Reading your draft EHCP

Your draft EHCP has landed. It is long, it is full of unfamiliar words, and somewhere in there is the difference between your child getting real help and getting almost nothing. The good news: every plan follows the same map. Once you know what each part is for, you know exactly where to look and where to push.

An EHC plan is split into sections labelled A to K, always in the same order. Section A is the views of you and your child, so make sure it sounds like your actual child. Section B describes your child’s special educational needs. Here is the rule to remember: every need in Section B must have matching support later in Section F. A need with no provision is a gap, and a gap is something you can challenge. Sections C and D cover health and social care needs; watch for needs that have quietly dropped off compared with the reports. Section E is the outcomes the support is meant to achieve.

Now the most important section. Section F is the special educational provision: exactly what your child will receive, who delivers it, how often, and for how long. This is the part the Local Authority has an absolute legal duty to put in place. Under section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014, the local authority must secure the provision specified in the plan.

So what does “good” look like in Section F? Good provision is specific and countable. It names the type of support, the amount in hours or sessions, how often, and who delivers it. For example, “weekly 1:1 speech and language therapy for 30 minutes, delivered by a qualified therapist, for 38 weeks a year”. Weak provision is vague. It uses words like “access to”, “opportunities for”, “regular”, or “as appropriate”. Those words sound reassuring, but nobody can prove whether they were delivered, so they are hard to enforce.

Sections G and H are health and social care provision. Section I names the school. Section J covers a personal budget if you have one. Section K lists the advice and reports gathered during the assessment, so you can check that what the professionals recommended actually made it into the plan.

Remember, this is a draft, which means it is still your window to change it. The law gives you at least 15 days from the day the draft is sent to comment and to ask for a particular school. Use it. Confirm the exact dates and any wording with IPSEA or your local SENDIASS before you send. This covers the law in England; if you live elsewhere in the UK, check your nation’s rules.