Cost of Placement

C has generously given her permission for her comments, which were originally made in an email to the SEN London Parents email list.  These comments are directly from her experience and are mainly around the cost of placements and transport.

Why might it be of interest?

It can be very difficult to find the costs involved in a placement – the cost at the school, additional LSA costs, transport costs, etc.  So it is likely, when a parent is trying to use cost as a factor in the choice of school, that they will get it wrong – and therefore either undermine their case or not support it as well as they might be able to.

These figures are from 2021 so will be higher now but they give you a good baseline to start from.

The parent has added further information about negotiating for the placement you want which will be of interest to parents who do not want the placement suggested by the LA or have their own placement in mind.

Parent’s wishes

“Section 9 of the Education Act 1996 requires the LA to “have regard” to the general principle that pupils are to be educated in accordance with the wishes of their parents, so far as it is compatible with the provision of efficient instruction and training, and the avoidance of unreasonable public expenditure.”

What that means is that, so long as the school you prefer is appropriate for your child in terms of their ability and they are not disrupting the other pupils (by throwing chairs, for example), the LA have to have “regard” for parents’ wishes in how they want their child to be educated, AS LONG AS it is not an “unreasonable public expenditure”.

Costs

The minimum per pupil funding level for Secondary school is £5,525 for 2021. This is the amount of funding the LA have to provide for each child that attends the school (the “bum on seat” cost). This is for every child – it has nothing to do with SEN.

The cost of a full time LSA in Richmond is £21,772 Pro rata this as appropriate. Full time is 32.5 hours. If your child gets 25 hours LSA support on their EHCP, that would cost £16,748 (which is £21,772/ 32.5, then times by 25). The cost of these two things together is £27,297.

The costs of Transport and therapies (OT, SALT, Physio, etc) would need to be added to that, to get the total cost of the placement.

Transport rules

The criteria for whether your child is eligible for Transport is whether they can be “reasonably expected” to walk. Transport is INCREDIBLY expensive. We argued that, if the LA insisted on naming RPA (our local state secondary), they would have to pay transport, and this substantially increases the cost of the placement at RPA. this helps to make our choice of school less expensive than the LA choice.

For a child with ASD, for example, things like whether they have any awareness of road safety, or whether they can ride a bike, or whether they are able to use public transport, and their level of vulnerability, are the types of things that would be taken into account to determine transport eligibility. If your child would not be able to cope with a sudden change of bus route (like if he had to get off one stop early, or the bus went on diversion), you could point that out. Ditto if your child is a flight risk. You can argue it is “unreasonable” to expect them to walk.

If your child cannot be “reasonably expected” to walk to school, distance is not relevant. We live 1.3 miles from RPA. This is not far, but it is not something my son could walk (without being too tired to cope with the school day), so he is eligible for Transport. There is a government transport policy. Read it.

According to the Richmond Transport team, the cost of transport 1.3 miles, assuming there was already an existing route he could jump on, was £7k/ year. If there was no existing route, it was £13k. Costs can increase quite a bit more if an escort is also needed (in addition to the driver). So, this is Big Bucks. Ask your Case Officer to get a quote for the cost of transport to their choice of school and your choice of school. Treat these numbers with a pinch of salt. They are required to get 3 estimates (which they never do), and you can always get your own estimates (like from a local taxi company) to make sure their numbers are not crazy.

Richmond originally told me Graham was not eligible for transport, and I laughed in their face. I reminded them that he has cerebral palsy, and there is no way he could walk 1.3 miles to school and back every day, especially carrying quite a lot of stuff. AfC backed down and agreed he was eligible for transport. That makes their choice of school substantially more expensive.

Comparing costs of placements

Then, you compare the full cost of the placement at the LA’s choice of school to the full cost of the placement at your parent preference school.

Making a deal

Many parents give up the cost of transport to their parent preference school, in order to get the LA to name the parent preference school in Section I. If you make that deal, you are agreeing to forego transport for the duration of the time your child attends that school, so be aware. You could also agree to transport your child yourself in exchange for a mileage allowance (of something like 45p per mile).

I told the LA that IF we did not go to Tribunal, I would forego the Transport. IF HOWEVER we went to Tribunal, my offer was off the table, and I would chase them for the full cost of transport to my parent preference school (which is a lot), as they did not have a school that could meet the needs.

Which school can meet needs?

The bottom line is that, if the LA does not have a school that can meet the needs, they have to pay for one that can, and there is NO LIMIT on the cost. That is why it is so important that all the Needs are listed in Section B. If, however, their chosen school AND your parent preference school can BOTH meet the needs, then your parent choice must not be an “inefficient use of public funds” (meaning lots more expensive).

The LA will try and pretend that their choice of school can meet the needs. You have to prove that their choice CANNOT meet the needs, AND nothing can be done to mitigate the reasons why they cannot meet the needs.

