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Your Local Authority that maintains your child’s Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) must issue a final amended EHCP by 15th February 2026 at the latest. This will name the school that they’re to attend from September.
They must do this even if the actual school placement will not change. For example, if your child attends a school that caters right through to secondary education, and they are going to remain there from September 2026.
We can help you if the local authority has missed the deadline. You may be able to challenge the decision by a judicial review. We can advise you of all the options available to you to get the best possible outcome for your child. It is crucial that action is taken quickly in these cases.
For initial advice get in touch with our Education Law Solicitors.
The deadline for phase transfer is 15th February 2026 for those in Year 6, and 31st March 2026 for children in Year 11. By this time, your Local Authority should have put together a final plan, naming a school or college for your child to attend from the following September.
If your Local Authority hasn’t issued the final amended EHCP, then you could:
It’s important that Local Authorities comply with the 15th February 2026 deadline. This is because if you as a parent disagree with the school named for September or any other part of the EHCP, this allows sufficient time for the issue to be resolved before the end of the academic year.
This can be through mediation and/or an appeal to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (SEND), which our Solicitors can help you with. If this deadline is not met, there’s no guarantee that the Tribunal will be able to deal with your appeal before the start of the new academic year. This means that there could be a delay in your child starting secondary school, or it could mean that they attend one school for a very short period of time before having to move. This can be traumatic for some children.
This is the same for those over 16 years, for which the deadline is 31st March 2026.
If the EHCP is not done in time, parents or young people who want to challenge the school or college named are at risk of the matter not being resolved before the start of the new academic year.
If you haven’t received the final EHCP in time and you’re concerned about this, you can contact one of our Education Law Solicitors or Lawyers to discuss your options. We recommend you get legal advice on how best to approach the matter before taking any action.
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I cannot recommend Kylie and everyone at Simpson Millar highly enough. I went through one of the darkest and most difficult times of my life while trying to fight for my son and his education, and I r...
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Simpson MillarExceptional legal expertise from Kylie Dean
Kylie Dean at Simpson Millar is an outstanding Senior Paralegal who delivered a flawless result for my son Taylor’s EHCP. From start to finish, her strategic precision, deep legal knowledge, and tota...
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Simpson MillarEHCP draft review and advice
Victoria Kerr is extremely knowledgeable about Educational Law and provided exceptional support during EHCP application so I had no hesitation in appointing her to review my daughters EHCP draft and p...
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Simpson MillarVery communicative
Very communicative. Thorough. When the EHCP was finalised before Ms. Kerr was able to give the recommendations, we were able to change the same exercise to benefit my mediation and tribunal process...
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Simpson MillarPolly Kerr, Partner & Head of Education and Children’s Rights
My husband and I engaged Polly Kerr, Partner & Head of Education and Children’s Rights, in early 2026. Working with Polly was outstanding. Polly combines strong expertise with calm and reassuring conf...
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Extremely professional and empathic regarding our situation. Worked endlessly to help us get the required outcome. Thank you so much.
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The use of Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) can divide opinions but Simpson Millar’s specialist solicitors within our Education Law team have been instructed in many cases where there has been evidence of its success. Just one example of this is when we acted for the parents of a six year old girl who we will refer to as J throughout this article for the purposes of maintaining client confidentiality and privacy.
We helped a mother gain a placement for her child in her preferred school during a Judicial Alternative Dispute Resolution (JADR) Hearing, in a disagreement over travel costs.
We helped a child’s parents bring a judicial review and a positive ending in a case where the Local Authority were failing to provide suitable education.
If your child has Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), they may need an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). But we understand that EHCPs can be confusing.
An EHCP (Education, Health and Care Plan) identifies your child’s Special Educational Needs (SEN) and should entitle them to the right provision they need to support them.
The EHCP working document paperwork process is an important part of any appeal to the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Tribunal against the contents of an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). Learn More
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