How do I ask for direct payments in my child's EHCP?

Ask your local authority in writing for a personal budget - at the draft-plan stage or an annual review - and request direct payments for the Section F support you want to arrange yourself; the council must consider it. A personal budget is the amount the council works out to deliver the support in your child's plan, and direct payments are the option that pays part of that money to you so you can buy the agreed support yourself.

The two stages when you can ask

Timing is fixed. You can only request a personal budget and direct payments at one of two points, not at any moment in between:

1. When the council has decided to issue a plan and sends you the draft EHC plan after a needs assessment. This is the natural moment, because the draft sets out the Section F support that the money has to pay for.
2. At an annual review or a reassessment of an existing plan. If your child already has a plan, the review is your window to ask.

Put the request in writing to the SEN team and name the support you want to arrange - for example a specific therapist, tutor or specialist. The council must prepare a personal budget when a parent or young person asks for one (Children and Families Act 2014, section 49). Direct payments are one of the ways that budget can be delivered.

The conditions the council applies

Direct payments are not automatic. Before agreeing, the council checks the conditions in the regulations - broadly, that you will use the money for the agreed support and in your child's best interests, that it will not harm services for other children, and that it is an efficient use of public money. You also have to consent in writing before payments start, and they stop if you later withdraw consent.

One condition catches parents out. If the support is delivered on a school or college's premises - say a tutor working with your child in the school building - a direct payment can only be made with the written consent of the head teacher or principal (Regulation 9, SEN (Personal Budgets) Regulations 2014). It is worth asking the school early, so a refusal there does not stall the whole request.

If the council says no

Here is the point most guides bury. There is no right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal against a refusal of a personal budget or direct payment. If the council declines, it must give you its reasons in writing, and you can ask it to review the decision - that is your route, not the Tribunal. Separately, you can still appeal the Section F support itself to the Tribunal if you think the plan does not specify enough; the funding mechanism and the content of the plan are two different questions.

Reform watch. Personal budgets and direct payments sit in section 49 of the Children and Families Act 2014 and are not changed by the Schools White Paper or the Education for All Bill. The proposed move to Individual Support Plans and a narrower EHCP would not take effect before September 2030 and protects current plan holders, so this mechanism stays live for now.

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