Ask the parent of a disabled child what broke them and it is rarely the disability. It is the fight: the school that “doesn’t see it at home— sorry, in class”, the assessment refused, the plan that names a teaching assistant who left last year, the phone calls at 2pm asking you to collect your child again.
The system has rules, deadlines and appeal rights that heavily favour families who know them. Most families are never told. So here they are.
The structure in one minute
In England, support comes in two tiers. SEN Support is what schools provide from their own resources — adjustments, small-group work, some therapy input — coordinated by the school’s SENCO. Above that sits the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP): a legal document setting out the child’s needs, the provision that must be made, and the placement. The provision in an EHCP is legally enforceable against the local authority — which is exactly why authorities are cautious about granting them, and why the process is a battleground.
A child does not need a diagnosis to get support or an EHCP. Needs, not labels, are the test.
The deadlines nobody mentions
- Anyone can request an EHC needs assessment — a parent, the school, or a young person over 16 themselves. You do not need the school’s permission or agreement; a letter to the local authority does it.
- The authority must decide whether to assess within 6 weeks.
- The legal test to assess is low: the child may have SEN, and may need provision beyond what the school ordinarily provides. Refusals often quote a much higher bar than the law sets.
- If it assesses, the whole process — decision, draft plan, final plan — must complete within 20 weeks of the original request.
- Once a final plan exists, it must be reviewed at least annually, and the provision in Section F must actually be delivered — not “subject to staffing”.
The overwhelming majority of SEND appeals that reach the tribunal succeed. The system is not calibrated to the law; it is calibrated to how many families give up.
When they say no — and they will
Refusal to assess, refusal to issue a plan, a plan with vague provision, the wrong school named — all of these carry a right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal (First-tier Tribunal, Special Educational Needs and Disability). You generally have two months from the decision letter (and must contact a mediation adviser first — mediation itself is optional for most appeal types).
- Appeals succeed in the overwhelming majority of cases — year after year, the tribunal finds for families far more often than not.
- You do not need a lawyer. IPSEA and SOS!SEN provide free legal-quality guidance and template letters; Contact supports parent carers generally.
- Vague provision is appealable too. “Access to TA support” is not provision; “15 hours weekly 1:1 from a TA trained in X, arranged by Y” is. Specific and quantified is the legal standard.
- Keep everything in writing. The paper trail — dated requests, school emails, incident logs — wins tribunals.
The exclusion shortcut, named
Two patterns deserve calling out because they are common and unlawful. Informal exclusion — “come and pick him up, he’s had a bad day”, the shortened timetable that becomes permanent — is exclusion without the paperwork or the appeal rights, and schools are not permitted to do it. And under the Equality Act, schools must not discriminate in exclusions; since a legal ruling in 2018, behaviour that is a manifestation of a child’s disability cannot simply be punished as defiance — the school must have made adjustments first.
A school that suggests your child “might be happier elsewhere” is often signalling an unlawful shortcut. Ask for everything in writing; the suggestion usually evaporates.
Holding the line without burning out
- Request the assessment yourself rather than waiting for school — the clock only starts when the request lands.
- Use the local authority’s SENDIASS service — free, statutory information and advice, in every area.
- Find the local parent-carer forum. The parent two years ahead of you in the same authority is the single best source of tactical knowledge.
- Put requests in writing and date them. Every deadline above runs from a dated document.
- And if the authority misses its legal deadlines, complain — the complaints route runs through the authority to the Local Government Ombudsman, which regularly orders remedies for EHCP delay.
For the transition to adulthood, an EHCP can run to 25 and should plan for it — and rights at work later on are covered in our Access to Work guide.