We want occupational therapy moved into Section F of our son’s education, health and care plan...

...Section B lists fine motor skills and sensory difficulties as some of his special educational needs, but occupational therapy is written in section G as ‘health care provision’. We do not believe this is right but what else can we do? We had a meeting with the LA when the EHC plan was at the draft stage but it said it is a service provided by the NHS and it is out of the LA's hands.

You are right in thinking that the occupational therapy is likely to be special educational provision therefore should be specified in section F of your son’s education, health and care (EHC) plan. What supports your argument is that your local authority(LA) has described your son’s difficulties with fine motor skills and his sensory difficulties in section B as special educational needs (SEN). This means provision must be specified in section F (not just section G), because the law says section F of an EHC plan must contain provision to meet each and every SEN identified in section B.

The law is clear that any health or social care provision which educates or trains a child or young person must be treated as special educational provision instead of health or social care provision. This is set out in section 21(5) of the Children and Families Act 2014. What matters here is what the provision does for your child, not who provides it. If this occupational therapy is being given to ‘educate or train’ your child to improve his fine motor skills and sensory processing, it must be treated as special educational provision and be specified in section F, even if it is being provided through the NHS.

See our pages on what an EHC plan should contain for more information. You can also use our EHC plan checklist to check whether your draft EHC plan complies with how the law says it must be set out.

It is common for LAs to be reluctant to specify provision which comes from a health or social care service in section F of the EHC plan, because it means they are legally responsible for securing the provision, even if health or social care can’t or won’t do so.

If this matter is not resolved once the EHC plan is finalised, you will need to appeal to the SEND Tribunal. The deadline for appealing is two months from the date of the final plan or one month from the date of the mediation certificate, whichever date falls the latest. You should also consider appealing section B of the EHC plan after checking it to make sure all of your son’s SEN are properly specified. You can find more information on our pages about appealing to the SEND Tribunal.