Deferring summer born SEND child school start - school refusing

[mypurple]

My son got a place in primary school. He is a summer born child and has developmental delays including speech delay and potentially autism (seen by paediatrician and SALT). I requested the school to let me defer his entry to the following year for the reasons above, he simply declined and said it’s for exceptional circumstances only.
I have emphasised that he will struggle to follow and one year can make the biggest difference for him being school ready. I have contacted the local authority with my request and asked his paediatrician to help me. I have a call booked in with him tomorrow, but he said he can’t help in recommending as it is ultimately the schools decision.

Is there anything I can do to help my son in getting his place deferred? Or what will be the process if I was to apply to another school? Is there absolutely any way I can let my son do one year in nursery and then start reception?

There are a couple of wonderful Facebook groups which have loads of information about this and they can help you. You should be able to get him a delayed entry as a summer borns but it’s not called deferred entry and some schools get very confused about it. I had my summer born sen child start the September after he turned 5 (which is when they legally have to start school) and it was the best decision for him.
one group is called ‘flexible school admissions for summer borns’ and the other is ‘summer born children at school’

I have a summer born child with an EHCP, autism, global delay, in nappies, limited verbal ability. The council refused to defer him. Official reason: it can impact his future school placements (age related), the council ban all deferrals (illegal goes against every child matters law) but the real reason is funding each child deferred is an additional year in education. That is an illegal reason but I have it on record that the council said this. They also said educational studies suggest that deferral doesn’t bring any meaningful difference. Now that is crap also the studies clearly state that children with SEND and summer born do benefit massively. The council hadn’t realised that I am a parent with a masters in educational professional enquiry and could research this myself!

you need to contact admissions make it clear the reasons why, meet with the school try to get them inside. I had an educational psychologist, the school the nursery, a neurologist report, speech and language practitioner, portage and his ECHO all saying he should be deferred and it still wasn’t enough!

I did succeed however, I emailed our MP, I got my family to email their MPs, I emailed everyone in the council relating to child services I Cc’d everyone into a task force to stop this. Basically I kicked up so much of a fuss and threatened a judicial review (I could because of his EHCP) they eventually relented.

the system is about budget and councils have very little, you will only over turn this if you are relentless.

absolute best of luck x

What month were they born? That could be the issue?

Oh and be careful another little truck they pull, is they grant a deferral but when he does go into primary they skip reception and go straight to year 1. That was another fight I had! (And won)

It’s actually a legal right. Deferment is a legal right and results in a child missing part of their receptionyear. Summer-born deferment gives families only a legal right to apply to start reception a year late.

Say you’ll be contacting your lawyer

One thing to be careful of - my sister's child was deferred and they have recently moved, in year 5, to another part of the country. She has been put straight into y6 meaning they are now scrambling to find a secondary school place. The new local authority just refused to defer her, even though she has been deferred since she was 5! She's currently trying to appeal this but DN is currently in y6 prepping for sats despite being in y5 3 weeks ago! Something to bear in mind if you're likely to move schools in future.

Incidentally, if anyone has any advice on this issue do let me know (not meaning to hijack the thread!)

thank you so much! So the paediatrician did say to me via email that he can’t legally recommend a deferral due to the Education Act 1996.
If tomorrow the paediatrician says he can’t help in any way, what could be my next steps? My son doesn’t have a EHCP because he was too young to get a diagnosis back in Jan, so his review is in Oct where I believe he might get a diagnosis if needed.
Also, since I have to respond to the offer by 30th April, will I need the school to agree on deferring before that date?

July

You can get a ehcp without a diagnosis! If he goes nursery ask them to refer him for assessment. My daughter is four and got diagnosed at two with autism and has only just got her EHCP ready for school in September and will be going into a Sen unit within the school.

An. EHCP is based on need, not diagnosis and you can apply for a needs assessment yourself.

