AIBU to send DC to private school funded by the LA

[missrachelsavesmedaily]

I was taken back by best friends response to my DC getting a new school setting come September.
we have been friends since we were children and tend to discuss a lot of things that I would not discuss with ofhers.
we struggled to find a school setting for DC come September when they start secondary school.
I have 3 children and we are financially comfortable I could pay the fee for private school for 1 but not 3 without it effecting our lives too much although 100 percent would not be able to do the same for the others.

DC starts a private school that was named on EHCP in September and we are extremely lucky to have been granted the school without tribunals.
we have accepted the place and the LA accepted the cost - I didn’t really think anything of it to be honest there was no other choices of schools such they are entitled to an education funded.
she got quite opinionated about the fees being covered !
should I be offering to pay towards the fees ?

I'd be happy for you and your child if I were your friend.
Tell her she is not being a good friend right now and hopefully she'll catch a hold of her jealousy before you need to let her go.

Yes it’s not a Sen school.

Your DC has the right to a taxpayer-funded education that will meet their needs. If the LA could have provided it in a state school, they presumably would have rather than agreeing to the private option. You have nothing to feel guilty about.

You would have had to have applied for this op
requiring extensive evidence and professional evidence
the fact that no tribunal means that it was an open and shut case… your son could not be educated in mainstream secondary and needed a specialist private setting

We knew they would not cope in the local secondary schools maybe apart from 1 which was consulted but they did not accept the EHCP. Consulted with 2 maintained Sen schools but they also said they could not meet needs.
a small non selective independent was the only school.

Yes op it is

And I don’t know why you’re fibbing

the LA is funding a place a private specialist school

Most bizarre to say otherwise

So then you embarked on the extremely onerous process of applying for LA funding requiring extensive professional evidence of multiple diagnoses, which your son… has

If he meets the criteria fair enough. There's something very telling about people who aren't happy for you when good things happen to you.

He won’t just have met the criteria, he’ll have smashed it. It didn’t even go to tribunal.

No it really wasn’t

we gave preferences last year which were all maintained schools. They all said no. La couldn’t place. They contsulted independent schools some of which were Sen and some mainstream.
2 came back as could meet needs… la named schools 24 hours later

There are definitely independent schools that aren't specialists that are placed via an EHCP.

I'm pretty sure thecLA can fund a mainstream private school if its deemed appropriate.

"Yes op it is
And I don’t know why you’re fibbing
the LA is funding a place a private specialist school
Most bizarre to say otherwise"

LAs do fund places at non specialist private schools.

They can’t.

i have 19 years experience

this will not be a mainstream private school

this child will be attending a private school. It will be highly specialist, very small and geared entirely towards meeting the complex needs of children with multiple complex diagnoses, such as the OP’s child

Good grief, do you really think you know more about the OP’s life than she does?
I know of two children in our local area who are at small mainstream private schools funded by the LA under their EHCPs, that does happen.
But obviously it only happens where that school is the only one in the area that can meet needs for those children.

Might not be very common but it does happen that LAs fund places at mainstream private schools if state can't meet the needs. I assume it's cheaper than a specialist school and also might suit an academic pupil more.

I see absolutely no problem with it.

They don’t.

I had a few mums stop talking to me because DS1 got extra transition visits from preschool to school as he had a Statement of SEN. And another mum was furious he got paid transport to his secondary school which was an ASD hub, because the LA refused to pay transport when she moved outside of the catchment for the local secondary.

It's certainly served as a filter but it must be more painful with a longstanding friend.

They do … they actually prefer it because it’s cheaper than the private Sen schools.

Unless you know the OP in real life how do you know it’s not a mainstream? In my area there are a few mainstream Indies with children’s fees paid by the LA often with 1 to 1 TA support on top.
Also NHS therapists won’t go into private schools so the LA stump up for private speech and language therapists etc.

I will bow out

but the OP knows the truth

what is peculiar is almost has though she wants us to think that somehow she has got lucky. Bizarre. This is a child with severe and complex needs, so much so that no tribunal needed. Open and shut. The child can’t be educated in a mainstream setting.

anyway I’ll leave you to crack on op

@Roothewheel ok are you seriously claiming that you have reviewed every EHCP in England and know every school named? Multiple people have told you that you are wrong about this. EHCPs can and do name mainstream private schools.

"They don’t."

They do when the only alternative would be a very expensive specialist independent school.

I have 15 years experiencei I know of kids thar have Been funded via year EHCP to go to mainstream private school .

I’ve got a friend who works with very troubled children for his local council. The company he works for (he’s on minimum wage) is paid £20k A MONTH just to look after one child (who has to be cared for in isolation and have round the clock carers due to his trauma/emotional needs). This happens up and down the country. Maybe tell your friend that. Might give her something else to get her knickers in a twist about.