Cease to maintain an EHC Plan

EHC Plans are put in place to support children and young people. Your local authority may decide to cease to maintain or end a plan. If this happens, the child or young person with the EHC Plan, or their parent or carer, must be contacted.

When a local authority (LA) decides to end, an EHC Plan, this is called ‘ceasing to maintain’. The EHC plan will come to an end and the LA will no longer have the legal duty to make sure that the special educational provision specified in the EHC plan is received by the child or young person whose plan it is. 

Procedure

Before the LA decides to cease to maintain a plan, it must first:

• consult with the child’s parent or young person as well as the head teacher or principal of the school or college being attended
• issue a ‘cease to maintain notice’ – this means a formal notice in writing to the parent or young person telling them that the LA wants to cease to maintain the EHC plan and the reasons for this. 

A local authority can only cease to maintain an EHC plan if one of two grounds applies: 

1. The LA is no longer responsible for the child or young person
2. It is no longer necessary to maintain the EHC plan

In the case of a young person, the local authority will no longer be responsible if:

• a child or young person has moved to a different Local authority
• the young person has taken up paid employment. This does not include apprenticeships
• the young person has started a higher educational course
• a young person aged 18 or over has left education and no longer wishes to engage in further learning
• the young person has turned 25

It is no longer necessary to maintain the EHC plan

It may longer be necessary for a plan to continue where for example a child or young person’s needs have changed, and they no longer need the provision in the EHC Plan.

For a young person over 18, the LA must consider whether the educational or training outcomes in the EHC plan have been achieved. If they have not, this indicates that the plan should continue. Where the outcomes have been achieved, the LA should consider whether new ones need to be set. The local authority cannot cease a plan just because a young person reaches the age of 19.

Can the LA cease to maintain the EHC plan because the child or young person is out of education?

Under 18

Where a child or young person under 18 is excluded from their education or training setting or leaves voluntarily, the LA should try to re-engage the young person in education or training as soon as possible. 

The LA must review the EHC plan and amend it if needed, to make sure that the young person continues to receive education or training.

The LA can only cease the EHC plan if it is no longer necessary for special educational provision to be made for the child or young person.

Over 18

Where a young person aged 18 or over stops attending the educational placement specified in their EHC plan, the LA cannot simply cease to maintain that EHC plan.  The LA must first hold a review, following all the process for an annual review. The LA can only then cease a plan if:

• it has established that the young person does not wish to return to education or training at any setting
• the LA concludes that returning to education or training would not be appropriate for the young person

If the young person wants to return to education but at a different setting, the LA must amend the EHC plan to name an appropriate setting.

Appeal

If a cease to maintain notice is issued, there is a right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal. Please see our pages on appeals for more information

An appeal must be submitted within either two months of the decision to cease to maintain, or one month from the date of the mediation certificate, whichever is later.

If no appeal is made, the LA must keep the provision in place until the time limit for appeal has come to an end. If an appeal is made, then the LA must keep the provision in place until the appeal is finished. The Plan will only come to an end where the Tribunal has made an order which states that the EHC plan should be ceased. 

The education institution named in Section I of the EHC plan must continue to let the child or young person attend until the right of appeal has expired or the appeal is finished. 

Further information

The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 UK Statutory Instruments 2014 No. 1530

SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years. Statutory guidance for organisations which work with and support children and young people who have special educational needs or disabilities January 2015

Department for Education SEND: 19- to 25-year-olds’ entitlement to EHC plans

Education Skills & Training Agency - Information for education and training providers on the planning and delivery of study programmes.