How do I make a complaint about my child's school SEND provision?

Where to start, and the order to escalate

Start with the school's SENCO, then make a formal written complaint to the headteacher and governors using the school's complaints procedure. With an EHC plan, the council is legally responsible for the support too. SENCO stands for special educational needs coordinator – the member of staff who oversees SEN support in the school.

The trigger for going formal is usually the same: you have already raised it informally, and the support that was promised (the SEN Support, or the help written into the EHC plan) still isn't happening. To make it official, you climb the ladder in order, and you keep everything in writing.

1. The SENCO and the class teacher. Put your concern in an email so there is a dated record. Name the specific support that isn't being delivered.
2. A formal complaint to the headteacher. Ask the school in writing for its published complaints procedure (every maintained school has to have one), and head your letter "formal complaint".
3. The governing body or chair of governors. If the head's response doesn't fix it, the next stage of the school's procedure escalates to the governors.
4. The local authority or the DfE. For a maintained school, escalate unresolved issues to the council. For an academy, you complain to the Department for Education.

Every maintained school in England must establish and publicise a complaints procedure, and since 1 September 2016 it must be on the school's website (section 29 of the Education Act 2002). That is why you can demand a written procedure: it isn't a favour, it's a duty. GOV.UK sets out the same ladder in its SEN complaints guidance.

The EHC-plan fork that changes who has to act

Here is the part most pages miss. If your child has an EHC plan, the council – not just the school – must secure the special educational provision named in Section F of the plan (section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014). This is a duty the council can't hand off, so when EHC-plan support isn't being delivered you complain to the council directly through its own complaints procedure, on top of complaining to the school. A plan turns a soft school complaint into a hard legal duty on the council.

Without an EHC plan you still have every right to complain about unmet SEN Support; it just sits with the school and its governors rather than engaging that statutory council duty. Free, independent disagreement resolution is also available whether or not there is a plan, and you can ask your council about it at any point.

Complaint or appeal? Don't go to the wrong place

A complaint is about poor provision or service: support not delivered, a head who won't engage, a plan being ignored. An appeal is about a council decision: a refusal to assess, a refusal to issue a plan, or the wording of Section F or the named school. Decisions go to the SEND Tribunal, not through complaints. The Tribunal does not hear complaints about poor provision.

Once you have exhausted the council's complaints process for an undelivered plan, the next step is the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, which can investigate a council's failure to secure the provision in an EHC plan. You can read more on taking your council to the Ombudsman, or check the Ombudsman's own SEND factsheet. One caution on older guidance: the academy complaints route now goes to the DfE, since the ESFA closed on 31 March 2025 and its functions moved to the department.

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