Physiotherapy and EHC Plans

An EHC plan is divided into sections, lettered A to K. Physiotherapy can appear in two of these.

Section F (Special Educational Provision). The local authority has a duty under Section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014 to secure everything written in Section F.

Section G (Health Provision). The duty here sits with the health commissioner (NHS Integrated Care Board) rather than the local authority. It is enforceable, but historically the mechanisms for enforcement have been less straightforward than for Section F.

Under Section 21(5) of the Children and Families Act 2014, any health provision that helps a child learn or develop skills is treated as special educational provision in law. That means it belongs in Section F, not Section G, regardless of who delivers it or who pays for it.

In practice, physiotherapy in a school setting almost always meets this test. Postural support to sit at a desk, gross motor work to access PE, hand function support to write. All of this helps the child access education. That provision belongs in Section F.

If physiotherapy that meets this test has been placed in Section G rather than Section F, the route to enforcement may be more difficult.

This distinction also affects which funding routes apply. The personal budget and direct payment routes described later in this guide apply where physiotherapy is named in Section F. Provision named in Section G is health-funded and follows the NHS personal health budget process instead, which works differently.

The law requires Section F to be specific, detailed and quantified. Case law, including L v Clarke and Somerset, has established that vague or unquantified provision does not meet the legal standard.

Specific and quantified physiotherapy provision looks like:

Vague provision, which is not lawful, looks like:

You should be able to read Section F and know exactly what your child is receiving: what, how often, for how long, by whom, and in what setting.

The EHCP framework extends to the age of 25 for young people in education or training, or who are receiving an EOTAS (Education Otherwise Than At School) package. The local authority's duty to maintain and review the plan does not automatically end when a young person finishes college.

What families often experience is that at the end of a college course, the local authority proposes to cease the plan on the basis that there is no further suitable provision available. This is sometimes framed as though it is inevitable. It is not. The legal test for ceasing a plan requires the local authority to show that the young person's educational and training needs and outcomes have been met, or that it is no longer necessary for the plan to be maintained. Where outcomes remain unmet, and where physiotherapy provision is still required to work toward those outcomes, the plan should not be ceased.

If the outcomes written in the plan are framed exclusively around academic achievement, this can give the local authority an exit route. If they are framed around functional independence, community participation, and preparation for adulthood, they are much harder to argue as fully met.