Some schools are “resistant” to admitting children with SEND even when they have been named in a statutory support plan, leaving pupils without a place, the Office of the Schools Adjudicator has said.
Councils told Shan Scott, the chief adjudicator, that schools were “increasingly reluctant to admit children with SEND in-year, both with and without” education, health and care plans.
Being named in an EHCP means a school has a legal obligation to admit a child.
But in her annual report Scott said a “small number of authorities” had warned they “not only saw an increase in the reluctance of schools” to be named in an EHCP “but also that some are resistant to admitting even once they have been named”.
