What are a school's legal duties under the SEND Code of Practice?

Schools must use best endeavours to meet pupils' SEN, follow the graduated approach (assess, plan, do, review), appoint a SENCO, publish an SEN information report and make reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils.

The core duties

Most of these duties do not actually live in the SEND Code of Practice itself. The Code is statutory guidance you must “have regard to”; the legally binding duties sit in the Children and Families Act 2014 (Part 3), the SEND Regulations 2014 and the Equality Act 2010. The Code tells you how to comply. In practice, a mainstream school is on the hook for:

• Best endeavours. The governing body or proprietor must use its best endeavours to secure the special educational provision a pupil’s SEN calls for (Children and Families Act 2014, s.66).
• The graduated approach. Run the assess, plan, do, review cycle for every pupil at SEN Support (SEND Code 6.44 to 6.56), and tell parents when you start making special educational provision (Code 6.43).
• A SENCO. Designate a qualified teacher as SENCO to coordinate provision (Code 6.84 to 6.91).
• An SEN information report. Maintained schools and academies must publish one (Children and Families Act 2014, s.69), containing the information set out in the SEND Regulations 2014 (reg.51 and Schedule 1). The SEND Code of Practice asks you to review and update it at least annually (paras 6.79 to 6.83).
• Reasonable adjustments. Anticipate and remove barriers for disabled pupils, and never discriminate because of disability (Equality Act 2010, s.20).
• Admit a child named in an EHC plan. If your school is named in a pupil’s Education, Health and Care plan, you must admit them (Children and Families Act 2014, s.43).

The qualifier the top results miss

The duties differ by stage, and one of them is not yours at all. The best-endeavours and graduated-approach duties apply to any pupil you identify with SEN, with or without a diagnosis or a plan. The EHCP-specific duties only bite once a plan exists. And the duty to secure the provision named in Section F of an EHC plan is the local authority’s, not the school’s (Children and Families Act 2014, s.42). You deliver that provision day to day, but the legal endpoint for unmet EHCP provision is the council, not you.

What the 2026 reforms change (nothing, yet)

The Schools White Paper published in February 2026 proposes a new statutory Individual Support Plan for every child with SEND, with EHC plans narrowed over time to children with the most complex needs. None of this changes your current duties. It needs the Education for All Bill to become law, and the Education Hub blog confirms no changes to the support given by EHC plans begin before September 2030. Today’s Code-of-Practice duties remain fully in force. Plan against the law as it stands, not the headline.

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