When can a local authority cease to maintain an EHCP?

Only two grounds let a local authority cease an EHC plan: it is no longer responsible for the child or young person, or it decides the plan is genuinely no longer necessary. These two grounds are exhaustive. Nothing else, on its own, is a lawful reason to cease.

The two grounds in section 45

Section 45 of the Children and Families Act 2014 is precise. An authority may cease to maintain a plan only where it is no longer responsible for the child or young person, or where it determines that it is no longer necessary for the plan to be maintained. ‘No longer necessary’ means the special educational provision the plan secures is no longer required, judged against the assessed need and the outcomes in the plan. For a young person over 18, the authority must specifically have regard to whether the educational or training outcomes specified in the plan have been achieved. Coping well is not the test; outcomes met is the test.

What is not a lawful ground

Most unlawful cease decisions come from treating a routine event as an automatic trigger. None of the following, on its own, ends a plan or justifies ceasing one:

• The young person leaving school or moving setting.
• The end of a key stage or any phase transition.
• The child or family moving to another authority's area.
• The young person turning 16, 18 or 19. Age alone is never a reason to cease, and the SEND Code of Practice 2015 (paras 9.199–9.210) is explicit that an authority must not cease simply because a young person is 19 or over.

Where a young person is no longer in education or training, that does not end the plan by itself either; the authority must still ask whether the outcomes are met and the provision is genuinely no longer required before it can cease. This duty to maintain runs until a lawful cease decision takes effect.

Consult and notify before you cease

Ceasing is a process, not a single decision. Before ceasing, the authority must consult the child's parent or the young person and notify them of the proposed decision, with reasons, and of the right to appeal (regulation 31 of the SEND Regulations 2014). A decision to cease normally follows an annual review, and for a young person nearing adulthood it sits alongside the authority's duties when a young person turns 18. A cease decision that skips consultation or gives no reasons is procedurally unlawful even where the substance might have been defensible.

The plan stays in force throughout any appeal

A decision to cease can be appealed to the First-tier Tribunal (SEND) under section 51. The authority must continue to maintain the plan until the period for bringing that appeal has expired and, where an appeal is brought, until it has been finally determined. Withdrawing the provision before the appeal window closes, or before a live appeal is decided, is unlawful. If the family appeals, the section F provision keeps running in the meantime.

What is changing

The current section 45 regime is settled law. The ‘Every Child Achieving and Thriving’ Schools White Paper, published in February 2026, signals a direction of travel toward statutory Individual Support Plans and a narrower EHCP reserved for the most complex needs. None of that changes the ceasing rules yet: no changes to the support EHCPs give begin before September 2030, existing plan holders are protected, and the section 45 test you apply today is unchanged.

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