EHCPs in Scotland: What Happens to Your Child's Plan When You Move North

You've spent years getting your child's EHCP to a point where the provision is finally right. The placement is working. The therapies are funded. Then comes a move to Scotland — for work, family, or any other reason — and someone tells you that your EHCP doesn't apply up here.

That's correct. And the implications are more significant than most families realize until they're already in the middle of it.

EHCPs are invalid in Scotland

An Education, Health and Care Plan is a product of English law, specifically the Children and Families Act 2014. Scotland has its own entirely separate education legislation — the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004. There is no equivalent of the EHCP in Scotland and there is no automatic transfer mechanism.

When your child moves to Scotland, the EHCP becomes legally irrelevant. The Scottish education authority is not bound by it. They are not required to replicate the provision it specifies. They are not required to honor the placement named within it. They are not required to fund the therapies it mandates.

This is not a technicality. It's the consequence of Scotland and England being separate education jurisdictions under devolved law. The SEND framework applies in England and Wales. Scotland runs its own system entirely.

What the Scottish authority must do

While the EHCP itself carries no legal force, the Scottish education authority has immediate statutory duties to any child who moves into their jurisdiction under the ASL Act 2004. They must:

1. Identify whether the child has Additional Support Needs (the Scottish equivalent of Special Educational Needs)
2. Assess those needs
3. Provide adequate and efficient additional support to meet those needs

The authority must take the EHCP evidence into account during their assessment — your child arrives with a substantial body of assessments, reports, and documentation, and the authority cannot simply ignore it. But "take into account" does not mean "replicate." They will reassess the child according to Scottish criteria and determine what provision is required under the ASL Act.

In practice, this means:

• The specific provision named in the EHCP (e.g., 25 hours of 1:1 support, specific reading intervention programme, specialist school placement) is not automatically carried over
• NHS Scotland will reassess any health provision needs independently of what the English NHS was providing — your child may be placed on new waiting lists
• If the previous placement was a specialist independent school in England, the Scottish authority is not obligated to fund continued attendance there

The terminology shift

Coming from England, you'll be using a different vocabulary from everyone in the Scottish system. Getting the language right matters — using English SEND terminology in correspondence with Scottish authorities signals that you don't understand the framework they're operating within, which can subtly affect how seriously your written requests are taken.

The CSP is the closest Scottish equivalent to the EHCP, but the comparison is imperfect. The EHCP covers education, health, and care. The CSP covers education only (though it requires coordination with health and care agencies). The CSP threshold is also extremely high — as of 2024, only 1,215 pupils in Scotland have one, representing 0.4% of all ASN pupils. A child who had an EHCP in England may well not qualify for a CSP in Scotland.

Steps to take before the move

The single most important piece of advice is to contact the receiving Scottish education authority as early as possible — ideally at least three months before the move.

Step 1: Identify the education authority. Scotland has 32 education authorities covering different geographic areas (Highland Council, Edinburgh City Council, Glasgow City Council, etc.). This is who you contact, not the school directly.

Step 2: Notify them formally in writing that your child will be moving to the area and that they currently have an EHCP. Attach a copy of the current EHCP and any supporting assessments.

Step 3: Request that the authority begin an ASN assessment under the ASL Act immediately upon your child starting school. Don't wait for the school to identify needs organically — request the assessment proactively.

Step 4: Request CSP consideration explicitly if your child's needs are complex, multi-agency, and long-term. State clearly that your child meets these criteria. Reference Section 7 of the ASL Act 2004 in your request. The authority will not automatically consider a CSP — you need to ask.

Step 5: Engage with NHS services in the new area before the move if possible. CAMHS referrals, speech therapy, OT — these often have long waiting lists and the clock only starts when a referral is made. Ask your child's current practitioners to write letters summarizing the need so you have fresh clinical evidence to support a referral.

What happens if the authority doesn't assess adequately

If the Scottish education authority fails to carry out an adequate ASN assessment — or acknowledges needs but fails to provide support — you have several options:

Formal written request for assessment — cite Section 6 and Section 8A of the ASL Act 2004. This triggers statutory timelines. Keep a copy and note the date.

Independent adjudication — if there's a specific dispute about provision, an independent adjudicator can review the situation and issue recommendations.

ASN Tribunal — if the authority refuses to assess for a CSP, or refuses to issue one, you can refer the case to the ASN Tribunal within two months of the refusal. For families accustomed to appealing EHCP decisions to the SEND Tribunal in England, the Scottish equivalent works similarly in principle but has a narrower jurisdiction.

Govan Law Centre — provides free legal advice and representation for families in Scotland navigating ASN disputes. Their Education Law Unit (0800 043 0306) is the most specialized resource available and they take cases at the Tribunal free of charge.

A realistic picture

Families who move from England to Scotland with complex EHCPs frequently describe the transition as one of the most stressful periods of their child's education. The loss of the EHCP framework — which, for all its flaws in English practice, at least provides a legally specified and enforceable package of provision — and the replacement by the Scottish system's much smaller statutory tier can feel like a significant step backward.

There is no way to avoid this entirely. What you can do is reduce the gap between what your child had and what they'll receive in Scotland by being proactive, well-documented, and clear about what you're requesting and why.

The Scotland CSP & Additional Support Blueprint at /uk/scotland/iep-guide/ is specifically designed for this situation — families arriving in Scotland who need to understand the ASN system from scratch and know how to advocate effectively within it. It includes the exact letter language to use when requesting an ASN assessment as a new resident, a guide to requesting CSP consideration, and a plain-language explanation of how the Scottish dispute resolution system works.

If you're planning a move, the time to start reading is now — before you arrive, not after your child has been in a new school for three months with inadequate support and you're trying to work out what went wrong.

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