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The question is not whether AI has a role to play in SEND documentation, but rather how quickly and effectively we can harness it
For SEND teams across local authorities, the complexity of the Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)processes is a daily reality. Increasing caseloads, challenging timescales and resource limitations mean the EHCP drafting process is far from a well-oiled machine.
But in an age of digital transformation, artificial intelligence (AI) is beginning to emerge as a powerful partner – not to replace professionals, but to support them where it matters most.
At Invision360, we’ve spent years working alongside LA SEND teams, listening to their frustrations, and co-designing solutions that genuinely solve problems. With our new module, Vita EHCP, we’re introducing AI into the heart of SEND documentation. But what does that mean in practice? How can AI actually help SEND teams? And what challenges can it overcome?
In this blog, we’ll explore how AI is set to transform SEND documentation – not in the distant future, but right now.
EHCPs are the cornerstone of support for children and young people with SEND. They are essential (and legal) documents that set out how a child will achieve their potential. Yet the process of producing them is often anything but smooth.
From the initial request to the final plan, EHCP creation requires collaboration from multiple professionals across education, health, and care sectors.
Local authority teams are tasked with combining reports, advice, and assessments into one coherent, legally compliant, and person-centred plan. And they must do it within the statutory20-week timescale. All while caseloads are growing and resources remain stretched.
Despite best efforts, this often leads to delays, inconsistency in quality, and an immense administrative resource.
In fact, studies show that SEND professionals spend up to 6–8hours drafting a single EHCP. Time that could otherwise be spent supporting children and families directly.
When local authorities like Hertfordshire County Council are experiencing a 223% increase in EHCP applications (between 2015-2023), and seeing an overall national average increase of 140%. There simply isn’t the time available to manually draft each EHCP to the standard SEND teams want to achieve.
Something has to give. There are two clear choices: to compromise on the quality of EHCPs or to alter the processes for drafting them.
As the quality of EHCPs is a driving force for the SEND reform changes, the current processes that LA teams are using must be modernised to meet demand.
Invision360’s own user feedback reflects this reality. A significant 70%of SEND professionals believe AI has the potential to support EHCP development, and 70% also agree that it could reduce administrative workload.
Artificial intelligence is no longer a buzzword found in films and top security clearance professions. AI is now evident everywhere. It's here, and top, trusted companies are channelling it to help real-world professionals in education, including those working in LA SEND teams.
AI in this context doesn’t mean robots writing documents or replacing human decision-making. It means intelligent systems trained on best practices, expert frameworks, and vast volumes of high-quality examples that can help guide and accelerate the EHCP documentation process.
From generating draft text based on existing reports to suggesting improvements in quality, clarity, structure, or tone, AI can serve as a tireless, always-on assistant for busy caseworkers and SEND coordinators.
This is exactly the thinking behind Vita EHCP – Invision360’s generative AI-powered solution, designed specifically for EHCP documentation. It’s not a generic word processor with a few smart features. It’s a tool built around the realities of SEND teams, designed to speed up workflows without sacrificing quality or compliance.
Imagine starting an EHCP draft with the click of a button – where AI reads the incoming professional advice and begins generating structured, personalised sections of the plan. Instead of starting with a blank page, professionals can review, refine, and enhance what’s already there.
AI can generate initial drafts based on uploaded advice from educational psychologists, therapists, SENDCos, and more.
AI ensures that sections follow statutory requirements, reducing the risk of omissions or inconsistencies.
AI can suggest more person-centred phrasing, ensuring that plans reflect the voice of the child and family.
AI provides feedback during drafting to highlight gaps or potential areas of improvement, supporting continuous learning across the team and helping leadership teams to target CPD efforts for their SEND teams.
Here are some key pain points that AI can alleviate:
One of the most time-consuming aspects of EHCP creation involves writing the draft from scratch. AI can take care of the first 70-80% of drafting, allowing professionals to focus their expertise on fine-tuning and localised advice.
Uploading, categorising, and incorporating advice into plans is often done manually. With AI, this process becomes semi-automated – documents can be analysed instantly and key information extracted intelligently.
Using AI in the SEND documentation process doesn’t remove the need for humans. It makes the most of their experience and expertise by reducing the heavy administrative duties that often take so much time away.
By accelerating the documentation workflow, AI tools can help local authorities stay within statutory timescales. With the current data highlighting over half of all LAs find EHCP timescales a challenge, this is a welcomed advantage of AI use.
AI identifies inconsistencies across different parts of the plan. For example, if Section B references needs that don’t align with Section F’s provision. It flags these issues before submission, helping teams produce more coherent and robust EHCPs.
As we know, recent research has shown that inconsistency is a widespread issue in EHCPs – affecting not only plan quality but also legal defensibility.
AI’s ability to cross-reference, validate and support coherence is one of its most impactful strengths.
Instantly connect citations to their sources with AI-powered reference matching. No more manual searches or time hunting for where each citation originated. Technology automatically identifies and links every in-text reference to its complete citation details, saving time while ensuring perfect citation accuracy.
SEND professionals chose the field of SEND to make a difference for children and families, AI helps restore that purpose by removing some of the administrative heavy tasks allowing professionasl to spend more time:
· Engaging with families in meaningful ways
· Collaborating across services
· Reviewing and reflecting on the content and outcomes of EHCPs
· Developing professionally through exposure to high-quality, modelled plan structures
· This isn’t about less human input – it’s about better human impact.
We understand that the use of AI in EHCPs raises important questions, particularly around trust, accuracy, and the voice of the child.
At Invision360, we firmly believe AI should support, not replace, professional judgement or family input.
AI modules can be designed to assist with drafting, structure, and consistency, always leaving final decisions and meaningful personalisation in the hands of skilled professionals.
For SEND team leaders and local authority directors, the call to modernise is growing louder. Budget constraints, public accountability, and increasing demand all require smarter, more scalable solutions.
AI offers one such path — not asa silver bullet, but as a smart, adaptive tool that meets the realities of your service head-on. It brings speed, consistency, and insight – without compromising the heart of what makes EHCPs so vital: the people behind them.
We believe in technology that empowers, not replaces.
