SEN Support vs EHCP: What's the Difference?

Updated 20 September 2026 · Legal citations verified against legislation.gov.uk

At some point in most parents' evenings the phrase arrives: "we have put your child on SEN support". It sounds like a plan. A term or two later you find yourself asking the question that brought you here: is SEN support enough, or should we be going for an EHCP? They are two different things, with different legal weight, different money behind them and different people in charge. This guide sets them side by side, explains what the school must actually do at SEN support and shows the point at which the law says it is time to ask the council for an EHC needs assessment.

The short version: SEN support is extra help the school decides on and funds itself, under a duty to use its best endeavours (section 66 of the Children and Families Act 2014). An EHC plan is a legal document issued by the local authority after an EHC needs assessment, and the provision in its section F must be secured by the council (section 42). The gateway between the two is section 36(8): the council must assess if your child has or may have special educational needs and it may be necessary for provision to be made through a plan. No law sets a number of SEN support cycles to complete first.

What SEN support actually is

Start with the legal definitions, because everything else hangs off them. Under section 20 of the Children and Families Act 2014, a child has special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision. Section 21 defines special educational provision as educational or training provision that is additional to, or different from, that made generally for others of the same age in mainstream schools. Notice what is not in there: no diagnosis, no number of years behind, no requirement for behaviour to reach a certain level. If your child needs something extra or different in order to learn, they have SEN.

SEN support is the name the SEND Code of Practice 2015 gives to the help a school provides for those needs from its own resources, without the council being involved. It replaced the old categories of School Action and School Action Plus in 2014, and chapter 6 of the Code describes it in detail. In practice it might mean small group phonics, movement breaks, time with a teaching assistant or advice from an outside specialist. The school chooses it, funds it and reviews it.

Three legal duties sit behind it. Section 66 of the Act requires mainstream schools, maintained nursery schools, academies and colleges to use their best endeavours to secure that the provision called for by a pupil's needs is made. Section 68 requires the school to inform you that special educational provision is being made for your child, so you should never discover by accident that your child is on the SEN register. And section 69 requires maintained schools and academies to publish an SEN information report, which paragraph 6.79 of the Code says must be on the school website and updated every year.

The numbers show how mainstream this is. The Department for Education's Special educational needs in England release for 2025/26, published in June 2026, counts 1,319,780 pupils on SEN support, 14.8% of all pupils in England, against 538,547 pupils with an EHC plan, 6.0%. Most children with identified SEN are supported without a plan, and for many of them that is the right level.

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What an EHC plan is

An Education, Health and Care plan is a different kind of thing altogether. It is a legal document drawn up and maintained by the local authority rather than the school, and it can only be issued after an EHC needs assessment: a formal assessment under section 36 of your child's educational, health care and social care needs that gathers advice from you, the school, an educational psychologist, health and anyone else you reasonably ask for. A plan can run to 25 where needed, is reviewed at least every twelve months and moves with your child from one school to the next.

What gives a plan its weight is section 42. Once a plan is in place, the local authority must secure the special educational provision it specifies. That is a legal duty on the council, not a best endeavours aspiration on the school. It is why the provision in section F of the plan has to be specific, detailed and quantified: hours, staffing, frequency and who delivers it. "Access to support" gives you nothing to enforce; "20 hours a week of individual teaching assistant support" does.

At January 2026 there were 718,838 EHC plans in England across all ages, 12.5% more than a year earlier, according to the DfE's Education, health and care plans release of June 2026. The same release shows the other side of the picture: 162,702 initial requests for an assessment were made in 2025 and 26.6% of the decisions were not to assess.

