SEN Admissions Disputes with Local Authorities

The admissions process for children and young people with Education, Health and Care Plans can be fraught with difficulty with educational settings being expected to admit more complex needs than they can reasonably cater for. We specialise in challenging placement decisions where a school is named by a Local Authority against its wishes. 

The Children and Families Act 2014 gives parents, carers and young people the right to express preferences for a wide range of educational settings, including maintained schools, academies and approved independent and non-maintained special schools.

However, the lack of specialist placements is resulting in children and young people being placed inappropriately in a wide range of schools, leading to significant difficulties for the setting and the child/young person concerned. This may include school refusal, environmental trauma, behavioural challenges, injury to staff and children.

Ultimately, the decision on where a child or young person with an EHC Plan should be educated rests with the Local Authority, taking into account the parent’s choice of setting and the views of the educational setting following a consultation process. Where an educational setting has been named against its wishes we can help and are experienced in challenging the admissions decisions of local authorities.

How we can support you

We have advised Headteachers and Governing Body’s on admissions disputes since the implementation of the Children and Families Act 2014. We offer a range of support to help you manage the admissions process more effectively and legally to ensure compliance with the legislation. This support includes:

Advising on the terms of the educational settings SEN Policy and SEN Information, which is often vague and general.
Advising on the admissions policies of specialist settings to ensure that the appropriate cohort of children are considered for placement at the school, thereby preventing children with different needs being considered for placement.

Advising the educational setting on its response to admission consultations from a local authority and how these need to be managed to ensure a legally compliant response.
Challenging local authorities decisions to name a setting in an EHC Plan.

ADVICE ON RESPONSE TO CONSULTATIONS

Responding to a consultation is an onerous task, particularly where a setting may be receiving hundreds of consultations a year. We can advise you on how you need to approach the consultation process and what issues need to be raised in order to lawfully oppose the educational setting being named in an EHC Plan.

COMPLAINT to Secretary of State

We acted for a multi-Academy Trust that was being directed to admit hundreds of children each year despite those children having inadequate EHC Plans and the school setting out clearly why they would not be a suitable placement. A complaint was made to the Secretary of State for Education and the Local Authority was found to have acted unreasonably in naming the school. The placement decisions therefore had to be revoked.

Threat of Judicial Review

We acted for a special school which was being directed to admit children well over its published admission number. We gave advice to the Governing Body on how this situation could be addressed and following reviews by a Health and Safety expert and a specialist Educational Psychologist which outlined the dangers of more children being placed, we were able to threaten judicial review where a local authority continued to seek to place children either voluntarily or via SEN Tribunal appeals.

BRINGING ADMISSIONS INHOUSE

We supported an Academy in bringing its admissions process “inhouse” after it had been managed by the local authority.  This resulted in the Academy being able to attract children from outside the local authority area and increasing the profile of the school, without interference from the local authority. This resulted in increased funding and demand for places, which enabled the Academy to grow at is own pace and not the local authority’s.

CONTACT US

For more information on how we may be able to support you please contact us at advice@sen4you.co.uk or on 01908 082422.