EHCPs and Home Education: What Happens to the Plan

Updated 4 July 2026 · Legal citations verified against legislation.gov.uk

For some families, home education is a positive first choice. For many others it is where they land after school has stopped working: the anxiety, the exclusions, the promises of support that never arrived. Either way, the same question follows: what happens to the EHC plan? The short answer is reassuring. You are allowed to home educate a child with a plan, the plan does not disappear and the annual review cycle carries on. But the legal duties around who provides and pays for support do change, and it is worth understanding exactly how before you deregister.

Yes, you can home educate a child with an EHC plan

Education is compulsory in England; school is not. Parents can choose to educate their child at home, and having an EHC plan does not remove that choice. Nobody can tell you that a plan means your child "must" attend the school named in it if you have decided, as a genuine choice, to educate them yourself.

One practical caution: if your child currently attends a special school, speak to the local authority before deregistering, as additional steps can apply in that situation. Whatever your child's current school, it is sensible to put your decision in writing to both the school and the local authority's SEN team, dated, so there is no ambiguity later about when home education began and why.

The plan stays alive

An EHC plan is not cancelled by home education. Under section 37 of the Children and Families Act 2014, once an assessment shows a plan is necessary the local authority must secure the plan and maintain it, and that maintenance duty does not evaporate because the education now happens at your kitchen table. The plan remains the formal record of your child's special educational needs (section B), the provision they require (section F) and the outcomes being worked towards (section E).

The review machinery keeps running too. Under section 44 the authority must review the plan within 12 months of it being made and then within every 12 months of the last review. The annual review must include a meeting, and the invitees must include the parent or young person, a local authority officer, a health care professional and social care (regulation 20). Your views are a formal part of that review. For a home educating family, the annual review is the single most valuable point of contact with the system: use it.

Who provides the support: section 42(5)

Here is the part that changes. Normally, section 42 places a hard duty on the local authority to secure the special educational provision specified in the plan, with the responsible health body arranging the specified health provision. That duty is the reason section F is enforceable.

But section 42 contains an exception: the duty does not apply where the parent has made suitable alternative arrangements. Elective home education is normally treated as exactly that, a suitable alternative arrangement made by the parent. In plain terms: when you choose home education, responsibility for delivering the education, and usually the cost of it, moves to you for as long as your arrangements remain suitable.

That is the legal baseline, not necessarily the whole picture. Some local authorities choose to offer help to home educating families with EHC plans voluntarily, and practice varies a great deal from area to area. Before you deregister, ask your SEN team in writing what, if anything, the authority will continue to provide, and get the answer in writing. Nothing in the law stops you asking, and the answer may genuinely affect your decision.

Elective home education is not EOTAS

This distinction matters more than any other in this article. Under section 61 of the Children and Families Act 2014, a local authority may arrange special educational provision otherwise than in a school, known as EOTAS, but only if it is satisfied that it would be inappropriate for the provision to be made in a school or post-16 institution, and it must consult the parent first. In an EOTAS arrangement the authority arranges and funds the provision. In elective home education the parent chooses and provides.

Why does the label matter? Because some families are educating at home not out of positive choice but because school has become impossible for their child. If that is your situation, "elective home education" may be the wrong description of what is happening, and accepting the label can mean accepting the costs and duties that come with it. Where a school setting would genuinely be inappropriate for your child, EOTAS is the route that keeps the local authority responsible for arranging and funding provision. Our guide to EOTAS explains how that test works and what evidence supports it. Read it before you sign anything describing your arrangement as elective.

Making the annual review work while home educating

A plan that is maintained but never updated slowly becomes fiction, and that fiction can hurt you later if your child returns to school. Treat every annual review as a chance to keep the record accurate:

• Keep dated records of the education you provide and your child's progress, in whatever form suits you: work samples, a learning diary, photographs of projects
• Send a written parental contribution before each review covering progress, current needs and anything that has changed
• Keep professional involvement alive where you can, and remember that under regulation 7(b) the authority must consider reports you provide, including private ones
• Check that sections B and F still describe your child accurately, not the child they were when the plan was written

If your child may return to school, the review is also the vehicle for making that happen. Where the authority proposes amendments after a review, regulation 22 requires it to send the plan plus the proposed amendments with the evidence, and to give at least 15 days for representations and school requests. That is the moment to ask for a school to be named again.

A short checklist before you deregister

• Put your decision in writing to the school and the SEN team, and keep dated copies
• Ask the authority, in writing, what support it will continue to offer voluntarily
• Keep your full copy of the plan and all the advice behind it
• Diary the next annual review date and prepare a written contribution
• If school feels impossible rather than unwanted, read about EOTAS before you commit

Frequently asked questions