The differences that matter, side by side

Who decides. SEN support: the school, led by the class teacher and the SENCO, in consultation with you (Code paragraph 6.48). EHC plan: the local authority, after a statutory assessment.
The legal duty. SEN support: the school must use its best endeavours (section 66). EHC plan: the council must secure the provision in section F (section 42). Best endeavours is a real duty, but it bends to what the school can manage. Must secure does not.
The money. SEN support is paid for from the school's own budget. Every mainstream school has a notional SEN budget, which paragraph 6.96 of the Code says is not ring-fenced, and paragraph 6.99 says schools are expected to fund additional support up to a nationally prescribed threshold per pupil per year, with the council providing top-up funding above it. The DfE's operational guidance for 2026 to 2027 puts that threshold at £6,000 per pupil per year. It describes how costs are shared, not a condition for assessing: no section of the Act or the Regulations makes an assessment depend on school spending.
Enforcement and appeals. If SEN support is not delivered, your routes are the school's complaints procedure and the council's disagreement resolution service, and there is no tribunal appeal about it. If section F of a plan is not delivered, the council is in breach of a statutory duty, and decisions about assessments and plans can be appealed to the First-tier Tribunal (SEND) under section 51, including a decision not to assess.
Review. SEN support: reviewed on a date the school agrees with you, with meetings at least three times a year (paragraph 6.65). EHC plan: a formal annual review the council must carry out at least every twelve months.
Portability. SEN support does not transfer. A new school starts from its own assessment. A plan transfers with your child, including when you move council area.

The graduated approach: what SEN support should look like

The Code describes SEN support as a four-part cycle of assess, plan, do and review, which it calls the graduated approach (paragraph 6.44). Knowing the four parts lets you judge whether your child is genuinely on SEN support or simply on a list.

Assess. The class teacher and the SENCO should carry out a clear analysis of your child's needs, drawing on their own assessments, your views and your child's views. The Code says schools should take seriously any concerns raised by a parent and record them (paragraph 6.45).

Plan. You must be formally notified that your child is receiving SEN support, and the teacher and SENCO should agree with you the support to be put in place, its expected impact and a clear date for review (paragraph 6.48). If nobody has told you these things, the plan step has not happened.

Do. The class teacher stays responsible for your child day to day (paragraph 6.52).

Review. The support should be reviewed on the agreed date, its impact evaluated with your views and your child's, and the analysis of needs revised in the light of what was learned. You should have clear information about the impact of the support (paragraphs 6.53 to 6.55).

Ask for the paperwork behind each stage: the SEN support plan or provision map, the review notes and the dates. They are the raw material of an assessment request, because they show what has been tried and what came of it.

When SEN support is not enough: the legal test

Here is the part most parents are never told. Whether to move from SEN support to an EHC needs assessment is decided by a legal test, not by the school's opinion or the council's local criteria. Section 36(8) of the Children and Families Act 2014 says the local authority must secure an assessment if your child has or may have special educational needs and it may be necessary for special educational provision to be made in accordance with an EHC plan. Both limbs turn on the word may. You do not have to show that a plan is definitely needed. Finding that out is what the assessment is for.

The Code itself points parents to this door. Paragraph 6.63 says that where, despite the school having taken relevant and purposeful action to identify, assess and meet a child's needs, the child has not made expected progress, the school or parents should consider requesting an EHC needs assessment. Notice that it says school or parents. You do not need the school to agree, and section 36(1) gives you the right to request in your own name. Our guide on what to do when the school will not apply covers that situation.

When the council decides, paragraph 9.14 tells it what evidence to pay particular attention to: academic attainment and rate of progress, the nature, extent and context of the needs, the action already taken by the school, evidence that where progress has been made it has only been as the result of much additional intervention and support over and above that which is usually provided, and the child's physical, emotional and social development and health needs. A child who is only keeping up because of intensive SEN support is not proof that SEN support is working. In the Code's own terms it is evidence that a plan may be necessary.

What the test does not contain is any number of cycles. Nothing in the Act, the Regulations or the Code says a child must complete two, three or any particular number of rounds of the graduated approach before an assessment can be requested. Paragraph 9.16 goes further: councils may have local criteria as guidelines, but must be prepared to depart from them where there is a compelling reason and must not apply a blanket policy to particular groups of children or types of need. "Come back after another cycle" is a policy, not a test. Our guide to unlawful blanket policies takes the usual excuses apart one by one, including the claim that a child who copes in lessons cannot need a plan.

