My friends child is 4 years, due to start primary in September 2025. He is currently in a specialist school with 1:1 and has an EHCP. She has recently got a letter from the council offering places in mainstream schools only. My friend is devasted as knows her child will not cope. He has global learning delay, autism, non verbal and PICA symptoms (not diagnosed but does pick up and eat anything). She has no idea what to do. Can I get advice on what she can do and the steps she needs to take?
A: SenseCheck
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- 19 Apr 2025
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Hi Kimberley,
It's a tricky question to answer as I don't know what's going on. So, I'll respond to some possible reasons behind the letter.
1. Current specialist provision is an Early Years SEND Assessment Centre?There are children who are placed in assessment centres for nursery years so that staff can work with them to see how they do. In some cases, the assessment centre info indicates a clear need for special school. In others, it indicates that the child should be given the chance to try mainstream school.
This could be a case where the assessment centre assessments indicate the child has more potential and could make better progress in mainstream than special school (or at least be given the chance).
Action: Speak to the manager of the assessment centre to ask them to talk you through the views they have on placement for September.
2. Local Authority have consulted mainstream schools and several have said they could meet needs?
If so, the LA have written to your friend to give her the choice of which of those she would like her son to be placed in.
Action: Given that she has no idea of what to do, she should visit one of the schools listed and see look at what they offer with an open mind. It's not right to argue that a school can't meet a child's needs if you haven't given the school chance to explain how they'd approach it.
3. The mainstream schools in the letter have specialist provision attached?
There are mainstream schools that have SEN Units or Resource Provision attached. These are sometimes like mini-special schools but have the advantage that a child has more opportunity to socialise with mainstream peers and access mainstream lessons and playground. These might be more local (meaning less likelihood of a child travelling 1.5 hours per day).
You may not think the child needs any mainstream right now. I've not met him so that may be fair enough. However, once a child is in special school, it's a real uphill struggle to get them into mainstream. The SEN Unit or Resource Provision ‘hybrid model’ keeps doors open for the child.
What's the difference between a SEN unit and resource provision? The rule is that a children in a SEN unit have less than 50% access to mainstream (for some children this might be 0% or very close to 0%). For a resource provision, children have a target of more than 50% access to mainstream.
Action: Check if they have a SEN unit or resource provision by ringing them up and asking (or google the school name followed by GIAS and it will take you to the government listings for schools which includes whether they have a unit or resource).
Action: Visit the SEN unit or resource provisions. Some have children in most lessons and some have almost no children accessing mainstream.
4. Local authority are doing something that's outside the rules?
In many areas, special schools are full and local authorities are having to try to find school places for children who would previously have been in special school.
It could be that the law is being broken, but the information given is not enough to take a view either way. Therefore, let's not rush to judgement - more info is needed.
Action: Google the name of your council followed by SENDIASS (short for SEND Information Advice and Support Service). Then call them to ask their advice. As they are independent of the council, they might be able to give you a better explanation of the letter based on their local knowledge of what's going on.
Final notes
There are many children who have severe learning difficulties or autism who do very well in inclusive mainstream schools. The nature of this site means that we don't hear about them (understandably, people only questions when they have an issue with a mainstream school and not when things are all going well).
I'm not saying that would be the case for this child. I don't know. I provide the final comment for balance as I'm aware of the wide and diverse readership of the answers on here.
Also, thanks for caring about your friend to reach out for more information. SEND systems and processes can feel a bit like a maze, so it's always good when an individual has a support network around her.
19 Apr 2025
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