Worried about being forced out of school

[fairgame84]

DS goes to an independent out of area ss as there is nowhere in the authority that can meet his needs. He is happy there and wants to stay. He had been there for 3.5 years.
Our LEA have just announced that there is a new free school special school opening literally 5 minutes walk from our house.
Can the LEA force DS to move to the new school as it will be a cheaper option for them?
The school is due to open next year, DS is currently in Y8.
I'm panicking that I will have to go down the tribunal route again.

Bump

I am no lawyer but my DS goes to an independent ss too. A very similar scenario happened to me a couple of years ago when my son changed from statement to EHCP and I was scared they wouldn't continue to name the school for the same reasons you mention. I had a conversation with the LA about it. They admitted that they would t be looking to find any NEW placements at the school but they would be honouring existing placements so long as the needs were being met. Realistically it wouldn't make financial sense to them to decide to go to tribunal with a case where the provision is working and the child is making progress. They have enough cases to use their resources fighting over without making more. The fact that a child is happy, making progress and the parent supports the place and he's been there for over three years goes in your favour anyway. You could (as I did initially) have a chat with your county's parent partnership (it's called SENDIS on our area) who should be able to clarify the position for you.

Ps: the only thing you might have to give up is the cost of transport if they presently pay for that as possibly they would say it is no longer the nearest school which meets his needs. This in many cases can be almost as much as the school fees so can be the deal breaker.

Thankyou. Our local SAIDSEND (pp) is abysmal and far from independent.
Transport is a huge cost as the current school is 45 miles away. If I can prove that his current school is more able to meet his needs than a brand new untested school then they will have to fund transport.
They know that I will fight all the way as I have done before. I will remain cautiously optimistic that they won't try and move him until after y11.

I think it's unlikely they will try anything on, even with the transport if they've been paying it for the past three years. You have to remember that they have loads of battles to fight with people wanting places and funding so it's unlikely they will go looking for trouble.

Have they actually said they might want to move him? I had trouble with our Senco making assumptions of what the LA would do. It was her, not the LA who got me all on edge at the time. I think she got the idea because the LA weren't funding new pupils and assumed that would mean everyone.

Yes his SEN officer was talking about it after his last review. She was saying how the new school was just for children like DS and how it will save him travelling. The school was only planned back then but now it has been confirmed that it will definitely be built. Maybe she was trying to plant the idea in the hope that I would request a move.