needs section (Section B in every plan) | Does each difficulty described in the professional reports appear here in clear language, with nothing dropped or watered down? |
| 2. Does every need have specific provision? | The provision section (Section F) | For each need, could a stranger say exactly what support is provided, how much, how often, and by whom? |
| 3. Are you using your window rights? | The covering letter and your own reply | Have you diarised the deadline, planned written representations, and decided which school to request? |
Check one: the needs. Read each professional report with a highlighter and list every need it identifies. Then tick each one off against the needs section of the draft. Anything the reports identify but the draft leaves out, or softens, is the first thing to raise in your response.
Check two: the provision. The section 42(2) duty bites on what is specified, so hunt for words that specify nothing: “access to”, “opportunities for”, “regular”, “as appropriate”. Ask for numbers and names instead: how many hours, how often, delivered by whom, with what qualification. If you cannot measure it, you cannot later show it is missing.
Check three: your window rights. Representations are your formal written comments on the draft, and the same window is when you exercise your right to request the school you want named. That choice has legal rules of its own, and our guide to naming a school covers them, with a ready-to-adapt name-a-school letter.
How to respond so it counts
Respond in writing, before the deadline, even if you also talk things through with your case officer. A phone call can be reassuring; only the written record shapes what happens next.
Structure every point the same way: quote the draft’s exact words, state the change you want, and point to the page of evidence that supports it. “Section F, paragraph 3 says ‘access to sensory breaks’; we ask for this to specify two supervised sensory breaks daily, as recommended on page 4 of the occupational therapy report” does more work than a page of general worry. Specific asks get specific answers.
This is exactly what our free lesson Reading your draft EHCP walks through, section by section, with examples. Its partner, the respond-to-a-draft letter, gives you the reply structure ready to adapt inside your window. Both are part of SCOPE, our free course.
If the final plan comes back unchanged
Sometimes the final plan lands with your representations politely noted and nothing altered. That is not the end of your say. Disagreements about a plan’s content can go to mediation and on to the independent SEND Tribunal: DfE figures for 2025 count 2,100 mediations about the content of plans, with 600 of them (28.6%) followed by a tribunal appeal, which means most were resolved or left without one.
Fifteen days is not long. It is, though, the moment the system formally asks for your view of your child’s plan. Answer with the three checks above and your words on file, and every later stage starts from stronger ground.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Everything we publish is checked against primary sources; the law is stated as at July 2026.