If you want to prove their choice cannot meet the needs, you need to look at the Needs in Section B of the EHCP. You may need additional professional reports to evidence the needs. Good professionals get booked early, especially an EP. If you book, you can always cancel. Get it in the diary. A year in advance if possible. You need someone who is experienced in Tribunal work, NOT an ongoing therapy person. It is a separate skill.

So if, for example, if giving the child a full time 1:1 will solve the problem, then the LA could argue the issues can be mitigated and the needs could be met. We argued that the reasons RPA is unsuitable cannot be mitigated, as they are fundamental, structural, and environmental (things like the campus being really big and requiring a lot of walking and stairs; the acoustics of the building are really terrible; the draconian discipline policy is unsuitable; the class duration is 80 minutes and the children are not let out during class to use the toilet; RPA does not offer Computer Science which is the one course the children are desperate to study, so it thwarts their long term ambitions, etc.).

Appealing to their wallet

EVEN IF both schools can meet the needs, your choice of school may actually be cheaper if your child will need an LSA at the LA’s choice of school, but not at your parent preference school (because of small class sizes and a quiet environment, for example).

So, run the numbers and see how they come out. If your school is cheaper, putting aside the fact that the LA’s choice of school is unsuitable, you can appeal to the LA’s wallet. I basically said to AfC “Why are you fighting me? What I am asking for is actually LESS EXPENSIVE than the inappropriate placement you are proposing.” They were like “Huh?”, so I ran them through the numbers.

Be aware that, at some schools (like More House in Farnham), the cost of the therapies (OT, SALT, etc) are included in the fees. This is quite a good deal for the LA, and makes those schools cheaper. If the therapies are in addition to the fees, you need to take that into account in your calculation.

Also be aware that the costs of each placement that you are comparing is the TOTAL cost to the public purse. So, the LA will try and say that the first £6,000 of funding should not be counted, for example, because the school had to pay that. This is rubbish. It is the total cost.

Also be aware that the LA block-buys places at certain schools (Canbury, Roehampton Gate). Because they are funding a certain number of slots there, they want to get them filled. They may, therefore, push for your child to go there, even if it is not suitable. Be wary.

They also might try and say that, because they buy therapy hours (SALT, OT, Physio) in bulk from the NHS, there is ZERO cost. This is also not true. If you buy a million cupcakes, that does not mean that each individual cupcake is free. It means the cost of one cupcake is buried in the total. For calculating costs, you can use a rough estimate of £80-100 per hour for therapies.

Also bear in mind that, if you want an independent school, the school MUST be comfortable that they can meet the needs, and you must have an offer.

Giving preferences

When you are asked for your preferences, DO NOT name any school unless you would be happy to send your child there. If you named it, and they said “OK”, and you don’t want it, you are stuck. You DO NOT have to name 3. You DO NOT have to name them by July. You can name schools in other boroughs. This is for the LAs convenience only. You can name a type of school. Or you can name just one school. You do not have to fill out a form. The LA will tell you lots of stuff you “have” to do. This is their guidance or policy. You can go along with it, but you don’t have to.

I cut out the “What your child needs for Secondary” bit of all the professional reports, glued those bits together on a Word doc, and told the LA “I want a school that can meet these needs” (knowing they didn’t have one). If you only want a school if you get the “Unit” (like an autism base, for example), make that clear when you state your preferences.

If you have a preference for a state school, there is an advantage to naming it early.

Be aware that they CANNOT force you to go to a religious school. Conversely, if religion is important to your family, you could insist your child attends a religious school (so, you could, for example, say “We are a Catholic family, and we want our child to attend a Catholic school”). I needed a reason to eliminate one of the 3 schools nearest us, so I said “No God” and they had to take that school off the table.

Also be aware that you have a right to a mainstream education, so your child does not have to go to a special school if you don’t want them to.

Out of borough schools

If you move to a new local authority to be near a particular school, the new LA can reassess the entire EHCP (which is insane). Be careful with this. The test for where you live is where the child is “ordinarily resident”.

Consultation

Starting in September of Year 6, the LA will CONSULT with schools. This means that they will send the EHCP to some schools (definitely your 3 closest schools, possibly more) and say “Can you meet these needs?” This is why it is CRUCIAL that ALL of the Needs are listed in Section B. If half the needs are missing, then the school will look at the EHCP and say “Yes. No problem. We can meet these needs” when they really can’t (because half the needs aren’t there). You therefore MUST make sure that, after the annual review in Year 5, the EHCP properly reflects your child, and is up to date. Similarly, if your child outgrew (or learned to manage) their behavioural issues, and the EHCP still says they are having meltdowns and throwing chairs, the school might say “No way”, when in fact those needs are no longer relevant. So, by the end of Year 5, you MUST MUST make sure the EHCP is up to date and reflective of your child’s current profile.

