EHC Draft Plan
When the Local Authority sends the draft EHC plan to you or the young person the following apply:
- The Local Authority must notify you or the young person that during this period you can request that a particular school or other institution, or type of school or other institution be named in the plan.
- The draft plan must not contain the name of the school, maintained nursery school, post-16 provision or other institution or the type of school or other institution to be attended by the child or young person.
- The LA must advise you or the young person where information about the schools and colleges that are available can be found for a child or young person to attend, for example, through the Local Offer.
- The LA should seek agreement of any Personal Budget specified in the draft plan (see Paragraph 9.95 onwards for more information within The SEND Code of Practice, 2015.)
Requests for a particular school, college or other institution
You 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).
If you or a young person makes a request for a particular nursery, school or Post-16 institution in these groups the Local Authority must comply with that preference and name the school or college in the EHC plan unless:
- 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.
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 Local Authority 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
Where you 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 yours or young person’s wishes, or
- Incompatible with the efficient education of others.
Mainstream education cannot be refused by a LA on the grounds that it is not suitable. 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. This is something which is often difficult to demonstrate in law.
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