You will struggle to get an EHCP currently they have quietly paused processing them (thst is a whole other thread) a paediatrician can recommend their professional opinion about it ours did! It’s the council you need to approach as it’s them that will be blocking it- I tell you funding is the reason though they will never admit it as it’s an illegal stance. Admissions you need to approach, it’s not an appeal as they don’t allow appeals so ask about next steps as it’s different when you don’t have an EHCP.

You can complain if they refuse to defer, and go to the LGO if necessary, but that won’t be quick. In some cases, you can look at JR (this isn’t limited to just cases with EHCPs).

Request an EHCNA yourself now. On their website, IPSEA has a model letter you can use. With an EHCP, being educated outside of the chronological year group can be included in the EHCP and therefore not optional. Although sometimes parents have to appeal to get it included in the EHCP.

You will struggle to get an EHCP currently they have quietly paused processing them

Whoever told you this lied to you. It isn’t the case. The normal timescales still apply despite what some LAs think.

In my local authority, they won’t agree to deferring if there is an EHCP in place. Just something to bear in mind.

Oh yes and they absolutely have not quietly paused processing them!

The LA should not have such a blanket policy. Another way they act unlawfully. Sadly, many have to appeal to SENDIST to get being educated outside of the chronological year group included in F.

It’s all very interesting. I’m just learning about how it all works. I’m by no means an expert.

My DD - who is 30 now - had a peer who joined a year late with SEN (not sure what exactly) but at the end of year 4 had to go into her normal age range - year 6 - as she couldnt be held back for some reason (I assume SATs or secondary rules.)

That seemed cruel to me.

Whether there was more to this story I dont know. But do check on any future processes before insisting the change at the start.

As someone whose daughter had a host of additional needs, I would say there really isn't a huge benefit in deferring for a year if the issues are still going to be there in a year's time.

Imo it is better to get the ball rolling with the kind of input you get in school.

My daughter was like a fish out of water throughout primary. Holding her back would have been irrelevant. And she would have stuck out even more to the other children and parents - in my experience people are generally accepting of their intake, but can get annoyed if children with additional needs are added in outwith the usual rules. And it helps to have people onside.

I knew children who went from year 5 to secondary and missed out on a lot of fun stuff in year 6 as a result.

Sadly there is coverage about pausing EHCPs in the Guardian, Independent and the Times. I don’t want to derail the thread as I don’t actually think this answers the question but there is evidence it’s happening but obviously LAs won’t admit it. Recent coverage in The Guardian and The Times has highlighted a systemic "gatekeeping" of support as local authorities grapple with a projected £6 billion deficit. Reports from February and March 2026 reveal that the government’s latest SEND overhaul aims to significantly reduce the number of children qualifying for an EHCP by limiting them strictly to those with the most "severe and complex" needs. This shift has led to widespread claims of a quiet pause in processing, as councils reportedly stall current applications to wait for new, less costly "Individual Support Plans" to replace traditional legal entitlements for children with moderate needs.

The Times specifically mentions transitional years from primary to secondary and LA fears of huge backlogs so they are restricting the numbers of children who will fall into these categories initially. Obviously LAs won’t ever admit this but all decisions are done behind closed doors, they aren’t open forums or involving the parents. This part of the process in my LA is particularly traumatic because the decision makers are which ever councillor is in that day no specific skill required in making these judgments and limited rights to appeal.

@lovemetomybones the law has not yet changed, and it will not change for quite a while. There is a long process from a White Paper being published to changes to legislation taking effect. Parents can enforce the current law regardless of what their LA wishes their policy was or could be and regardless of what the media portray. Local policy is not law. Parents do not have to accept unlawful behaviour.

Some heads just won’t accept kids to defer to the year below unless special circumstances. A late August baby born premature with delays, was meant to be an October baby etc….
Some heads are more flexible as long as their birthday falls in summer holidays. Others maybe even more so.
If you definitely want him to enter the year below, call other local primary schools to see if space for September and talk to their heads about it.

I’m involved in getting ehcps written, and have seen no delays in the 2 years or so that I’ve been doing it. Maybe, as others have said, there will be a delay in the delays 🤔 😆