The short version
An EHCP — an Education, Health and Care Plan — is a legal document. It describes a child or young person's special educational needs, and it sets out the support that must be put in place to meet those needs. It is not a wish list and it is not advice. Once a plan is issued, parts of it carry the full force of law.
If your child has needs that ordinary school support ("SEN support") cannot meet, an EHCP is the route to legally-backed help.
In one line: an EHCP turns "the school says it will try" into "the law says it must."
Who issues it, and who is responsible
The local authority (your council) issues the EHCP and is responsible for it.[1] This matters more than it sounds. When support goes wrong, schools and councils often point at each other. The law does not allow that. The council holds the duty.
The part that is legally enforceable: Section F
An EHCP has sections labelled A to K. The one to understand first is Section F — the special educational provision.
The council must secure the special educational provision set out in Section F. This is an absolute duty.[2] It cannot be delegated away and then forgotten. If the school fails to deliver it, the council remains legally liable.
The wording of Section F matters. Provision written as specific and quantified — "5 hours of speech and language therapy per week," not "access to therapy as appropriate" — is far easier to enforce.[3] Vague wording is hard to hold anyone to.
"Lack of resources" or "budget pressure" is not a lawful reason to fail to deliver Section F. The duty does not bend to a council's finances.
SEN support vs an EHCP
Most children with additional needs are helped through SEN support — adjustments the school makes from its own resources. SEN support is real and valuable, but it is not legally enforceable in the same way. An EHCP is the step up: it brings a legal duty and an independent appeal route.
If SEN support is not enough, that is the trigger to ask for an EHC needs assessment.
What to do when the support does not arrive
This is the situation most parents reach this page in. The plan exists, but the help in it is not happening.
- Get it in writing. Note what Section F promises and what is actually being delivered.
- Put the gap to the council in writing. The duty is theirs, so the request goes to them — not only the school.
- Know your escalation routes. Two independent routes exist: the SEND Tribunal (for the content of the plan and refusals) and the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (for a council that has failed to deliver).[4]
When parents do appeal to the SEND Tribunal, they usually win. In the most recent year of Ministry of Justice tribunal statistics, around 98% of SEND appeals decided at a hearing were upheld — found wholly or partly in the parent's favour.[5]
Where this fits
This guide is part of the SEND and the EHCP thread — one of seven legal threads we use to map how the system is supposed to work and where it breaks. See the related guides below for the next steps: how Section F is written, and how to enforce a plan the council is ignoring.
Material legal claims on this page link to public sources. See the sources list below. This guide is general information about the law in England, not advice about any individual case, and never refers to any real family.