Raising a formal complaint at school

I do understand your frustration, DS3 is on roll at an independent special, only ever part time and not at all since February. His school offered to sort out AP but it was either unsuitable or inaccessible. We’ve ended up with nothing (apart from an offer of workbooks, paper and fidget toys from the school) and the LA turned down my section 19 request as I'd refused the school's offers of AP. His school fees are about 70k a year

Hindsight is 20:20 but I should have just made the Section 19 request directly to the LA from the get-go and spared myself the nonsense. EOTIS is now agreed from September so I've escalated to the LGO rather than going down the JR route.

Has the wholly independent school agreed to admit DS yet?

How do you know this?

Likely to be because the school has to fund the AP out of their budget

Ultimately, they don’t. Under section of the Education Act 1996, the duty lies with the LA. Same for anything detailed, specified and quantified in F of the EHCP under section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014.

OP, the duty ultimately lies with the LA, not the school. The LA is fobbing you off.

Maybe they didn't want the responsibility? The school would be effectively taking on the safeguarding and suitability duty for the LA.
Have you seen any alternative provisions you feel would be suitable for your son? I'm not making excuses for the school, as they should have told the LA to arrange it themselves, but depending on your area there may be limited choice of suitable providers for his age.

My LA uses a hugely complicated matching system for AP and it's a total nightmare tbh

It sounds like the LA was passing the duty to the school to arrange the AP, so they didn't have to bother to source and make the arrangements. Clearly your son’s school wasn't up to the task so you've got left in limbo. But this is why it's better to deal directly with the LA.

I'd push for a review of the EHCP, again take it up directly with the LA. IPSEA has templates you can use.

For an independent you'll need a written offer of a placement and they can't go over their maximum pupil numbers, so you'll need to make sure they have space.

@Ricecakesaremyjam you asked

'Out of interest does anyone know why this might have been?'
Likely to be because the school has to fund the AP out of their budget, which is likely to be extremely stretched already. Does he have an EHCP?

Well its not working as the Ops child is only in two hours a day, so there is Clear evidence of that

Playing devils advocate here but worth thinking about what you want the School to do? I.e what would your Son’s day look like?
also. If this were working there is no way they would fund a specialist placement.
Schools are at breaking point.

Does the school think they can meet your child's needs?

It means you need an offer of a place from the school. Unlike section 41 schools, wholly independent schools can’t be named unless they agree. You will also need to prove the LA’s proposed school(s) can’t meet needs &/or that it isn’t unreasonable public expenditure.

Have you spoken to the wholly independent school?

@Ricecakesaremyjam it’s still worth pushing for the independent school but proceed with caution. Remember they’re a business at the end of the day, and if your son is too challenging you may end up back at square one.

My son exhibited extremely challenging behaviour in mainstream. He threw a toy phone at a teacher’s face and punched another one three times in the head. Not because he’s a horrible child, but because he was in crisis and couldn’t calm down. He doesn’t exhibit those behaviours at his specialist school, not saying he can’t be an arsehole because he absolutely can, but he’s never reached that level of dysregulation as they’ve got the facilities to help him calm down.

My son attends a statutory independent school — not a private school in the traditional sense, but they charge fees that are met by the local authority. Is that the kind of school you mean? It was completely obvious this school was the only one that could meet my son’s needs as every other specialist school in the area catered to children with autism AND profound learning disabilities. They all stated they couldn’t meet his needs, his current school said they could. It took a few months longer to secure his place as the local authority had to send it to their high costs panel, but he’s been there for almost three years now and it’s been worth every second I spent fighting for him.

Your son sounds very similar to mine; bright, engaged with learning, no identified learning disabilities but completely unable to cope with the bustle of a mainstream class of 30 children and all the noise, smells and general irritation they bring with them. My son moved to the secondary school provision of his school in September and his teachers are already talking about him taking a full complement of GCSEs, and that they have no doubt he’ll achieve very highly. There are schools out there for our children, but you’re going to have to have the hide of a rhino and the determination of ten NT parents to get him there.

AP has materialised because the LA has seen you know the law, can advocate for DS and will enforce it.

If the LA refuses to name your preference, you can appeal. Is the school a section 41 independent or wholly independent? The rules for naming them are different.

If you need independent assessments but can’t afford them, have you checked if you would be eligible for legal aid if you needed to appeal? It is legal help for appeals to SENDIST and it can fund independent assessments if necessary. Even if you aren’t eligible for legal aid, there are charities such as Parents in Need who help fund independent assessments.

I wouldn’t go down the reassessment of needs route because it doesn’t guarantee good reports and you may still need you to appeal but having wasted time. However, if you do want to go down that route, you need to ask the LA formally rather than the school. It is an LA process rather than a school process.