Writing the school’s contribution to an EHCP: Sections B, E and F

What the school is actually being asked for

During an education, health and care (EHC) needs assessment the local authority must seek advice from the school (SEND Regulations 2014, regulation 6), and the school has six weeks from the request to provide it (regulation 8). The authority then writes the plan. The school does not write the EHC plan, but a clear, well-evidenced contribution is often lifted almost word for word into Sections B, E and F, so the quality of your advice shapes the plan the pupil lives with for years.

This guide is for the SENCO (or SENDCo) writing that advice, whether into the authority’s template or as a free-standing document. It uses the section letters from regulation 12 so the caseworker can map your text straight across; EHCP sections A to K explained describes every section. Diarise the six-week due date the day the request arrives; the EHCP timeline calculator shows where it falls within the 20 weeks.

Before you write: gather the evidence

• Current class or subject teacher views, ideally on a structured form: strengths, difficulties, what works, progress this term, concerns.
• Parent or carer views and the pupil’s own views, collected recently and dated.
• Assessment data and any professional reports, with dates.
• Your SEN support records: cycles of assess, plan, do, review, with outcomes.
• A log of the provision actually delivered this year, not just the provision planned.

Write from the evidence, not from memory. Every sentence in your advice should be traceable to a document, a data point or a dated observation. If you cannot trace it, either find the evidence or leave it out. The same pack is what the authority will append to the plan as Section K, so anything you cite should be in it. If the school made the request, most of it already exists; see what evidence to send with an EHC needs assessment request.

Section A: the pupil’s and family’s views

Quote the pupil and parents where you can, and say how the views were gathered (a conversation with a trusted adult, a drawing, a form). Separate what the pupil said from what the school has observed. Section A is not the place for the school’s assessment of needs; keep that for Section B.

Section B: needs, grouped and specific

Group needs under the four broad areas in the Code of Practice (6.27 to 6.35): communication and interaction; cognition and learning; social, emotional and mental health; and sensory and/or physical. Under each, describe every need in a sentence another professional could recognise and measure, and name the evidence it comes from.

Weak: “Difficulties with literacy.” Stronger: “Reads at a level around three years below chronological age (standardised reading score 72, assessed March 2026) and cannot yet decode unfamiliar two-syllable words independently, which limits access to written tasks across the curriculum (class teacher observation, spring term 2026).”

The Code says provision must be specified for each and every need in Section B (9.69). That cuts both ways: list only needs you can evidence, and list all of them, because a need missing from B cannot have enforceable provision in F.

Section E: outcomes that are SMART and belong to the pupil

An outcome is the benefit or difference made to the pupil as a result of an intervention, not the provision itself, and it should be personal rather than expressed from a service perspective (Code of Practice 9.66). Outcomes should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound, and will usually set out what is to be achieved by the end of a phase or stage of education. Each outcome should respond to one or more needs in Section B.

Weak: “To improve social skills.” Stronger: “By the end of Key Stage 2, [name] will start and sustain a turn-taking conversation with a peer for five exchanges, in at least three of five observed opportunities, without adult prompting.” The second version tells everyone what success looks like and when to measure it, which is what the annual review will need.

Aim for a small number of outcomes that matter, typically one or two per area of need. Shorter-term steps belong in the school’s own termly targets, which the Code expects the plan to leave to the school.

Section F: provision you can count

The Code of Practice (9.69) says provision must be detailed and specific and should normally be quantified, for example in terms of the type, hours and frequency of support and the level of expertise. Phrases such as “access to”, “regular” and “as appropriate” are not quantified and leave the pupil with nothing that can be enforced under the authority’s duty to secure the provision (Children and Families Act 2014, section 42).

For each item of provision state: what it is; who delivers it and with what training; how often and for how long; the group size; and which outcome in Section E it supports. Where you recommend provision the school cannot currently fund, say so neutrally and let the authority decide; your job is to describe what the pupil needs. From Year 9, the plan must include provision to help the young person prepare for adulthood and independent living (regulation 12(3)), so say what that looks like for this pupil.

Therapy that educates or trains the pupil, speech and language therapy being the usual example, is treated as special educational provision (section 21(5) of the Act) and belongs in Section F. If you know it is being delivered, describe it here with the same precision.

The other sections, and the covering note

Health and social care needs and provision (Sections C, D, G and H) are for health and social care professionals to advise on. Report what you know and name the source (“Paediatric letter dated 12 January 2026 confirms a diagnosis of…”), note the impact on learning, and otherwise leave those sections alone; record that advice has not yet been received rather than filling a gap with your own assumption. On placement (Section I), the school can say whether it can meet the needs described, but the authority decides. For Section K, list every piece of advice and evidence you have drawn on, with the author’s role and the date.

Finish with a short covering note: who wrote the advice, when, who contributed, how the pupil’s and parents’ views were gathered, and a contact for queries. Send it by the authority’s stated route with a covering email so the sent date is on record.

Common reasons advice gets watered down

• Needs described as behaviours rather than underlying needs, so the provision does not follow.
• Outcomes written as provision (“will receive weekly speech therapy”).
• Provision left unquantified, which the authority can then interpret as flexibly as it likes.
• Evidence cited but not attached or dated.
• The pupil’s voice missing, so the whole document reads as a school problem rather than a child’s needs.
• Advice sent late, so the draft plan is written without it and the school is left correcting a document instead of shaping it.

If you use software to produce a first draft of the advice, it should work only from the evidence you supply, and every word should be read and owned by the SENCO before it leaves the school, because once appended to a plan the advice becomes part of a statutory document. Sendiphany’s drafting assistant works that way: it builds a draft from the evidence on the pupil’s record, flags where evidence is missing, and leaves every word for you to edit. It does not write the authority’s plan and it does not decide anything.