What is the difference between SEN support and an EHCP?
They are two levels of support for children with special educational needs in England, differing in who decides, what is legally enforceable, and how it is funded.
SEN support is the first level, arranged and delivered by the school itself. The school identifies a need, puts additional or different provision in place, and reviews it — the graduated approach of assess, plan, do, review.
It covers the majority of children with SEN. It is flexible, requires no formal assessment process, and can start quickly.
Its limitations: it is funded from the school's own budget, up to a notional threshold; provision is not legally specified; and there is no enforceable right to any particular support. What a child receives depends substantially on the school's resources and priorities.
An EHCP — Education, Health and Care Plan — is a legal document issued by the local authority following a statutory assessment.
Why it is different in kind:
It is legally binding. The provision specified in Section F must be delivered — the local authority has an absolute duty, and failure is challengeable, ultimately by judicial review.
It names the setting in Section I, which can secure a specialist placement.
It attracts additional funding beyond the school's notional budget.
It covers education, health and social care together, and continues to age 25 where the young person remains in education.
It must be reviewed annually.
Getting one. Anyone — parent, school, young person over 16 — can request an assessment. The local authority must decide within 6 weeks whether to assess, and the whole process should complete within 20 weeks. Refusals are common, and appeals to the SEND Tribunal succeed in a high proportion of cases, which is worth knowing before accepting a refusal.
The threshold is whether the child's needs require provision beyond what the school can reasonably make from its own resources — not a diagnosis.
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate systems.