What support should my child get at school without an EHCP?

The short answer

Your child does not need an EHCP to get support: any mainstream school must use its 'best endeavours' to meet identified SEN through SEN Support, an Assess-Plan-Do-Review cycle of adapted teaching and targeted help. SEN means special educational needs. None of this depends on a diagnosis or a plan. If the school has spotted a need, the help is owed now.

What the school is actually obliged to do

The law behind this is the ‘best endeavours’ duty (section 66 of the Children and Families Act 2014). In plain terms, the school must do everything it reasonably can to make the provision your child’s needs call for, and that duty applies whether or not there is an EHCP. So when a school suggests nothing extra is owed without a plan, that is wrong. The plan changes who is legally responsible for securing support and how enforceable it is; it does not switch the duty on.

Day to day, this support is called SEN Support, and the statutory SEND Code of Practice 2015 (Chapter 6) sets out how schools must run it: a four-stage graduated approach of Assess, Plan, Do, Review. The school works out what the barrier is, agrees what it will put in place and what outcomes it expects, delivers it, then reviews whether it worked and adjusts. It repeats that cycle, building a clearer picture each time.

What that support can look like

• Adapted or differentiated teaching, so the class work is pitched and presented in a way your child can access.
• Small-group or one-to-one interventions, for example a structured reading, language or social-skills programme.
• Teaching assistant support, used to build independence rather than to sit beside your child indefinitely.
• Specific strategies and resources: a visual timetable, movement breaks, a quiet space, coloured overlays, or assistive technology, depending on the need.

Schools fund the first £6,000 of additional support per pupil per year from their own notional SEN budget, so a school cannot fairly say it has no money for any support at all. The Code also expects the school to record the needs, the outcomes and the provision, to involve you as a parent, and to meet you to discuss progress at least three times a year.

One change on the horizon

The government’s Schools White Paper (February 2026) proposes a new statutory Individual Support Plan (ISP) for every child with SEND, to be carried by the Education for All Bill. This is a proposal under a live consultation, not the law yet: there are no changes to the current system before September 2030. Today, the answer stands as above, SEN Support under the best-endeavours duty, with no statutory plan required.

For the underlying terms, see what the graduated approach (assess, plan, do, review) means and the SEN Support definition. If the school keeps saying your child has no needs at all, see what to do if school says your child doesn’t have SEND.

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