Q:
09.14 In looking at the cost of a placement, does it make a difference if parents are prepared to pay the costs of transport?
Noddy 'no-nonsense' Guide
Authors: David Wolfe QC, Leon Glenister
14 Feb 2022
A: SenseCheck
- 1 Yes
- 0 No
- 0 Other
- 14 Feb 2022
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Yes
Simple
Yes. Where parents/young person and LA both prefer placements falling within section 38, but attendance at the parentally/young person-preferred placement would lead to additional transport costs, the stages to consider are (1) the parental/young person preferred placement should be named alone (pursuant to CFA2014 section 39) if the additional cost is not incompatible with the provision of efficient resources or such inefficiency is outweighed by educational benefit, (2) if there is no duty to name the requested placement, the FTT should determine whether the extra transport costs are unreasonable public expenditure (EA1996 section 9) – if not the requested placement should be named alone, (3) if the costs are unreasonable, is it still incompatible if the parents/young person pay for transport – if not, then both placements can be named subject to parents/young person paying travel costs to their preferred school: Dudley MBC v S [2012] EWCA Civ 346#27.
Where parents propose to arrange transport to a school, thus removing the transport cost from their proposed placement, the Tribunal will err if it does not consider (1) naming more than one school in Section I or (2) naming one school in Section I, subject to a condition that the parents arrange transport at their own expense: S-MR v Carmarthenshire CC [2021] UKUT 294 (AAC) #7.
More: Can parents/young person request a particular placement?
Noddy 'no-nonsense' Guide
Authors: David Wolfe QC, Leon Glenister
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