An EHC plan contains the following sections:

• section A – the views, interests and aspirations of your child or young person
• sections B and F – special educational needs and provision
• sections C and G – health care needs and provision
• sections D and H – social care needs and provision
• section E – outcomes sought
• section I – the name and type, or just type, of the setting to be attended
• section J – details of the special educational needs and outcomes to be met by a direct payment for special educational provision (if relevant)
• section K – information gathered during the EHC needs assessment.

If you are unhappy with the EHC plan, you can appeal some sections of it. You cannot appeal all sections of an EHC plan.

It is important to know there are deadlines for bringing an appeal to the SEND Tribunal. We explain these in detail on our page containing general advice about appealing.

Educational needs and provision (sections B and F) and placement (section I)

If you do not agree with the contents of section B (special educational needs), section F (special educational provision), or section I (the school or other setting to be attended) of an EHC plan, you can appeal these sections.

The contents appeal can be about any of:

• Your child or young person’s special educational needs set out in section B. For example, you may feel section B is incomplete and some, but not all, of your child’s needs have been specified.
• The special educational provision to meet those needs set out in section F. For example, you may feel that the description of provision in section F is vague and not properly specified.
• The school or other setting in Section I. For example, you may want your child to be educated in a particular school and the LA has named a different school, or maybe you want your child to be educated otherwise than in school but the LA has named a school.
• If no school or other setting is named in Section I, that fact. For example, if your LA issued an EHC plan which says what type of school your child is to attend but does not say which specific school they will attend, you can appeal this in the SEND Tribunal. 

All of sections B, F and I can be appealed.

Currently, the SEND Tribunal is prioritising section I only appeals involving a phase transfer. Please think carefully about whether placement is the only issue you need to appeal or whether sections B and F need to be appealed at the same time. Remember that the SEND Tribunal will look to sections B and F before making placement decisions, so it may be important to appeal section B and F at the same time as this will impact placement decisions, but this will depend on your individual circumstances. Please contact us if you need more support on this.

Fact sheet: Appealing the school named in an EHC plan

Health and social care

What you can appeal about (section F)

Health care provision and social care provision which educates or trains a child or young person is capable of being special educational provision and, as such, should be specified in section F of an EHC plan (see the section on what an EHC plan contains for more information).

Sometimes health care and social care provision which educates or trains is specified in the wrong part of an EHC plan. Section G is the right section for health care provision and section H is the right section for social care provision, but where this provision educates or trains a child or young person, it must be specified in section F. This could include provision such as speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, mindfulness or cognitive behavioural therapy for example if that provision educates or trains your child.

If your child or young person’s EHC plan contains health or social care provision which educates or trains them but it is not specified in section F, you can appeal sections B and F to the SEND Tribunal and ask that:

• section B contains all the special educational needs your child or young person has, and
• section F contains all the special educational provision reasonably required – this will include any health care or social care provision which educates or trains your child or young person. 

What you can ask for (sections C, D, G and H)

The SEND Tribunal’s powers extend to the health and social care sections of EHC plans and you can ask the SEND Tribunal to make recommendations in respect of these sections.

If you are unhappy with the sections of the plan relating to health and social care, and have not been able to resolve the disagreement through mediation for example, you can take these issues to the SEND Tribunal. Appeals including health and social care are known as ‘extended appeals’ and you can find more information about them online.

You will need to include in your appeal  at least one of the education parts of the EHC plan (sections B, F and/or I) to do so. This means that if you go to mediation and agree the educational issues but not health or social care issues, you won’t be able to ask the SEND Tribunal to consider any remaining health or social care issues.

The SEND Tribunal only has the power to make ‘non-binding recommendations’ on health and social care (unlike the binding decisions they make in relation to special educational provision). However, it has been made clear that the expectation is that the recommendations will generally be followed. If LAs (in respect of social care) or the Integrated Care Board (in respect of health) do not follow these recommendations, you can take action.

You can read more about how to challenge the health and social care parts of an EHC plan on our website.

What about the other sections of the EHC plan?

This still leaves some sections of an EHC plan which are completely outside of the SEND Tribunal’s scope:

• section A – the views, wishes and aspirations of the child and his parents or the young person
• section E – the outcomes to be sought, and
• section J – dealing with direct payments.

You cannot appeal about these sections of the EHC plan.

There is a general power in regulation 43(1) of the SEND Regulations 2014 to “correct any deficiencies” in an EHC plan.

For example, if because of changes to sections B and F the outcomes in section E are no longer relevant, then the SEND Tribunal may order that these are changed. However, parents or young people cannot bring an appeal about their contents. Please also see our page on how to submit a contents appeal for more information on how to get started.