EHCPs Post-16: College, Sixth Form and Up to 25
Somewhere around Year 10, many parents of children with EHC plans start hearing a new message: that the plan is "winding down", that "college is different" or that support "ends at 16". Most of it is wrong. An EHC plan can remain in place up to age 25 while a young person stays in education or training, and the duties that protected your child's provision at school follow them into sixth form and college. What genuinely changes at 16 is who holds the legal rights. This guide explains what the law actually says about post-16 plans, the deadline that governs the move to college and how to make sure the next placement is the right one.
An EHC plan does not stop at 16 or 18
Government guidance is clear that EHC plans can remain in place up to age 25 for young people who stay in education or training. The plan does not run to a fixed end date and it does not expire on a birthday. It continues for as long as it remains necessary, and that question is kept under review through the same cycle as before: under section 44 of the Children and Families Act 2014 the local authority must review the plan within 12 months of it being made and then within every 12 months of the last review. That cycle carries straight on into sixth form and college.
The core duty survives too. Under section 42, the local authority must secure the special educational provision specified in the plan, and the responsible health commissioning body must arrange the specified health provision. Section F remains the enforceable heart of the plan in a college corridor exactly as it was in a primary classroom. The long-established requirement that section F provision be specific, detailed and quantified, saying who does what, how often and delivered by whom, applies to a study programme just as much as to phonics support in Year 2. Vague post-16 wording like "access to learning support" is no more acceptable at 17 than it was at 7.
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See a free section →At 16, the rights transfer to your young person
From the end of compulsory school age, the rights in the legislation are exercised by the young person themselves rather than the parent. Section 36(1) expressly allows a young person over 16 to request their own EHC needs assessment. It is the young person who is consulted on a draft plan, who can request a particular placement and in whose name any appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (SEND) runs.
In practice, this is rarely a cliff edge. Most young people want their parents involved and most families carry on preparing reviews, letters and appeals together. But it changes how you prepare. Section A of the plan records the views, interests and aspirations of the child and parents, and from this stage those views should increasingly be authored by the young person in their own words: what they want to study, what independence looks like to them and what support genuinely helps. A plan that still describes a Year 7 child is a plan that has stopped being read.
Preparation for adulthood starts in Year 9, not Year 11
The legislation builds the long view in early. Under regulation 6(1) of the SEND Regulations 2014, when a local authority carries out an EHC needs assessment it must seek a range of advice, and from Year 9 onwards that includes advice on preparation for adulthood and independent living. The same forward tilt should show up in every annual review from Year 9: what does this young person want from further study, work and independent life, and what provision moves them towards it?
If reviews are not asking those questions, put them on the agenda yourself. The annual review must include a meeting, and the invitees must include the parent or young person, the head or principal, a local authority officer, a health care professional and social care (regulation 20). Your views are part of the review, not an audience comment. A written paragraph headed "preparation for adulthood" in your review contribution is hard to ignore and becomes part of the record.
Moving to college: the 31 March deadline
The move from school to a post-16 institution is a phase transfer, and phase transfers have hard deadlines under regulation 18. For a transfer from secondary school to a post-16 institution, the plan must be reviewed and amended, naming the next placement, by 31 March in the year of transfer. For other school phase transfers the equivalent date is 15 February. And where a young person moves between post-16 institutions at another time of year, the review must take place at least 5 months before the move.
The 31 March date is not bureaucratic decoration. A college cannot recruit support staff, timetable therapy or plan a suitable study programme for September if it only learns in July that a young person with an EHC plan is arriving. If 31 March passes and the plan has not been amended to name the post-16 placement, chase the local authority in writing, cite regulation 18 and ask for the amended plan by return. Keep a dated copy of everything.
Choosing the placement: section 38 includes colleges
When the local authority prepares a draft plan, section 38 requires it to consult you during preparation, send you the draft and give notice of the right to make representations and to request a particular institution. The list of what can be requested includes further education institutions alongside maintained schools, maintained nurseries, Academies, non-maintained special schools and section 41-approved independent institutions. In other words, naming a college is a legal right of exactly the same kind as naming a school.
Regulation 13(1) guarantees at least 15 days to make representations on a draft plan, to request a placement and to require a meeting with a local authority officer, and the authority must advise where to find information about the available options. Where changes come through an annual review instead, regulation 22 requires the authority to send the plan plus the proposed amendments with the supporting evidence, again with at least 15 days for representations and placement requests. Visit colleges early, ask precisely how the provision in section F would be delivered there and put your preferred placement in writing within the window.
If things go wrong post-16
Appeal rights do not shrink with age. Under section 51(2), an appeal about a maintained plan can challenge the description of needs in section B, the provision in section F, the placement named in section I or the fact that no placement is named. Where the appeal concerns only the placement, no mediation certificate is required (section 55); for other appeals you only have to consider mediation by speaking to a mediation adviser, not attend it. It is worth knowing the wider picture: in 2024/25 about 25,000 SEND appeals were registered and 99% of decided appeals went in the family's favour (Ministry of Justice tribunal statistics).
The post-16 system is under the same pressure as the rest of SEND. There are now 718,800 children and young people with EHC plans in England (Department for Education, January 2026), the largest number on record. Stretched teams sometimes let post-16 deadlines drift and hope nobody notices. The deadlines above are how you notice.
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Frequently asked questions
Does an EHC plan stop at 16 or 18?
No. An EHC plan can remain in place up to age 25 while the young person stays in education or training. It does not run to 25 automatically: it continues for as long as it remains necessary, checked through the normal annual review cycle under section 44.
Who holds the legal rights once my child turns 16?
From the end of compulsory school age the rights in the legislation are exercised by the young person themselves. They can request an assessment under section 36(1), make representations on a draft plan, request a placement and bring an appeal. In practice most families carry on doing all of this together.
When must the college place be named for a September start?
For a transfer from secondary school to a post-16 institution, regulation 18 requires the plan to be reviewed and amended, naming the next placement, by 31 March in the year of transfer. A move between post-16 institutions at another time needs a review at least 5 months before the move.
Can we ask for a specific college in the plan?
Yes. Section 38 gives the right to request a particular placement, and the list of institutions that can be requested includes further education institutions alongside maintained schools, Academies, non-maintained special schools and section 41-approved independent institutions. There must be at least 15 days to make representations.