Finding a school and applying for a place

Children with Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans

For children who have an EHC Plan, requesting a place for a school is not completed through the usual admissions process. Instead, part of the process of getting an EHC Plan involves getting a school 'named' in your child’s plan. This means that you can express a preference for the school you want when the Local Authority is initially preparing an EHC Plan for your child following their assessment or as part of their EHC Plan annual review (e.g. when your child moves to a different phase of education).

Requesting a school or college be named in your child’s EHC plan

When you receive a draft EHC Plan, the name of the school in Section I will be left blank, and you will be asked for your preference of school. You have a specific right to express a preference for any school in the following categories:

• 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). SEND Code of Practice 0-25, paragraph 9.78

The local authority must then consult with your preferred school; this normally involves sending the school a copy of the EHC Plan and reports. The school will give an opinion about whether they can meet your child's needs, but the final decision on whether to name a school lies with the Local Authority.

The Local Authority must name your preference unless it is:

• Unsuitable for your child's age, ability, aptitude, and special educational needs, or
• Their attendance there would be incompatible with:
  • The efficient education of other children (whom they would directly encounter on a regular day-to-day basis)
  • The efficient use of resources

If the school is named in your child’s EHC Plan, the school must admit them.

If you want a school or college that is completely independent, you can ask the Local Authority to consider it (this is called 'making representations'). The school will need to agree to take your child, and you will likely have to prove that no other school is suitable.

Sometimes your Local Authority may not name the school you want. This could be for reasons such as:

• The school caters for a different type of need; therefore, your child would not have a suitable/appropriate peer group
• admitting your child would impact the efficient education of others with whom they would come into contact – this could be either due to the number of children already in the class or due to the challenging behaviour your child displays in the school environment (where reasonable steps cannot be taken to remove the incompatibility)
• The school you want is very expensive and the Local Authority considers that your child's needs can be met in a school that costs less.

If your preference of school is not named in your child’s final EHC Plan, ask for detailed reasons why, as this will help you decide whether you want to appeal.

If an annual review of your child’s EHC plan is taking place and you wish to request a change of school through this process, take a look at our video. This video explains the Annual Review process and provides some practical hints and tips on things to consider if you intend to ask for changes to the plan, including changes to section I (the school named).