SEND tribunal working documents
Colour-code an EHC plan working document to the standard tribunal key in one click — reading the formatting already in the file, with nothing ever leaving your device.
For SEND solicitors, local authorities, supporters & parents · Local processing · No AI
The working document, and why colour matters
When a SEND appeal reaches the working-document stage, the local authority and the family negotiate the wording of the EHC Plan in a shared Word document. Everyone marks their proposals with formatting — bold, italic, underline, strikethrough — so the tribunal can see who proposed each change and what has already been agreed.
Read by formatting alone, a forty-page working document is hard going. Converting it to the standard colour key makes every party's amendments and every deletion obvious — but doing that by hand, character by character, is exactly the kind of slow, error-prone task nobody has time for the night before a hearing.
The standard tribunal colour key
| Formatting | Meaning | Colour applied |
|---|---|---|
| Bold | Young person / parent amendments | Yellow highlight |
| Italic | Local authority amendments | Blue highlight |
| Underline | Agreed text | Green font |
| Strikethrough | Proposed deletions | Red font |
Working Document Helper applies this key across the whole document — including tables — in one click. The free tier uses these standard colours; Pro lets a team set and save its own. Full walk-through on the Working Document Helper page.
A working document names a child
Which is why the colour-coding runs entirely on your device, inside Word. The EHC plan is not uploaded to us, and no AI reads the contents of the case.
Licensing and account information is handled by our service providers, separately from your documents — the same no-upload approach we take across both add-ins. See the plain-English privacy explanation.
SEND working document FAQ
What is a SEND tribunal working document?
In a SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) appeal, the parties negotiate the wording of an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan using a shared Word document. Each party marks their proposed changes with specific formatting so it is clear who proposed what, ahead of the tribunal.
How does the tribunal colour key work?
The convention maps formatting to colour: bold for young person / parent amendments, italic for local authority amendments, underline for agreed text, and strikethrough for proposed deletions. Reading it by formatting alone is slow; colour makes each party’s changes obvious at a glance.
What does Working Document Helper do to the document?
It reads the formatting already in your working document and applies the standard colour key throughout in one click — bold to yellow highlight, italic to blue, underline to green font, strikethrough to red font. What would take hours of manual formatting review is done in seconds.
Is the EHC plan uploaded anywhere?
No. The colour-coding runs locally inside Microsoft Word on your device. The working document — which names a child — is never uploaded to us or processed by AI. That matters for confidential SEND casework.
Can I customise the colours or produce a clean final version?
Yes, with Pro. You can set your own colour for each category (useful for a team house style) and use the clean function to produce a finalised plan once changes are agreed. The free tier covers colour-coding to the standard key.
Colour-code your next working document in one click
Working Document Helper is free to install from Microsoft AppSource, for UK SEND tribunal work.