The place to look for special educational provision [SEP] is section F of the EHCP. If the provision is not specified and quantified then it will not be enforceable.
Special educational provision in section F can include health and social care provision as long as the provision “educates or trains” the child/young person. Health needs relating to SEN will be set out in section C of the EHCP and social care needs relating to SEN will be set out in section
For provision to be included in section F, there must be corresponding needs identified in sections B, C and D.
Evidence to substantiate any special needs listed in sections B, C and D will derive from reports, information and advice contained in section K. The relevant law can be found in the Children and Families Act 2014 Part 3; the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014, the SEND Personal Budget Regulations 2014 (+ SEN Miscellaneous Amendments Regulations 2014); the 2015 SEND Code of Practice.
SEND Regulation 6. (1) says “Where the local authority secures an EHC needs assessment for a child or young person, it must seek the following advice and information, on the needs of the child or young person, and what provision may be required to meet such needs and the outcomes that are intended to be achieved by the child or young person receiving that provision”
SEND Regulation 6. (1)(h) includes “advice and information from any person the child’s parent or young person reasonably requests that the local authority seek advice from.” In other words it is not necessary that the child is already known to the service.
SEND Regulation 6. (4) says “the local authority must not seek any of the advice referred to in paragraphs (1)(b) to (h) if such advice has previously been provided for any purpose and the person providing that advice, the local authority and the child’s parent or the young person are satisfied that it is sufficient for the purposes of an EHC needs assessment.”
The issue is not whether the professionals’ advice is “recent” but whether it contains the necessary forward-looking information set out in Regulation 6. (1) in terms of needs; provision required to meet needs; and outcomes
The rules about different sections of the EHCP can be found in SEND Regulations 2014 Regulation 12 (1) Regulation 12 sets out what must be included in each Section from A – K. However, while the Regulations say that each section must be “separately identified” they do not say that each section must be set out separately, nor that the sections must necessarily appear in alphabetical order. In my view, this flexibility can make the EHCP harder to check if eg chunks of Section F provision are added after each Need in Section B or after each Outcome in Section E.
Section A
Views, interests and aspirations of the child and his parents or the young person. NB it is no good only having information about needs in Section A and not in Section B because Section A is not statutory.
Section B
Special educational needs. Section B is statutory, unlike Section A. Provision in Section F should flow from the identified needs in B. Section 20 Children and Families Act 2014 says
“(1) A child or young person has special educational needs if he or she has a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her.
(2) A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if he or she—
(a) has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age, or
(b) has a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions.”
The following broad areas of need – carried over from the 2001 SEN Code of Practice can be found at paragraphs 6.28 – 6.35 of the SEND Code of Practice 2015:
Communication and interaction
Cognition and learning
Social, emotional and mental health difficulties
Sensory and/or physical needsSection C
Health care needs which relate to special educational needs. “Health care provision or social care provision which educates or trains a child or young person is to be treated as special educational provision (instead of health care provision or social care provision)” ( Reference = Section 21 (5) Children and Families Act 2014.)
“Speech and language therapy is usually recorded as education provision in section F of EHC plans (see paragraph 9.74 for further information) and where it is, it must be arranged by the local authority” (Paragraph 10.126 SEND Code of Practice ) This is sometimes called “deemed” special educational provision.
Section D
Social care needs which relate to special educational needs or to a disability.
Section E
Outcomes sought.
Paragraph 9.66 SEND Code of Practice 2015 says “an outcome can be defined as the benefit or difference made to an individual as a result of an intervention… When an outcome is focused on education or training, it will describe what the expected benefit will be to the individual as a result of the educational or training intervention provided”.
Section F
Special educational provision required by the child or young person. Section 21 Children and Families Act 2014 says “Special educational provision” … means educational or training provision that is additional to, or different from, that made generally for others of the same age in— (a)mainstream schools in England, (b)maintained nursery schools in England, (c)mainstream post-16 institutions in England, or (d)places in England at which relevant early years education is provided.”
Parents – including home educating parents – have no duty to deliver the special educational provision set out in Section F and an EHCP which puts this obligation on parents is not valid in law. More on Home Educating With EHCP here.
Section G
Health care provision reasonably required by the learning difficulties or disabilities which result in the child or young person having special educational needs.
Sections H1 and H2
Social care provision
Section I
Placement. The only permissible contents of Section I are the name of the school or institution to be attended by the child or young person and the type of institution. Read my page on case law here.
Where special educational provision is being delivered otherwise than at school via EOTAS arrangements, Section I should be left blank. More on EOTAS here.
Where the child or young person is home educated, Section I should just specify the type of school.
The SEND Code of Practice envisages two different types of “home education.” One option – set out in 10.32 – is where parents take responsibility for making provision, with no help from the LA, which is what home educators would usually understand as elective home education. Read my page on the Code here. More on Home Educating With EHCP here.
The other possibility – set out in 10.31 of the SEND Code – is where the local authority agrees the arrangements and takes responsibility for funding the provision ie EOTAS. Read my page on the Code here.
Section J
Direct payment and personal budget information More on personal budgets for EOTAS with EHCP here.
Section K
Appendix – Advice and information obtained in accordance with regulation 6(1) The reports and other documents listed in Section K are part of the EHCP.
An EHCP which is issued without all the reports listed in Section K is not complete. When parents appeal to SENDIST, the tribunal requires the FULL version of the EHCP to be submitted at registration. If parents have never had the full version, then the tribunal will require the LA to supply all the reports as part of its initial response. Read my page about tribunals here.