EHCPs - A few hints and tips for school leaders
Following on from the last ISA Education Committee Barry Huggett, Principal of the More House Foundation has put forward some hints and tips for school leaders relating to EHCPs.
- Independent schools do not have to follow the Code of Practice 2014/15 unless they have EYFS children who have an EHCP. Indeed, they would do well, in their SEND policy, to mention that they are aware of it but do not use it to plan the support they give to children with SEND issues.
- If an older child joins a setting with an EHCP, settings should decide if they can adhere its requirements completely before a place is offered. Settings can, offer more support than is stated in the EHCP, but not less or anything very different. If a setting wishes to offer less or different support, then a meeting with parents and LAs to get the plan changed must come first.
- If a child, already attending the setting, is thought by the parents or the school to need an EHCP, then either the parents or the school can apply to the LA for an assessment to be carried out. If the LA refuses, the parents can seek mediation or take the LA to the SEND tribunal.
- Having an EHCP, does not mean that the LA will automatically agree to fund a place in a child’s current school. They might say that the support needed can be delivered in a local maintained school.
- Shared funding between schools is allowed, even if one or more is an independent school. Parents would do well to share costs as percentages rather than fixed amounts, so allowing for fee increases over time.
- Some LAs have tried to treat independent schools like one of their own when it comes to fees and ask that the first £6000 comes out of a school’s budget. Schools should set the fee in the same way as any contract might be priced, as a fixed sum but with the possibility of increasing it over time written into the contract. It is recommended that schools use their own contracts, rather than one produced by the LA, as they are the providers of a service and the LA is, in this instance, the customer.
Following the Green Paper 2022, there may well be significant changes in the way SEND support is delivered and paid for in England, but the various changes in government in recent weeks makes it unclear if or when this might take place.
Created: 08 Nov 2022 03:11:19 PM