You have the right to know which schools the LA had consulted for your child, and to have a copy of the consultation responses. If the LA are difficult about this, you can submit a Subject Access Request on both the LA and/or the school to obtain this information. It is important to get this, as you can understand why the school are objecting.

Discrimination

We frankly encountered quite a lot of discrimination when looking at secondaries. Many schools go on about how kind and inclusive they are. What they really mean is “We have one child with mild dyslexia”. Many would not touch my two with a barge pole, and mine have no behavioural issues in school and are academically capable (they are not going to wreck anyone’s League Table). It was a shocker. We had this when we looked at Primary schools, so we were expecting it. Some schools wouldn’t even let them apply. One school said only one of my twins was allowed to apply.  One school cancelled the assessment the day before they were due to go (I was like “Look, if you assess them, and it is not a good match, then fair enough”, but they would not even assess them, after they had already met them and the boys were on their best behaviour EVER). Ask every school how many EHCPs they actually have, and how many children on SEN Support (the next level down). One independent school has over 1,000 students. Number of EHCPs? ZERO. That tells you something.

London independent day schools, to be blunt, are oversubscribed with “normal” children, so, frankly, why would they want the hassle of taking a kid with an EHCP that takes time and effort to administer? There are not that many schools willing to embrace this, but there are some. This is why some parents choose not to have their child diagnosed. There are ASD kids, for example, at many of these schools. They just don’t have EHCPs.

Remember that if a state school is not providing the appropriate support, you, as a parent, can jump up and down like a box of mad frogs. You CANNOT do this to the same extent if your child is at a private school.

Talk to other parents, especially SEN parents. They can tell you if the hype is the same as the reality. They can also suggest schools you might want to look at. Start the process early (I started in Year 3), as it takes time to find the right thing, especially if your child is complex.

When looking at schools, you will find one (hopefully) where you feel your child would fit. The school we liked had loads of boys walking around that all seemed quite similar to my two.

I start with qualifications and work backwards. If your child is likely to sit GCSEs or A levels, you do not want a school where the children are learning “life skills” or “functional skills”. The opposite is also true. You need to try and match your child’s capabilities to the level of academic challenge at the school, to make sure there is a good fit.

Pay close attention to the behaviour policies on the school website. Will your child constantly fall foul of it?

Find the school, and then fight to get it.

Out of borough schools

For us, the NHS (OT, SALT, Physio) will not travel out of borough. If the school you want is not in the same borough that you live in, you may need to request a Personal Budget for the cost of the therapies. Then you will have to source the therapies yourself. That is a whole separate discussion.

Panel

Note that the “Panel” is the LA’s decision making body, that must approve things like place at an independent school. You MUST ensure, if the LA says they have agreed to something, that it has been approved by Panel. Until Panel approves it, it is not official. If you are told something by the LA, double check that Panel has agreed, and make sure that goes in the minutes. I think you can use a Subject Access Request to get the minutes of the Panel meetings, but I have not tried this yet.

Documentation

While we are on the subject, I NEVER have any meeting or conversation with the LA without recording it, AND having a note taker. Cover yourself. I rarely deal with them on the phone- I insist on email so I have a paper trail. If I do have a phone conversation, I follow it up with an email (e.g. “I just want to confirm that we have agreed the following…if my understanding is not correct, please let me know by Friday”).

Naming a school

The LA legally needs to name a school in Section I of the EHCP by 15 February of Year 6. They will send you a final EHCP with the school named, and a cover letter. You have a strict 2 month deadline from the date of that letter to file for appeal. Get into Tribunal as quickly as you can. The Tribunal is really, really busy. I filed on 26 March, and got a court date of 22 September. You file by filling out a form called the “SEND 35” form.

The charity SOS SEN has a great training video on how to file for Tribunal.

If you are in dispute with the LA, my advice would be to go ahead and file for Tribunal, and then continue to try and get them to see sense. My personal view is that mediation is a waste of time, unless you want to use it to delay the process enough to get private reports done. For mediation, the LA get 30 days just to check their calendar. They may send someone who is not authorised to make decisions. If you are disputing 5 things, and you agree 3 of them, you still need to go to Tribunal for the other 2. So, only use it to change the timing to your advantage if you need to.

Conclusion

So, those are my thoughts on Transfer. I still don’t have a final EHCP with our parent preference school named, though Richmond have told me that they have agreed to name it. I hope it turns out for the best. If not, my court date is 22 September.

Section 41 schools; you can argue that having a 1:1 is an outdated model of support which does not promote either independence or social inclusion. Far better to give a child a suitable environment than to give them a 1:1 to constantly pull them out when they cannot cope.