Delivering health aspects of Education Health and Care Plans

Status / emerging findings

• Health sections of EHCPs lack statutory enforcement equivalent to education sections, making them the weakest and hardest-to-enforce component of plans
• CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) frequently ignores requests for assessment data without explanation or legal justification, blocking coordinated care
• 50–72% of children's speech and language therapists and occupational therapists report critical understaffing; 64% say even full staffing wouldn't meet demand
• Schools White Paper proposals (tiered model, Experts at Hand) lack clear health accountability mechanisms and remove mental health from explicit SEND protections
• Local authority SEND caseworkers lack training and resources to coordinate health provision

Why it matters

Tens of thousands of children with identified health needs are not receiving mandated support because the system treating their health has no enforceable obligation to deliver it—and proposed reforms may make this worse.

Tone arc

Session opened with acknowledgment of systemic failure across health delivery, shifted sharply critical when witnesses detailed CAMHS non-compliance and structural gaps in the White Paper's health safeguards.

Key witnesses

Unison, Speech and language therapy workforce representatives, Occupational therapy workforce representatives, CAMHS service representatives, Local authority SEND caseworkers, Educational psychology services