Signs it is time to ask for an assessment

Parents usually recognise the moment from the ground. These patterns map onto the section 36(8) threshold and the paragraph 9.14 evidence:

Progress has stalled or gone backwards despite the school's interventions, and the SENCO has run out of new ideas.
Your child makes progress only while intensive help is in place and loses it when the help stops or the teaching assistant is moved.
The support depends on this year's budget or this year's teacher, and nobody can say it will still be there in September.
Needs cross several areas at once, for example learning, communication and emotional wellbeing, or involve health or social care as well as education.
Attendance is falling, your child is on a reduced timetable or you are being called to collect them early.
The school has told you, in whatever words, that it has done everything it can.

None of these is required and none needs a diagnosis behind it. Our guide on requesting an assessment without a diagnosis explains why suspected needs and waiting list places count as evidence.

How to move from SEN support to an EHC needs assessment

Collect the SEN support record. Ask the SENCO in writing for every SEN support plan, provision map and review record, plus attendance data and any outside reports. Our evidence checklist covers what to gather and where to get it.
Write to the council's SEN team. Make a formal request under section 36(1), set out the section 36(8) test and show how your child meets each limb, using the five paragraph 9.14 heads as your structure. Our guide to requesting an EHC needs assessment walks through the letter and the parental views.
Tell the school. A short letter asking the school to respond promptly when the council contacts it keeps everyone aligned.
Diary the deadline. Under regulation 5(1) of the SEND Regulations 2014 the council must tell you whether it will assess within 6 weeks of receiving your request. If it agrees, the whole process to a final plan should take no more than 20 weeks under regulation 13, although the DfE's June 2026 release shows only 46.1% of new plans in 2025 were issued within that time.
If the answer is no, act inside the window. A refusal to assess can be appealed on form SEND35A within 2 months of the decision letter or 1 month of a mediation certificate, whichever is later, and these appeals are normally decided on the papers without a hearing. Our guides on what to do after a refusal and the SEND35A appeal cover every step.

What about the 2026 White Paper?

The February 2026 White Paper proposes an Individual Support Plan for children with SEND and a narrower role for EHC plans, but commits to no changes to the support received through EHCPs before at least September 2030. Today the Children and Families Act 2014 applies in full, and citing the reforms as a reason to stay on SEN support has no legal basis. Our guide to the 2026 White Paper tracks what is actually changing and when.

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Frequently asked questions

Is SEN support the same as an EHCP?

No. SEN support is help the school decides on and funds itself, under the best endeavours duty in section 66 of the Children and Families Act 2014. An EHC plan is a legal document issued by the local authority after an EHC needs assessment, and the provision in its section F must be secured by the council under section 42.

Do we have to try SEN support before asking for an EHC needs assessment?

No law requires any number of SEN support cycles first. Section 36(8) asks only whether your child has or may have special educational needs and whether it may be necessary for provision to be made through a plan. Paragraph 9.14 of the Code treats the school's action as evidence to weigh, not a gate, and paragraph 9.16 says councils must not apply blanket policies.

Does the school have to spend £6,000 on my child before an EHCP?

No. The £6,000 per pupil per year figure comes from DfE funding guidance and marks the point above which the council provides top-up funding. It describes how costs are shared, not a condition for assessing: nothing in the Act or the Regulations makes an assessment depend on school spending.

Can I ask for an EHC needs assessment myself if the school says SEN support is enough?

Yes. Section 36(1) of the Children and Families Act 2014 lets a parent request an assessment directly from the local authority, and paragraph 6.63 of the Code says the school or parents should consider it where expected progress has not been made. The council must decide within 6 weeks under regulation 5(1) of the SEND Regulations 2014.

What can I do if the school is not delivering the SEN support it promised?

Ask in writing for the SEN support plan, the review dates and what has actually been delivered, then raise it with the SENCO and the headteacher. If that fails, use the school's complaints procedure or the council's disagreement resolution service. There is no tribunal appeal about SEN support, one of the main differences from an EHC plan.

How many children are on SEN support compared with EHC plans?

The Department for Education's Special educational needs in England release for 2025/26, published in June 2026, counts 1,319,780 pupils on SEN support, 14.8% of pupils in England, and 538,547 pupils with an EHC plan, 6.0%.

Will SEN support stop while an EHC needs assessment is being considered?

It should not. The school's section 66 best endeavours duty continues throughout the request, the assessment and any appeal. Keep the review meetings going and keep copies of every plan and review: they are evidence for the assessment.