Can we buy in EHCP casework support?

The short answer

Yes. Schools can buy in EHCP casework support from a council traded service or a SEND consultant, for reviews and paperwork. But you must still have a designated SENCO, and the governing body keeps legal responsibility. An EHCP is an education, health and care plan, the legal document setting out a child's special educational needs and the provision that must be made for them. The casework around it is administrative and procedural, and plenty of it can be handed to someone outside the school.

What you can buy in, and what you can't hand over

The line that traded-services brochures and consultant websites tend not to spell out is the load-bearing one: you can buy in the work, but not the accountability. So it helps to keep two columns separate.

• Commonly bought in (the school's side of the process): drafting and submitting EHC needs-assessment requests; preparing, chairing and writing up annual reviews; tracking statutory deadlines; gathering and collating evidence; and representing the school at meetings.
• Cannot be delegated away (the statutory core): the designated-SENCO role itself, and the school's legal duties for SEN provision. A consultant can do the casework, but cannot be "the SENCO" or absorb the duties that sit on the school.

It also helps to know who owns which part. The statutory EHC assessment and plan-making process belongs to the council's own EHCP casework team. So what a school buys in is help with its part of the process, not a takeover of the council's job.

Why the qualifier matters

Two statutory points sit underneath this. First, the governing body of a maintained mainstream school must designate a member of staff as the SEN co-ordinator, the SENCO, responsible for co-ordinating provision for pupils with SEN (Children and Families Act 2014, section 67). That duty sits on the school and cannot be contracted out. Second, the designated SENCO must be a qualified teacher working at the school, or the headteacher or acting head (SEND Regulations 2014, regulation 49). An outsourced consultant can sit alongside that person; they cannot replace the post.

The SENCO also needs the right qualification. Since 1 September 2024 the SENCO National Professional Qualification (NPQ SENCO) has been mandatory for newly appointed SENCOs, who have three years from appointment to gain it; the legacy NASENCO award still counts if completed by 31 August 2027. None of that changes when you buy in casework support: the regulated, internal role stays internal. The SENCO has day-to-day responsibility for the SEN policy and for co-ordinating provision, including for pupils with EHC plans, while the governing body keeps overall responsibility (SEND Code of Practice 2015, paras 6.84–6.90). For the wider role, see what a SENCO does, and for the difference between a casework hand and a strategic adviser, see what a SEND consultant is.

Practically, this means you can lawfully take overdue annual reviews and a backlog of assessment requests off a stretched SENCO's plate, as long as the named SENCO post stays filled by a qualified teacher and the governing body keeps signing off on provision. The Children and Families Act 2014, section 67 is the source to point a governor or trust to.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.