EHC Plans in 2026: Why Digitisation Is No Longer Optional

## A Document That Shapes a Life An Education, Health and Care Plan is one of the most consequential documents a child will ever have. It defines what support they're entitled to, who is responsible for providing it, what outcomes they should achieve, and how those outcomes will be measured. Done well, it's a genuine instrument of inclusion. Done poorly — or administered badly — it's a source of conflict, frustration, and missed opportunity. Right now, the majority of EHC plans in England are managed through a combination of word-processed documents, email attachments, and local authority case management systems that were built for administrative convenience rather than human outcomes. The result is a process that serves institutions better than it serves children. The Government's digitisation mandate changes this — or should. ## What Digitisation Actually Means Digitisation is not the same as putting a PDF online. A PDF is a digital format but it's not a digital system. True digitisation means: **Structured data, not freeform text.** An EHC plan that stores information in structured fields — outcomes, provision, responsibilities, review dates — is one that can be searched, tracked, shared, and analysed. A Word document formatted to look like an EHC plan cannot do any of these things. **Real-time access for the right people.** A digital plan should be accessible to the family, the SENCO, the key workers, the health professionals, and the local authority at any point — not emailed as an attachment that immediately becomes out of date. **Version control and audit history.** Who changed what, and when? In disputes and tribunals, the history of a plan matters. Paper and PDFs don't provide this. A proper digital system does. **Interoperability.** An EHC plan created in one local authority should be readable — and transferable — in another. This is both a practical need for families who move, and a national data quality requirement. ## The Current State Is Worse Than Most People Realise The variation in EHC plan quality across English local authorities is remarkable. Research consistently shows that plans range from detailed, measurable, person-centred documents to vague, provider-convenient templates that contain nothing a parent could hold anyone to account for. Much of this variation comes from the lack of any genuine national infrastructure. Local authorities use whatever case management systems they have — often systems designed for adult social care that have been adapted for SEND, or bespoke databases built years ago that no one really maintains. > The child's EHC plan often exists in multiple places at once: a version on the local authority system, a version the school printed eighteen months ago, a version the family has on their laptop, and a version someone emailed but nobody filed. None of these versions are necessarily the same. None of them are necessarily current. ## What the Mandate Requires The Government's expectation is that all EHC plans will be created, maintained, and shared through digitised systems meeting national data standards by a defined implementation date. The precise timeline has shifted several times, reflecting the complexity of what is essentially a national infrastructure project. The key requirements are: **Common data standards.** Specific fields, terminology, and structures that every local authority must use. This enables portability and national analysis. **Family access.** Families must be able to view their child's current plan at any time, without having to request it. **Multi-agency contribution.** Education, health, and social care professionals must be able to contribute to and view plans within their area of responsibility without the local authority acting as a bottleneck. **Annual review support.** The system must support the annual review process, including scheduling, documentation, and outcome recording. ## What This Means for Schools and SENCOs For SENCOs, digitisation changes the daily workflow significantly. Instead of maintaining a paper trail alongside a case management system, the system becomes the single source of truth. This reduces administrative burden in theory — but requires investment in training and transition management in practice. The most significant implication is around annual reviews. Under a properly digitised system, annual reviews should be easier to schedule, document, and act on. Evidence of progress against EHCP outcomes — which SENCOs currently have to assemble manually — should be visible within the system. For schools that also provide specialist provision, digitisation should eventually make it easier to demonstrate the educational provision a child is receiving and how it links to their EHCP outcomes — a critical element in both Ofsted and CQC inspections. ## What This Means for Local Authorities The digitisation mandate is an unfunded requirement landing on local authorities already under extreme financial pressure. Implementation will require procurement of compliant systems, data migration from legacy systems, staff training, and process redesign. For many smaller authorities, this is a substantial programme of change. The authorities that handle this transition best will be those that treat it as an opportunity to redesign the EHCP process rather than simply digitise the current broken one. The goal is not a digital version of the existing process — it's a better process that happens to be digital. ## What SENDHub Is Building SENDHub's EHC plan module is being designed to meet the emerging national data standards from day one. Our goal is a system where the plan follows the person — not the local authority boundary, not the care provider, not the school year. When a child with an EHCP moves into adult services, their plan doesn't get filed away. It becomes the foundation for their adult support plan. When they move to a new area, their history moves with them. When they need to evidence their needs for housing, employment support, or personal budget, the document exists in a form that other systems can read. This is what digitisation should deliver. It's what SENDHub is being built to provide.