Moving in and out of the borough

The new LA has the same legal duties as if it had issued the EHC plan itself. The most important duty is to make sure that your child, or you as a young person, receives all of the special educational provision specified in Section F of the EHC plan.

The new LA has six weeks from the transfer to notify you that the EHC plan has been transferred, and to let you know when it is going to review the EHC plan (see below).

If the EHC plan names a school for which fees must be paid in Section I, the new authority cannot decline to pay the fees or otherwise maintain the child at an independent or non-maintained special school or a boarding school named in an EHC plan unless and until they have amended the EHC plan.

If it is no longer practical for your child or you as a young person to attend the school or college named in Section I (perhaps because it is too far away) then your new LA (which you have moved into) must arrange for them or you to attend another appropriate school until it reviews and amends the EHC plan.

The new LA must review the EHC plan within either 12 months from the EHC plan being made or last reviewed, or 3 months from the date of the transfer, whichever is the later. It must follow the correct process for an annual review.

If the new LA does not complete a review within this time frame you can take action. You may wish to contact the local SEND IASS service for independent advice and support.

A move could mean that the child or young person not only changes LA but also finds themselves under a new commissioning body (formerly known as a clinical commissioning group, and now known as an Integrated Care Board) for their health services. 

Where it is not practical for that new commissioning body to arrange the health care provision specified in the EHC plan:

• it must, within 15 working days beginning with the date on which it became aware of the move, request that the new LA makes an EHC needs assessment or reviews the EHC plan, and
• the new LA must comply with such request.

After a review or re-assessment your new LA could decide to:

• Keep the EHC plan the same.
• Make changes to the EHC plan. You will have a chance to make representations about these changes and object to any amendments you disagree with in the same way you would after an annual review.
• Cease to maintain the EHC plan.

Whichever decision your new LA makes, if you disagree with it you can appeal to the First-tier SEND Tribunal.

If you move to a different country, then the situation is different. This includes if you move to Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, for example. The SEN Service will consider ceasing (stopping) an EHC plan if it considers that it is no longer necessary for the plan to be maintained or if we are no longer responsible for the child or young person. 

We consider responsibility for children and young people if they are:

•  Residing in the borough, and
•  they are identified and known to the SEN Service or been made aware of them as having (or that they may have) special educational needs.

This will include those with EHC plans. This means that we are responsible for children and young people with EHC plans living in the borough but this doesn’t mean the SEN Service will take their EHC plan away when they leave the area temporarily. How long they are away for is relevant but not the only factor considered when deciding if responsibility is being taken for your child or young person when they are in a different country. We consider all of the individual circumstances.

If you move abroad and don’t plan to come back, we may contact you about stopping your child or young person’s EHC plan on the basis that we no longer have responsibility and there won’t be a new LA taking over this responsibility (as in the process explained above).

The LA may, in this situation, look to cease your child or young person’s EHC plan if it decides that its area is not where they ordinarily live. But there is no requirement on a LA to do this – it has discretion, so can choose, whether to do this or not. This means that the LA may decide to keep the EHC plan in place, and in making this decision the LA will act reasonably. If your move abroad isn’t permanent and you’ll be moving back to the borough, it’s important to make this clear to your EHCp Case Officer. This is because if your child or young person is going to be out of the country temporarily but where they ordinarily live remains in the borough, we would maintain responsibility for them and not cease the EHC plan on that basis.

If you think your child or young person’s EHC plan should be maintained whilst you are abroad, you should make all the relevant factors and circumstances known to your EHCp Case Officer for the SEN Service to consider. For example, you could say how long you plan on being abroad for, why and where you expect to live when you return to the borough. You should also explain anything which helps show that you have not decided to move abroad permanently, for example if you are keeping a home in the borough and/or will be abroad with your family due to work and your employer provides assistance with returning to the LA.

If the LA decides to cease to maintain your child’s EHC plan in these circumstances, we follow a legal process and you will have a right to mediate and appeal this decision through the SEND Tribunal.