Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 5 December 2022 to Question 99943 on Special Educational Needs, whether a local education authority has a duty to place a student with an Education, Health and Care Plan in a year group other than the usual for their chronological age when a parent requests it.

A parent may ask a local authority to place their child with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan in a school year group other than the usual for their chronological age. It is then for the local authority to decide whether to do so, taking into account all relevant factors. Such factors will include the views of the parents and of the head teacher, and whether such an arrangement would be considered as ‘special educational provision’ in response to an identified special educational need.

The School Admissions Code is established pursuant to the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. Decisions about placements of children within EHC Plans are covered by a different legal regime, the Children and Families Act 2014 and Regulations made under that Act. This means that there was no decision to be made about whether to apply the School Admissions Code to children with EHC plans.