Almost 7,000 children supported: reflecting on the 2025/26 school year

SEND teams are being asked to support growing numbers of children and young people while managing complex cases, stretched resources and significant administrative demands.

Behind every Education, Health and Care Plan is a professional bringing together evidence, listening to families and applying their judgement to set out the right support for a child. The priority is not technology for its own sake. It is giving those professionals more time to focus on the people they support.

As the 2025/26 school year comes to an end, we want to recognise the work local authority teams have done and thank everyone who has helped shape the Agilisys EHCP Drafting Tool.

Almost 7,000 children supported

Between September 2025 and July 2026, local authority teams used our EHCP tool 6,939 times across 25 local authorities.

• 6,939
  uses of the EHCP Drafting Tool between September 2025 and July 2026
• 25
  local authorities whose teams used the tool this school year
• Every
  draft checked, refined and approved by an end user before it forms part of a plan

Each run represents another child or young person supported. It also represents an end user applying their professional expertise to turn evidence from families, education, health and care professionals into a clear and person-centred plan.

The tool helps with the administrative work of reviewing, organising and drafting information from multiple reports. The end user remains responsible for checking, refining and approving every plan.

This matters because the aim is not to remove people from the process. It is to complement their expertise. By reducing time spent moving information between documents and producing an initial draft, AI can give professionals more time to understand each child’s circumstances, speak with families and focus on the quality of the final plan.

Developed around local practice

EHCP drafting is complex. Each local authority has its own templates, processes and expectations, and every child’s circumstances are different. A standard product cannot simply be deployed and expected to meet every local need.

That is why we configure the tool around each local authority’s approach and develop it with the people who will use it. Their knowledge of the service, combined with our technical expertise, helps shape technology that supports established practice rather than forcing teams to work around a system.

Throughout the school year, end users and stakeholders have taken part in onboarding, testing and feedback sessions. They have shown us what works, where the tool needs to improve and what a useful draft looks like in their local context.

This is not always a linear process. Meaningful improvements require honest feedback, testing and iteration. The result is technology shaped around the needs of the service and the children and young people it supports.

Supporting change as well as technology

Introducing AI into a service is about more than deploying a tool. Local authorities also need clear governance, defined outcomes and support for the people affected by the change.

We know some end users will be confident using AI, while others will have reasonable questions about accuracy, accountability and how it could affect their role. These concerns need to be addressed openly.

The EHCP Drafting Tool supports professional judgement. It does not replace it. Local authority teams retain control of the process, and every draft must be reviewed by an end user before it becomes part of a child’s plan.

Our role is to help local authorities build the knowledge and confidence to use AI responsibly.

Shaped by the people doing the work

The progress made this year belongs to the SEND professionals and local authority leaders who have been willing to test a different approach while continuing to deliver for children and families.

Their feedback has led to changes in how the tool handles local templates, extracts information and presents different sections of a plan. It has also helped us understand that successful adoption depends on more than technical performance. End users need to see how the tool supports their work, have confidence in its output and know that their feedback leads to practical changes.

We would like to thank everyone who has used the tool, challenged us and helped us improve it during the past school year.

The next step: EHCP Drafting V2

Those lessons are now informing EHCP Drafting V2.

V2 is designed to process documents faster, improve consistency and handle complex cases more reliably. It will also strengthen the links between needs, outcomes and provision, helping end users maintain the golden thread throughout each plan.

The upgraded tool will be introduced in phases. Local authority teams will test it in production and help us validate the improvements before it is deployed more widely. This approach keeps professional experience at the centre of development and allows us to respond quickly when further changes are needed.

Looking ahead to 2026/27

Almost 7,000 children and young people supported during one school year is an important milestone. However, the wider opportunity is to help local authorities create more capacity while keeping professional expertise, relationships and outcomes at the centre of SEND services.

Technology is the enabler. The real work is done by the people who listen to children and families, make informed decisions and turn a draft into the right plan for each child.

Thank you to every local authority and end user who has contributed this year. We look forward to building on that work in 2026/27, supporting more teams and reaching more children and young people through EHCP Drafting V2.