The Support Protocol: Mediating the Practical Delivery of an EHCP Across Two Greater Manchester Homes

An Education, Health and Care Plan is often described as the document that secures a child’s special educational needs provision. That description is accurate but incomplete. For separated parents in Greater Manchester, the EHCP is also a working document that has to be translated into appointments, school communication, therapy attendance, homework adaptations, transport arrangements and annual review contributions. When those tasks are divided across two homes, the plan on paper can quickly become a source of friction unless the practical delivery is agreed with care.

What an EHCP does and does not decide

An EHCP is issued by the local authority. It identifies a child’s special educational needs, sets out the special educational provision required, names a school or other setting, and records outcomes and arrangements for monitoring. It is a legal document, and it is reviewed annually. In Greater Manchester, the responsible local authority may be Manchester City Council, Salford, Stockport, Trafford, Tameside, Oldham, Rochdale, Bury, Bolton or Wigan, depending on where the family lives. Cross-border placements and moves between boroughs add another layer of administrative detail.

What an EHCP does not do is allocate parental responsibilities between two households. It does not say which parent will attend a therapy session on a Tuesday, who will chase the SENCO for a review meeting, how reports will be shared, or what should happen when one parent prefers a different school placement from the other. Those are parenting and communication questions. They sit alongside the EHCP, not inside it. Mediation is often useful precisely because it addresses that gap between legal entitlement and everyday delivery.

Where two-household arrangements commonly break down

In mediation, certain pressure points recur. School placement is one. Parents may agree about the child’s needs but disagree about whether a mainstream setting with support, a specialist provision or a particular school across a borough boundary is the right answer. Transport can complicate the picture, especially where local authority travel assistance is limited or where the school is closer to one home than the other.

Appointments and therapies are another frequent source of difficulty. Speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, educational psychology input and mental health support may all involve appointments that fall during one parent’s time. If the other parent is expected to attend but has not been included in the scheduling, resentment can build. Similarly, communication with the SENCO can become uneven. One parent may become the default point of contact, while the other feels sidelined or, conversely, relieved of responsibility but uninformed.

Annual reviews expose these tensions in concentrated form. The review requires evidence, parental views and a coordinated response. If one parent holds the reports, another has concerns about the draft, and neither has agreed who will submit the parental contribution, the process can become unnecessarily adversarial. Disagreement about the child’s needs or provision may also be genuine and significant. Mediation does not erase that disagreement, but it can separate the questions that need a joint decision from those that require independent advice or a formal route of challenge.

How mediation helps with EHCP practicalities

The mediator’s role is not to decide what provision is appropriate or to interpret the EHCP as a lawyer or tribunal would. It is to create a structured conversation in which parents can identify the practical issues, clarify what each of them understands, and reach workable arrangements where possible. That may include agreeing how information from school and therapists is shared, how appointments are coordinated, and how the child’s views are gathered for the annual review.

A mediator can also help parents distinguish between three different types of issue. First, there are matters of legal entitlement under the EHCP, where specialist legal advice may be needed. Second, there are matters of parental preference, such as which parent attends a particular meeting. Third, there are matters of routine coordination, such as calendars, notifications and record-keeping. Mediation is often most effective with the second and third categories, while ensuring the first is not overlooked.

For families in Greater Manchester, mediation can be particularly helpful where communication has become formal or intermittent. A neutral setting can reduce the temptation to trade messages through the child, the school or the local authority. It can also help parents prepare a single, coherent parental contribution to the annual review rather than two separate accounts that leave the setting unsure what is agreed.

What a workable support protocol might include

A support protocol need not be lengthy, but it should be specific. Parents might agree named contacts for school and therapy services, with a clear expectation that both are copied into significant correspondence. They might agree a shared calendar for appointments, with a rule about how much notice is given and what happens if an appointment falls on a changeover day. They might agree who holds original reports, how digital copies are stored, and when documents are passed between households.

It is also useful to agree how decisions will be made when a quick response is needed. For example, if the school proposes a change to a provision or asks for consent to an activity, parents may agree a timeframe for discussion and a default position if no response is received. The protocol can record how annual review preparation will work: who requests the draft, who collates parental views, and when the child’s views will be discussed. Finally, it should include a review date, so the protocol can be adjusted as the child’s needs and the family’s circumstances change.

Keeping the child’s needs central

An EHCP is designed around one child. A support protocol should be too. Mediation can help parents keep the focus on continuity, predictability and the child’s experience of school and therapy, rather than on past grievances or the scorekeeping of who attended what. That does not require parents to agree about everything. It requires enough agreement to make the plan workable from one week to the next.

Where there are safeguarding concerns, urgent tribunal deadlines or significant disagreement about the content of the EHCP itself, mediation may need to sit alongside legal advice rather than replace it. But for many separated families in Manchester and the surrounding boroughs, a mediated support protocol can reduce day-to-day conflict and give the child a more stable experience of the provision that has been put in place.