SEND Law Hub
Education, health and social care must work together. This is a statutory duty under the Children and Families Act 2014. This chapter explains what joint commissioning should look like and what to do when it fails.
The 'Every Child Achieving and Thriving' Education White Paper was published in February 2026, alongside a companion document 'SEND Reform: Putting Children and Young People First'. These introduce significant proposed changes including Individual Support Plans, a new three-tier support model, and Specialist Provision Packages. The law documented here — the Children and Families Act 2014 and SEND Code of Practice 2015 — remains in full force until legislation and the updated Code are brought into effect. We will update each page as official text is published. See our SEND Reform 2026 page for a full breakdown.
This chapter sets out the legal duty on local authorities and NHS bodies to jointly plan and commission services for children and young people with SEN. When this breaks down, families usually end up having to coordinate between agencies and chase provision themselves.
Section 25 and Section 26, Children and Families Act 2014. Code of Practice § 3.1 to 3.5
Section 25 of the Children and Families Act 2014 places a duty on local authorities to ensure that education, health and social care services work together where this promotes children and young peoples wellbeing or improves the quality of special educational provision.
Local authorities and Integrated Care Boards must have arrangements in place to plan and commission education, health and social care services jointly for children and young people with SEN or disabilities under Section 26.
These joint commissioning arrangements must cover EHC needs assessments, EHC plans, EHC provision, and support for young people in preparation for adulthood.
This is meant to be formal joint working, not a vague promise to cooperate. The system should be planned around the child so you are not left coordinating between education, health and social care yourself.
If health provision written into the EHCP is not happening, write to the local authority and ask what steps they are taking to secure delivery and who is responsible for commissioning it.
Section 26, Children and Families Act 2014. Code of Practice § 3.6 to 3.34
Joint commissioning must consider the needs of all 0 to 25 year olds with SEN or disabilities in the area. It should include arrangements for securing assessments, provision in EHCPs, clarity on responsibility, and resolving inter agency funding disputes.
Local authorities and health bodies should have a Designated Medical Officer or Designated Clinical Officer role to support joint working between health and education.
Personal budgets can draw on education, health and social care funding. Local authorities and health bodies should publish information about how personal budgets are provided locally.
You should be able to get a clear answer about who funds and delivers each part of support. If you have never heard of the DMO or DCO in your area, ask the SEND team — every area should have one.
If provision is being delayed because agencies are arguing over who pays, put it in writing and state that disputes must not hold up support. Ask for a named officer and a delivery date.
Care Act 2014, Children Act 1989, and related duties. Code of Practice § 3.45 to 3.64
Education Local authorities are responsible for EHC plans, the process around assessments, and coordinating provision. Schools must use their best endeavours to secure SEN provision.
Health NHS bodies must cooperate in preparing EHC plans and support the process of assessment and planning.
Social care Local authorities must consider duties to children in need and care and support duties where relevant. Social care provision included in an EHCP should be delivered.
If it is written into the EHCP, it should be delivered. Education, health and social care might use different systems, but the child should not be the one who falls between them.
If any provision is not happening, write to the local authority and ask who is responsible and when it will start. Ask for a written response you can keep.
Section 27, Children and Families Act 2014. Code of Practice § 3.65 to 3.71
Local authorities must keep SEN education and training provision and social care provision under review, publish and review the local offer, and publish relevant information about outcomes for children and young people with SEN. Health and wellbeing boards assess population needs through the joint strategic needs assessment.
Councils are meant to monitor whether the local SEND system works. Long waits, missing provision, late EHCPs and poor outcomes are not just personal problems — they are system failures that should show up in local oversight.
If the problem looks systemic, raise it with councillors, the parent carer forum, and use the local area SEND inspection process as a pressure point. Keep everything in writing.
'Every Child Achieving and Thriving' — DfE, February 2026
The white paper introduces a new £1.8 billion Experts at Hand service bringing speech and language therapists, Educational Psychologists and other professionals directly into mainstream schools and early years settings. This is explicitly framed as a joint commissioning element — multiagency support deployed earlier, more flexibly, and closer to the child. It represents a significant expansion of what joint commissioning should be expected to deliver.
Once commissioned, Experts at Hand professionals will be accessible through schools and settings — rather than families having to navigate separate referral routes to health. This should reduce the situation where education and health argue about who provides specialist input.
This service does not yet exist. The current legal framework — including the duty on ICBs to jointly commission under Section 26 — remains in force.
The white paper gives the Children's Commissioner a new statutory remit to provide oversight and scrutiny of SEND reform implementation. The Commissioner will publish regular public reports identifying gaps, risks, unintended consequences and areas of good practice. This is a new external accountability mechanism that sits above local area SEND inspections.
These reports will be public documents and can be used as evidence in complaints, LGO cases, and Tribunal proceedings to demonstrate that systemic failures are known and documented at national level.
Sections 25 and 26 joint commissioning duties are unchanged. The ICB terminology is already correct in this page. Your right to challenge failed joint working is unchanged. Disputes between agencies must still not delay provision.
