What happens to an EHC plan after 16, and when does it end?

An Education, Health and Care plan belongs to England's SEND system. It can continue after school, but it is not a pass that runs automatically from 16 to 25. The question at each review is whether the young person still needs the plan to secure the special educational provision required for their education or training.

That distinction matters at both ends. A local authority cannot end a plan because of the young person's age alone. It also does not have to maintain every plan until the twenty-fifth birthday [1, 2].

What changes after compulsory school age

In EHC-plan law, the important point is the end of compulsory school age, which is the last Friday in June in the school year in which the young person turns 16. From then, specific rights under the Children and Families Act apply to the young person rather than their parent ^[1].

These include the right to:

• ask for an EHC needs assessment;
• make representations about the plan;
• ask for a particular school or college to be named;
• request a personal budget;
• ask for reassessment; and
• appeal certain local-authority decisions.

Parents do not have to vanish from the process. They can help the young person understand letters, prepare for reviews, express a preference or communicate with the local authority when the young person wants them involved. The local authority and education setting should continue to support the young person to participate.

If there is a genuine concern that the young person cannot make a particular EHC-plan decision, the Mental Capacity Act framework applies. Capacity must be considered for that decision, with appropriate support, rather than inferred from diagnosis or the amount of help the young person needs day to day ^[1].

Agree the practical arrangement before the next review. The young person might want letters addressed to them and copied to a parent, prefer a parent to handle correspondence, or want to speak first while somebody else takes notes.

The plan should change with the next stage

A plan written around lessons, breaktimes and school-based support may be a poor description of college or work-based training. The annual review should update the young person's aspirations, needs, outcomes and provision for the setting they are moving into.

From Year 9 onwards, EHC reviews should include preparation for adulthood. The Code identifies four broad areas: education and employment, independent living, participation in society and being as healthy as possible ^[1]. These are planning areas, not demands that every young person must live alone or enter paid work.

For the next course, the plan needs enough detail to answer practical questions:

• What does the young person want to achieve through this course or programme?
• Which barriers affect learning, attendance, communication or participation?
• What support, equipment, teaching approach or specialist input is required?
• How often, for how long and by whom will provision be delivered?
• What support is needed during unstructured time, work placements or transitions?
• How will progress towards the agreed outcomes be reviewed?

"Access to support" is less useful than a description of what will be provided. If a provision is necessary, ask for it to be written clearly in Section F rather than left to an informal support note.

Moving from school to post-16 education

The local authority must review and amend the EHC plan before a young person transfers from secondary school to a post-16 institution. The statutory deadline is 31 March in the calendar year of the transfer ^[1]. This is later than the February deadline used for most school phase transfers, but families still need discussions to begin well before March.

The amended plan should identify the next placement. The young person can express a preference for certain types of institution covered by the legislation, and the local authority must consult the proposed setting before naming it. A course offer and a completed EHC plan are connected processes, but one does not replace the other.

Ask the prospective setting to attend the review where possible. Give it the current plan and ask:

• Can you deliver every item of special educational provision as written?
• Which support is ordinarily available to students and which needs separate funding?
• Who will coordinate the support?
• How will the plan work on placements, practical sessions or days away from campus?
• What happens if the timetable or course level changes after enrolment?

The guide to how support at college works explains the difference between an EHC plan, the college's own SEN support and reasonable adjustments.

Which post-16 routes can have an EHC plan?

An EHC plan can be maintained for education or training in settings and programmes that fall within the English SEND framework. Depending on the young person's circumstances, this can include:

• a school sixth form;
• a further-education or sixth-form college;
• a supported internship;
• an apprenticeship; or
• another suitable education or training programme.

The plan should reflect the actual programme. An apprenticeship includes paid work and off-the-job training, so outcomes and provision need to relate to both parts. A supported internship is mainly based with an employer but remains a study programme. The post-16 options guide explains these education and training routes without assuming that one is the natural next step.

An EHC plan does not continue into higher education, including university [1, 2]. Universities arrange reasonable adjustments and study support through their own disability service. Eligible students can also apply for Disabled Students' Allowance. Planning for that support should begin before the EHC plan ends, because neither the university nor the student-finance body inherits Section F.

Paid employment on its own is not education or training for EHC-plan purposes. If a young person is moving into work, the final review should identify what other support or services may be needed, but the plan cannot be kept solely to organise adult life.

Health and social-care provision recorded in the plan should be reviewed alongside the education outcomes, but an EHC plan remains an education-led plan. If a health or care need will continue after education ends, ask the responsible service how that support will be assessed, funded and delivered outside the EHC process. Do not wait for a ceasing notice to discover that a separate adult-service referral or assessment was needed.

What happens at 19

There is no automatic cut-off at 19. The Department for Education says local authorities must not cease a plan because the young person is 19 or older. Some young people need longer in education or training to achieve their agreed outcomes ^[2].

There is equally no general entitlement to remain on a course, repeat programmes or retain a plan until 25. For a young person over 18, the authority must consider whether the education or training outcomes in the plan have been achieved when deciding if the plan remains necessary ^[2].

The review should examine progress rather than use age as shorthand. Useful evidence includes:

• progress towards each current outcome;
• the education or training still proposed;
• the special educational provision still needed;
• whether a different or shorter programme would meet the remaining outcomes;
• the young person's wishes and reasons; and
• the effect of ending provision before a planned transition is complete.

A slow or uneven rate of progress is not, by itself, proof that education has no further purpose. Nor does an unachieved outcome automatically prove that the same programme should continue. The review needs to consider what remains educationally necessary and suitable.

If the young person leaves or pauses a course

If a young person aged 18 or over leaves education or training before the course ends, the authority must review the situation before closing the plan. This includes whether the young person wants to return to education or training and whether doing so would be appropriate ^[2].

Tell the local authority quickly if illness, anxiety, placement breakdown or another problem interrupts attendance. Ask for an early review and distinguish between leaving education permanently, pausing while support is repaired and needing a different setting or programme.

Keep the paper trail clear. Record the young person's view, what the provider says it can offer, the support that was in place and any provision that was missing. The Evidence and Timeline Log can hold requests and response dates.

How a plan ends

A local authority may cease to maintain an EHC plan when it is no longer responsible for the young person or decides that maintaining the plan is no longer necessary ^[3]. For a young person over 18, it must consider whether the education or training outcomes have been achieved. The plan also ends when the young person moves into higher education.

The authority should use the final annual review to plan the transition out of education and training. It must then issue a formal notice of its decision. That notice should explain the decision and the relevant rights to mediation and appeal [1, 2]. An informal comment that the plan will "probably end" is not the decision itself.

When ending is proposed, ask for:

1. the evidence relied on;
2. the outcomes the authority considers achieved;
3. its view of any education or training still proposed;
4. the support needed when the plan ends; and
5. the written decision and deadline for challenging it.

Get advice promptly because appeal deadlines run from the formal decision. A local SEND information, advice and support service can explain the process. If you live outside England, use the guide to education support across the UK, because an EHC plan and its ending rules do not apply in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.