Choosing a school or college with an EHC plan
Requests for a particular school, college or other institution if a child or young person has an EHC plan.
Legislation say that parent/carers or the young person has the right to request a particular school, college or other institution of the following type to be named in their EHC plan:
- Maintained nursery school.
- Maintained school and any form of academy or free school (mainstream or special).
- Non-maintained special school.
- Further education or Sixth Form College.
- Independent school or independent specialist colleges (where they have been approved for this purpose by the Secretary of State and published in a list available to all parents and young people).
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If a parent/carer or a young person makes a request for a particular nursery, school or Post-16 institution in these groups the LA must comply with that preference and name the school or college in the EHC plan unless the LA can demonstrate one of the following:
It would be unsuitable for the age, ability, aptitude or SEN of the child or young person.
     OR
The attendance of the child or young person there would be incompatible with the efficient education of others, or the efficient use of resources.
You can find out more about your rights to request a particular school or college in the SEND Code of Practice 2015Â sections 9.78 to 9.90
Efficient education means providing for each child or young person a suitable, appropriate education in terms of their age, ability, aptitude and any special educational needs they may have. Where a LA is considering the appropriateness of an individual institution, ‘others’ is intended to mean the children and young people with whom the child or young person with an EHC plan will directly come into contact on a regular day-to-day basis.
The LA must consult the governing body, principal or proprietor of the school or college concerned and consider their comments very carefully before deciding whether to name it in the child or young person’s EHC plan, sending the school or college a copy of the draft plan. If another local authority maintains the school, they too must be consulted. The nursery, school or college and, where relevant, the other local authority, should respond within 15 days.
Where a nursery, school or college identified above is named on an EHC plan they must admit the child or young person without delay.
Where no request is made for a particular school or college or a request for a particular school or college has not been met for a child or young person with an EHC plan
Where parent/carers or the young person does not make a request for a particular nursery, school or college, or does so and their request is not met, the LA must specify mainstream provision in the EHC plan unless it would be:
- Against parent/carers, child’s or young person’s wishes, or
- Incompatible with the efficient education of others.
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Mainstream education cannot be refused by a LA on the grounds that it is not suitable. There is often a common misunderstanding in law, where a school’s or college’s belief that some children and young people are not suitable for mainstream education, usually because they consider that their SEN or disabilities are too great or too complex. However, ‘suitability’ is not a reason in law for LA’s to refuse a child a mainstream education.
If your LA wishes to refuse a placement request, the LA has to prove that at least one of the conditions within section 33 CFA 2014 applies for the refusal to be lawful.
A LA can rely on the exception of incompatibility with the efficient education of others in relation to maintained nursery schools, mainstream schools or mainstream Post-16 institutions taken as a whole only if it can show that there are no reasonable steps it could take to prevent that incompatibility.
Please note that whilst a child or young person has a legal right to mainstream education, this does not legally necessarily mean a right to a particular mainstream school or college.
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