Negotiating with LA over Cost of Independent School

[lattemum]

My ds is 16 and in Year 11 and has been fully funded at a Specialist School since Year 7 via his EHCP. He has been offered a place at an Independent School Mainstream Sixth Form and this is where we wish him to go. The LA have named an alternative Maintained School for Sixth Form in his final EHCP despite knowing our preference is for the Independent School Sixth Form. We have also made it clear that we would not expect the LA to be out of pocket i.e. we would expect to pay some or all of the Independent School fees for our preferred placement.
We are aware that there will be a cost to the LA to send any young person to a maintained school or Sixth Form. Does anyone have any experience of persuading the LA to put this cost towards the cost of the Independent School fees with the parents then covering the remainder?

No experience of this but the LA should have given you notice of your right to appeal when they issued the final plan.

Is the school you want wholly independent or a section 41 school?

What are the reasons for wanting the independent school? Do you think this school will meet DS's needs in a way the MS school won't?

Thank you for replying. Yes the LA did give notice of our right to appeal, but I am just interested to know if anyone has previously successfully negotiated a reduction in fees at an independent school given the potential saving to the LA of not having to fund the place in the maintained school.

The independent school we have chosen is very understanding of SEN generally, has other pupils there with EHCPs and we have chosen it specifically for the very small class sizes and the high level of pastoral support it gives, something which we don't feel will be on offer in the maintained sixth form we have been offered. However, we do not feel that this would be reason enough to win an appeal to have the independent school funded, so it is really the fact that we believe the independent school will be the best option for DS rather than that it is the only option. For this reason, we are prepared to pay the fees. The independent school has also offered our DS an academic scholarship (worth a small reduction in fees) which we feel will be an important boost to his self-esteem after previous experience (from years ago) of schools excluding him and rejecting him and reflect the massive progress he has made during his time at the specialist school. We realise we are fortunate to be in the position of being able to fund a school which we believe will be the best option for DS.

Have you thought of paying for independent reports which specify that DS requires small class sizes and a high level of pastoral support?

If you can prove the Independent school is the only school that can meet needs the LA would have to fund it in its entirety.

Sometimes LAs will agree to fund the SEN provision in the EHCP whilst parents pay the fees. However, it is also possible the LA will say you are making suitable alternative arrangements therefore relieving them of their duties and then they won't pay the SEN support or the fees.

Hi much more expensive is it pa than the school the LA has chosen? An EHCP placement will be at least £10k pa in a mainstream, and likely more like £13k.

Assuming you want the LA to pay the majority....

If there is less than £4 to £5k difference, ask for your school to be named as parental preference. This means the LA aren't responsible for travel, but they duck out of 6th form travel funding any Way.

Given the scholarship, ask if the school will honour this if the LA pays, which should reduce the difference further. They may not and do not have to, in fact, without asking I'm sure it's unusual.

You can then pay on top for any extras not listed in the EHCP. So if you wanted a private 1 to 1 support lesson you can pay, rather than the LA unless EHCP requires it.

If the EHCP requires a TA, you may need to try to get this reworded to be TA in classes over 15, say, which would mean it wasn't likely needed in the independent but would be in the mainstream. However, things like that usually need an EP to state it as a need and you should take care to sort your child's needs out before the school rather than trying to sort the school first.

Unfortunately you may well have to appeal and you'll be lucky to get a tribunal date before September now.

Assuming you can afford fees. You can ask for a personal budget or for the school of your choice to be paid for additional SEN fees (usually this is limited to the full cost of the maintained school less £10k, ie the top up fee the LA would have otherwise paid). Do this before sending your child, making it clear that this, for the LA, is a cheaper option than paying for the mainstream. Ideally you need agreememt before moving schools.

You can't use direct payments to fund schools.

you need a fantastic barrister. LA won't budge ime

@10brokengreenbottles You can use direct payments to fund additional support but not school fees.
@DingDongThongs Professional reports are more important than a barrister. If they state your child needs some/all of small classes, peer group including x,y,z , full national curriculum for example, it will be VERY expensive to provide in specialist.

My daughter would have had to have indepedent specialist at more than 3 times what they are paying to fully fund independent mainstream.

Personally, I would go down the route of trying to get it named in section I and fully paid for.

LA were up front with me and told me I could access the c £3.5k top up funding as a personal budget to pay SEN fees if we chose to send our daughter to private school. I did ask them this, but said, I couldn't pay fees myself and appealed. They conceded before tribunal. I had a solicitor but it was the reports that made them concede.

I agree with Sprongle, I would focus on independent reports and aim to get it named in section I.

Ah, yes, you're right Sprongle, in my experience it is important not to use the word "fees" with the LA.

Technically LAs aren't supposed to do deals where parents part pay school fees, but in practice many do. They may take a fairly pragmatic line on this in order to avoid a tribunal appeal, particularly if the reality is that they are paying out no more for the independent school than what ever they would be paying for the school they are nominating. They tend to tie it up with some form of side agreement, and they might want to see some evidence that you can pay the balance because no-one wants the risk that the placement could get pulled if you became unable to pay.

You have nothing to lose by asking. It might also be worth involving your local councillor, as they should be attracted by a proposal that potentially saves the council money.

Our DD is at an independent school. Since joining the school she’s got an EHCP.

The LEA pays for what they would pay for had she been at a state school, but they absolutely will not pay for independent school fees, which is fine as we were paying for those and had budgeted them in anyway.