Moving Schools or Councils With an EHCP

An EHC plan does not disappear when a child moves. If the new school is in the same local authority, the plan stays with the same authority and the school named in it is updated through the review or amendment process. If the family moves to a new authority area, responsibility for the plan transfers: the old authority sends the plan and records to the new one, and the new authority takes over, usually reviewing the plan and the school place for the new area. Timescales and transfer arrangements are set out in official guidance, and both authorities' letters govern your own move. This guide gives the general shape only, not advice about any individual transfer.

Planned phase moves, such as primary to secondary, are the most common version. These are normally handled through the annual review cycle: the review in the transfer year looks ahead to the new setting, and the plan is amended to name the new school in time for the move, following the pattern in the annual review walkthrough. A move at other times, for family or other reasons, usually involves discussion with the authority about the school named in the plan, because the plan names the setting the child attends. Either way, the school file moves too: support plans, reports and review records follow the child, and asking the old school what it is sending, and the new school what it has received, closes the usual gaps.

A move between authorities adds a handover between councils. In general terms, the old authority transfers the plan and the child's records to the new authority around the move, and the new authority then becomes responsible for the plan and for arranging the provision in it. The new authority will usually consider the school place for its area and review the plan, and it may propose amendments to reflect local provision and the new setting. Families can help the handover by telling both authorities about the move in writing as early as possible, finding the new area's pages through the Local Offer, and keeping their own complete copy of the plan and recent reports to hand, independent of any transfer between offices.

Your own folder is the one copy of the record guaranteed to arrive on time. Before a move, gather: the current final plan and any draft amendments, the last annual review report, recent school support plans and reports, and any professional reports the plan draws on. Check you have the final signed versions rather than early drafts, because offices and schools sometimes hold different versions. The system in keeping records through the review year makes this a ten minute job if it has run all year. After the move, note the new authority's named contact, the date the plan was received, and any review date you are given, on the front page of the folder.

Even a well handled transfer lands in a classroom where staff are meeting your child for the first time. A short introduction helps: many families share a one page profile or a brief meeting with the new SENCO in the first weeks, covering what helps, what is hard, and what is in the plan day to day. Expect a settling period while new staff learn routines that the old school knew by heart, and expect the new authority's review to tidy up anything the transfer left unclear. Keep notes from the first term with dates; they become the evidence base for that first review in the new area, and they are easier to write weekly than to reconstruct later.

Two habits carry most moves: tell the school and both authorities early and in writing, and hold your own complete copy of the plan and reports throughout. The authorities handle the formal transfer between them; your folder guarantees you can always answer, on any day of the move, what the current plan says and when it was last reviewed.

One more detail is worth settling before moving day: prescriptions for the school nurse, inhalers, spare clothes, comfort items and any equipment your child uses in class, and which box each travels in. Moves generate a special kind of chaos in which the big paperwork arrives and the small daily essentials are the things that go missing. A short list of those items, packed last and opened first, protects the first week in the new classroom, which is the week that sets the tone for everything after it.