Autistic child accepted into SN need school but we need to move homes

[Gremlo]

Dear Mumsnetters

I do not normally post so pardon me if things are not done correctly
My autistic son has been accepted into the only autistic special school in our borough but we live in a flat and we need to move out of borough to be able to afford a house he is my first child and I have read that in primary schools you have to stay in the same borough your child schools

Reason why we need to move is very long winded and complicated but I will break it down into points

1. We live on a 2nd floor flat in a high rise building , he is now stronger and always tries to jump down neighbours have called social services on us because we have locked the balcony too he now goes to the corridor presses their door bell because he likes the sound of it he also likes to open and shut doors he is smart as he only exalts into the hallway when you have gone into the toilet. It is summer now but we can't open windows because of him
2. I have had to stop working to stay with him after nursery as he has gotten more severe unpredictable and dangerous hence we cannot afford to pay our £1200 per month flat rent..so for the first time ever we applied to go on the housing register alas we were rejected !! We were firstly tossed off to our housing association L& Q because we are housing tenants Lewisham cannot deal with our case the housing seem to only have heard of people applying for housing on basis of overcrowding and told us we are adequately housed since we only have one child. I tried to explain we are not applying under grounds of homelessness or overcrowding we are applying on finiancial and medical grounds it all fell on deaf ears after 6 months of back and forth they finally said our tenancy is assured short hold tenancy contract for IMR (rent to save) so we cannot be approved to go on housing list!! I went back to the council requesting a rejection letter so we could appeal who says they cannot help because we are housing tenants but I made an application to Lewisham not my housing all so confusing!
3. L&Q housing staff cannot understand we are not trying to go on the register to get a house with more rooms we do not even mind our bedroom to reduce but we need to be on a ground floor flat or a house because my sons life is at risk they just tend to say we live in a 2 bed flat with only 1 child and cannot see what we are on about and they only have flats so they cannot transfer us to another flat as most of their ground floors are used for shops, in the end only the council listened to this but saying they cannot concern themselves as we are housing tenants Council gave us some links to home swaps site, we went on here to see if we can swap but all the tenants are either council or housing association on social rent so they might be with my housing association but they pay like £450 for their 2 bedroom house who would want to pay triple that just to swap?
4. After much ado we were advised to go and private rent in our neighbouring borough Bromley as houses are slightly cheaper being a zone 4,5,6 than in Lewisham a zone 2 were flats are between £1200 -£1600 and you can get a house in Bromley for £1100 right into Swanley BR8 now my fear is
5. It took 2 years to prepare his EHCP PLAN to get into this special school they only take 7 students a year so he was really really really lucky I know Bromley has a special school too but this is actually an autistic SN school which is perfect for him ..the school is actually in BR1 postcode but falls under Lewisham borough
6. My question is would it be a problem if we are in a neighbouring borough? We intend to drop him ourselves as we have a car and do not think he will cope well on a school bus the first year and I understand this is always a major issue to moving homes as the school don't want to travel out far..Does this remain in borough for primary schools apply to special schools too or is this just a state school policy? If it does apply to special schools then how is it that some boroughs with no SN school cope? As this policy would be broken with children attending from neighbouring boroughs?

All answers would be much appreciated.

Once you're in the school and he is attending, you can move. Private will be your best bet....as you may be aware, the housing issues in London are terrible at the moment. I feel for you...it's awful.

Can you keep the door into the flat locked so he can't get out and press the neighbour's bell?

Thank you VioletBam yes we have now changed the locks to a higher place (the housing won't be happy about this) he could still open it when it was normal height even when locked.
Private rent in Lewisham is over our budget so we have to go into neighbouring borough which is Bromley

If you move to a different borough, they are required to consider the papers and let you know whether they are adopting the current EHCP or whether they are going to review it and possibly amend it. Is the school a state maintained one or independent? If it is maintained, I suspect the new borough would probably leave your son where he is provided that transport to school doesn't cost too much.

I'd suggest you contact Shelter about your housing issues.

Thank you JudiCoolibar yes we intend to wait till he starts in September as only 2 months to go, we do not use the school bus as my son is severe and cannot stay amidst other children for now so we will drop him and collect him ourselves for now till he knows and can trust the faces around him this might take a year as it took that long at his nursery.

What is Shelter? What services do they offer? Thanks

Shelter is a charity that specialises in advising and helping on housing issues.

Shelter is excellent. They offer advice and research things for you when they don't know the answer straight away. I also advise you to talk to the school....ask them if they know the rules.

watching with interest as we are having to think seriously regarding selling up and moving to a cheaper home/area. It would actually be closer to ds school but in a differant borough. ds is in an independant special school and I am assuming that the borough we would be looking to move to would not want to pick up the tab. I have spoken to them and they said they cannot tell me yes or no until we actually move and have an address! Current borough have said the day we move is the day the funding will stop, so its very much a huge gamble as to whether the new borough will fund current placement. It feels like a catch 22 as we cant afford to stay where we are - but I am not prepared for ds to go to a differant school as its taken such a lot of work to secure the EHCP and then the placement.

Under the old system (Statement) the new LA bad to accept the current placement, but could trigger a review/reassessment, which supposedly took 6 months. So the assumption was that you got 6 months of your current support as per statement, but then the outcome of the new LA reassessment would not necessarily be the same result.

Dd1 is yet to move to an EHCP, so I don't know what the rules are and whether they are the same. But I would say that there is no way funding can just stop, ere has to be a handover period of some sort. The gamble on the outcome is probably the same too - new LA are not obliged to come to the same findings.

polter and panda - so does that mean the plan with the named school is upheld and then if they 'can' change the school, they will? Sorry for the hijack OP but its kind of linked.

polter thanks, I will have a read through it.