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Many parents are not sure whether their child needs an EHC plan or whether SEN Support at school is sufficient. The distinction matters, because the two carry very different legal weight.
This guide explains the legal framework and what you need to know. When you are ready to write the actual letter, SEN Letters UK generates it for you.
The UK SEND system has two primary tiers of support. Understanding the difference between them is essential for any parent navigating the system, because the level of legal protection they offer, and the accountability they create, are very different.
SEN Support is the first tier. It refers to the additional provision that schools make for children whose needs have been identified, using the school's own resources and expertise.
Under the SEND Code of Practice 2015, schools are expected to follow a cycle of assess, plan, do, review, identifying a child's needs, planning appropriate support, implementing it, and reviewing its effectiveness. This process should involve parents at every stage.
The key characteristic of SEN Support is that it is funded and managed by the school. Schools receive a notional SEN budget from their local authority, and they are expected to fund support up to a value of approximately £6,000 per pupil from this budget.
SEN Support is not legally binding in the same way as an EHC plan. The school has considerable discretion about what provision it makes and how. If a parent disagrees with how the school is meeting their child's needs at the SEN Support level, their recourse is primarily through dialogue, escalation, and formal complaint, rather than through a legal appeal mechanism.
An EHC plan is a legally binding document issued by the local authority for children and young people whose needs cannot reasonably be met within the resources ordinarily available to a school.
An EHC plan specifies the child's needs across education, health, and care, the outcomes to be achieved, and, crucially, the provision that will be made to achieve those outcomes. The provision specified in Part F of an EHC plan is not aspirational. The local authority has a legal duty to secure it.
This legal enforceability is the fundamental distinction. A school can choose not to implement a SEN Support strategy. A local authority cannot lawfully fail to deliver what is specified in an EHC plan.
EHC plans are also portable. If a child moves to a new school or setting, the plan moves with them and the new school must implement the provision it specifies.
There is no single threshold, and the presence or absence of a diagnosis is not the determining factor. The question is whether the child's needs are so significant that they cannot be met through the resources a school can ordinarily provide.
Children who are likely to need an EHC plan include those who require significantly more support than their peers, whose needs are complex and cross multiple domains (education, health, and social care), who are not making progress despite appropriate SEN Support, or whose needs require specialist provision that a mainstream school cannot provide from its existing budget.
Many parents find themselves stuck at the SEN Support level for far longer than is appropriate, with a school that is reluctant to acknowledge that its resources are insufficient. The way forward is to request an EHC needs assessment, which parents can do directly, without the school's agreement.
Section 36(1) of the Children and Families Act 2014 gives parents the right to make this request to the local authority. The local authority must consider the request and respond within six weeks.
The strength of the case for an assessment rests on evidence that the child's needs are significant and that existing provision has been insufficient. Schools often hold more of this evidence than parents realise, intervention records, progress data, and support plans are all relevant documents that parents can request to see.
When thinking about which level of support your child needs, the most useful question is not "does my child have a diagnosis?" but "can my child's needs be met within what the school can ordinarily provide?" If the honest answer is no, an EHC plan is likely appropriate.
SEN Letters UK can generate a formally worded letter requesting an EHC needs assessment, citing the correct legislation and structured to present the strongest possible case.
SEN Letters UK writes the letter for you, professionally worded, legally informed, tailored to your child's situation.
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