Naming parental preference in an EHCP with parents offering to make financial contributions.



This case study centres on the Local Authority coming to an arrangement with parents so that the parents’ choice of school could be named. The parents had a particular school in mind and offered to contribute to the costs to secure a place.

Jason is a primary school aged boy with an EHCP. He is currently in Year 6 and will transfer to high school in September. The LA had named a maintained high school in the EHCP plan, but the parents had found an independent setting that they felt could much better meet need. The parental choice was not in Manchester and some distance away.

Jason’s parents were convinced on the suitability of their choice and felt that they would be able (if the LA agreed) to contribute to the costs of the placement.

i)The Law

Parents can request a setting is consulted if it falls within the list in 38(3) of the Children’s and Families Act and, in this case, it is likely that the parental preference would have been classified as a (e) a non-maintained special school.

The potential difficulty the parents had was that if the LA solely named the parental preference the LA would then be responsible for funding the placement. There is a clause within 39(4) of the Children’s and Families Act which allows the LA not to name the parents’ choice if school if it would be incompatible with—(ii) the efficient use of resources.

Section 43 of the Children’s and Families Act requires that a school admit a child named in an EHCP unless it is independent. This was not an issue as the parents had already secured that school would be willing to admit the pupil if a solution could be found. This could potentially be an issue if the school at any point felt that they could not meet need as because they are independent, they cannot be compelled to admit.

ii) Have other LAs allowed this to occur and would Manchester?

At the time, when the query came in, no one in Manchester SENDIASS had seen a situation where the parent contributed financially. With parent permission SENDIASS reached out nationally to other SENDIASs services to see if it had happened in their areas. Responses came within the hour from a number of SENDIASS services stating that this sometimes occurred.

SENDIASS wrote to the head of the EHCP team who agreed to it in principle.

The LA have now issued an EHCP, and they will cover all the costs of the Special Educational Provision in Section I of the plan.

The LA will pay as much to the fees as the maintained school would have cost (£7184).

The LA have stated in Section I that they believe the child’s needs can be met at X Academy for September 2023.

Parental preference is for Y School. The child will attend Y School on the condition that the parents pay fees and transport costs from September 2023.

Understandably, Jason’s parents are happy with the outcome and welcomed the LAs flexibility so that their son could attend their choice of school.

SENDIASS is also fortunate that if a query arises that they have never previously dealt with, they can ask nationwide if another service has had the same situation and receive advice.

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