Section F sets out all of the special educational provision a child or young person requires, to meet the special educational needs set out in Section B of their EHC plan.

Local authority duties

Your local authority (LA) must deliver all of the special educational provision specified in Section F of the EHC plan. This is a legal duty, set out in section 42(2) of the Children and Families Act 2014 . In practice, the nursery, school or college will be carrying out the majority of the provision, however the legal responsibility to make sure it is delivered sits with your LA.

It is the LA’s legal duty to make sure that nursery, school and college staff have the correct financial resources, training and equipment to do this. The LA must also make sure any therapies such as speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, or the services provided by CAMHS (Child Adolescent Mental Health Service) are delivered, if these provisions are in Section F. For example, if an hour’s speech therapy is required every week, this is likely to be carried out by the NHS, but it is the LA’s responsibility to make sure this is done. 

There is no defence if an LA fails to secure the special educational provision in an EHC plan. In addition, the LA must make sure that the final allocation of funding is sufficient overall to secure the provision specified in Section F of an EHC plan.

Case law has also made clear that the LA: 

• Must make sure the provision is made from the date the EHC plan is issued (including where the plan is issued following a SEND Tribunal order, in line with regulation 44(2)(e) of The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014).
• Owes this duty personally to the child or young person; it cannot pass the duty onto to someone else (such as the health service or a school). This duty can be enforced by a court order following an application for judicial review. The LA cannot say it has fulfilled this duty because it asked someone else to deliver the provision. The LA has to make sure that the child/young person actually receives it.
• Always has a duty to make sure the provision specified in the EHC plan is made, not something different. An EHC plan can change over time but once provision is set out in a final EHC plan it must be made.
• Cannot use practical difficulties (including financial ones) as an excuse for failing to follow the terms of an EHC plan. It is an absolute duty of an LA under the Children and Families Act 2014. 
• LAs must secure the special educational provision in an EHC plan, failure’s by third party providers are not an excuse and LA’s must move proactively to resolve missing provision. LA’s should also have contingency plans in case there’s an issue with a provider they usually use.

Your rights

If your LA is not delivering some or all of Section F of the EHC plan, you should take action: 

1)    Discuss it with their nursery, school or college

It is best to discuss any problems with your child’s teacher and head teacher (or equivalent) first, to check what is happening and see if a quick solution can be found. It’s worth keeping a diary, log or another sort of written record of the special educational provision which isn’t being made and keeping it updated. This sort of paper trail is helpful evidence.

2)    Decide how urgent the matter is

If speaking with the school does not quickly fix the problem and your child is not receiving the special educational provision specified in their EHC plan, you should take further action. 

The LA must do whatever is necessary to ensure the provision is made, even if this means the LA paying for it privately. This means you need to tell the LA about the problem. You should write to your home LA, even if your child goes to school in a different LA. You can find details of your LA online. If you’re told the special educational provision isn’t being made because the type of professional who has to deliver it cannot be found or isn’t available yet, look up alternatives (links on our signposting page may help). If you can find a professional who can make the provision, tell the LA and ask them to use that person.

How you raise the issue with the LA depends on how urgent the situation is:

• Where following the LA’s formal complaints procedure could realistically solve the problem, you need to follow it and make a complaint. The information in our template letter may help to do this and you can send the template letter to the Director of Children’s services as well as following the LA’s complaints process.
• But if following the LA’s complaints procedure won’t be a realistic and effective way of solving the issue (for example, because your child is missing important provision and the complaints process would take too long to resolve this) we recommend you use our template letter to alert the LA to the issue and take advice on starting a process called judicial review  instead of making a formal complaint.

There is more information on these options on our template letter page.

3)    Consider changes to the EHC plan

If the EHC plan is not specific about exactly what is needed, it will be harder to enforce. This is because your LA may say that the provision you are saying needs to be made is not what the EHC plan says your child is entitled to. You can find out more about what an EHC plan should contain on our website.  

If you are having difficulties getting the support you need because the EHC plan is not specific enough, see this information on your options for getting it changed.

4)    Escalate the matter

If you complained but do not receive an adequate response, you may wish to escalate your complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman. Alternatively, if you complained and escalating your complaint to the Ombudsman is not appropriate – for example, because the matter is or has become serious and urgent – you may need to consider judicial review. 

If you didn’t complain and started the judicial review process, see the information about how this progresses on our website and take advice.