Cost in appeals

During an appeal it is important that you are aware of the cost of providing support for your child. The additional cost to the Local Authority (LA) may include things like extra provision in school, such as teacher assistant time, fees at a private school or travel costs.

You need to submit the full costs of your chosen school, together with a full breakdown of what they provide.

You may wish to obtain details on the following provisions to draw up a cost comparison for various schools over the year to strengthen your appeal:

  • Establishment costs
  • TA costs
  • Therapist costs if not included in TA costs, for example OT, SALT.
  • Transport for the year, solo and shared.
  • Social care costs, for example respite.

Do this in a table listing each school and state whether they are your preference, your second preference or the School the LA have named.

Where your School maybe a little more expensive than that of the LA's, this is not an automatic barrier. The LA must consider your parental preference against that of 'inefficient use of resources' (so the public purse string).

The costs incurred by schools and the LA in meeting your child's needs may come up within an appeal to the First-tier Tribunal (SENDIST).

Transport costs

Surrey should produce a breakdown of costs which includes transport, as part of the LA's Response (called a R1 Form) during the appeal process, however we would advise you make a formal request (copy in First-tier Tribunal) to Surrey to produce the costs of transport.

You can communicate with the Transport department (travel.assistance@surreycc.gov.uk) and ask them for their costs for transporting your child to and from that school however you may not get a reply which is why you would have to do a formal request. You will need to send written proof of all this to both Tribunal and the LA. The LA will also be required to do this for the school they have named.

Be clear on the distances from home to the Schools and the time it will take (on a school day). Include the time it will take to get to School on time. You could have a few examples / various routes and their times and distance. Please note that the distance should be the distance travelled (the road route) and not as the crow flies.

Transport costs can be important when appealing for any type of school. Factors that need to be considered (if relevant):

  • Is there existing transport to your choice of school that your child can access?
  • Would there be an additional cost if your child joined this arrangement?
  • While the school might be nearer to you, the journey at rush hour might take a long time leading to a higher cost (worth exploring).

If Surrey just gives the total cost of the taxi you can ask if there are other pupils sharing the taxi, in which case, the cost should be divided between the number of children in the taxi.

Please note that sometimes a higher cost works in your favour, for example, the cost to transport to the LA school is a lot higher making your preference a cheaper option.

Live too close to the School for transport

If Surrey states that your child lives too close to the school to be eligible for free transport, the legal question is: can your child be reasonably expected to walk to school?

See our webpage on Transport.

Appeal against a 'refusal to assess'

"The Local Authority has refused to secure an EHC needs assessment on the grounds that the school has not spent £6,000 from its delegated budget on meeting the needs of your child":

In an appeal for refusal to assess the actual cost should not be a factor. Although schools are normally expected to have spent at least £6,000 on your child before considering an EHC needs assessment, this is not a legal requirement.

The legal test is the measure: whether your child may have special educational needs and may need special educational provision.

The question is this: is your child likely to need more provision or different provision than most children of the same age, because of their special educational needs? If so, then an EHC needs assessment should be carried out.

Appeal against a 'refusal to issue'

"The Local Authority has assessed my child and agrees that he/she has special educational needs, but states that these can be met through the resources of the school":

The main issue here is whether an EHC plan is 'necessary'. If your child's school already has the resources to support your child, paid from their normal SEN budget, the LA will not need to spend extra money. If you think the school can't meet your child's needs without extra funding, you will need to be able to argue this.

You will need to evidence that your child's needs can't be met by the school. Hopefully your School can help you with this.

Start with listing exactly what provision your child does get. Schools may have drawn up a Costed Provision Map which shows exactly what the school is providing from their delegated SEN budget. The map should detail the type, level and frequency of the additional input the school (or others) are providing. If your child hasn't got a provision map, then ask the school to provide one. It may be called an IEP or an ISP.

Speak to the school to ask if your child's needs go beyond the resources that are available to the school. The school may not have sufficient funding to cover support, ask what their SEN budget is, how many pupils are on the SEN register and how many have an EHC plan. The idea is that this may give you evidence that the school is having to deal with many demands on their budget, and that more provision is needed for your child.

You could also ask the school: would the provision being made to my child still be available if another child with a high level of SEN was to join the school. If another child with SEN was to join the school, would the current provision being provided for your child (through SEN support arrangements) have to be reduced?

Appeal against the contents (Sections B and F and I appeals)

Two costs may come up with this type of appeal:

  1. the cost of making the provision as set out in Section F and
  2. the cost of the school placement.

Sections B (needs) and F (provision) of your child's EHCP must be written for your individual child and without consideration of cost. Once sections B and F are resolved, maybe through the working documents stage, the school placement (in Section I) should be considered (including transport costs if needed).