Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill

Written evidence submitted by IPSEA (Independent Provider of Special Education Advice) (CWSB150)

Response to the Call for Evidence: Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

About IPSEA (Independent Provider of Special Education Advice) 

1. IPSEA supports families of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). We currently advise more than 4,000 parents and carers of children and young people with SEND every year. We deliver two free and independent telephone helpline services to parents, carers and young people, and run a Tribunal Support Service through which we provide casework support and representation for parents, carers and young people who are making appeals or bringing disability discrimination claims to the SEND Tribunal. As well as training parents and carers on the SEND law framework, IPSEA also provides regular legal training to bodies such as SEND Information, Advice and Support Services (SENDIASS), education professionals and local authorities.  

Children not in school, Clauses 24-29 

2. Clause 24 of the bill would create a requirement for local authority consent for specific categories of children to be withdrawn from school. This includes children with special educational needs and/or disabilities who attend any special school under arrangements made by a local authority. 

3. We note that this clause would require local authorities to refuse consent if they consider that "it would be in the child’s best interests to be educated by regular attendance at school" or that "no suitable arrangements have been made for the child’s education otherwise than at school". 

4. It is essential that the committee understands why parents may decide to withdraw a child with SEND from school. The rise in the number of children who have been withdrawn from school, and the reasons for it, has been explored in some detail by the Education Policy Institute.1 

5. We know from calls to our helpline and from our casework that parents often take this step not out of an intrinsic desire to educate their child themselves at home, but because the child is not receiving the special educational provision and support they need in order to make progress at school. This applies to children in special schools as well as mainstream: placement in a special school does not in itself mean that a child will receive the particular provision they need. 

6. It would be a significant decision for a local authority to refuse consent for a child to be withdrawn from school in these circumstances. We take the view that this should only happen if a full annual review of a child’s EHC plan has recently been undertaken, so that the local authority is fully informed about what a child’s needs are and considered whether changes to the plan are necessary. 

7. Parents need clear information on how decisions will be made: what are the parameters, how are the child’s ‘best interests’ defined, and what factors will local authorities be required to consider. Parents/carers of children with SEND may doubt whether local authorities are in fact the best arbiters of their child’s best interests, given the parlous state of SEND decision-making – as explored in 2023 by the Administrative Justice Council.2 

8. We urge the committee to amend clause 24 to require guidance to be produced for local authorities and parents on how decisions will be made to grant or refuse consent for a child with SEND to be withdrawn from a special school. 

9. Clause 24 also specifies that a local authority is "only required to make a new decision under subsection (6)(a) if a period of six months has elapsed since the date of the previous application". 

10. We note that a lot can happen in a child’s life in a much shorter period than six months, and if their circumstances change within that period, the local authority would not even have to consider the parent's request for consent. Plus, if consent was refused because "no suitable arrangements have been made for the education of the child otherwise than at school", the parents could potentially learn from the local authority’s response – but as the Bill is currently drafted, even if parents quickly adjusted arrangements accordingly, the local authority would not have to consider a new request for consent. 

11. It is not clear what risks the Government believes it is protecting this specific category of children from that they are not currently protected against. 

12. We are also concerned that there is no duty in these clauses on local authorities to make suitable arrangements where a parent has no choice but to withdraw their child from school because they are not receiving the special education provision they need – only on parents. So if a parent of a child with SEND who is not receiving the provision and support they need at their special school and the parent feels they have no choice but to withdraw them from school, the duty is on the parent to ensure a suitable education rather than on the local authority to meet the child’s needs.  

13. While the Children and Families Act 2014 places clear duties on local authorities to identify children and young people with SEND and meet their needs – and, under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 to arrange suitable, full-time education for children of compulsory schools age who would not otherwise receive it – it would be helpful to reflect this explicitly in the Bill. 

14. Many parents of children with SEND want nothing more than there to be a suitable school place for their child. In the absence of this, some may feel they have no option other than to withdraw their child from school and educate them at home. 

15. A heavy-handed approach that looks primarily through a safeguarding lens does not capture the reality for many families of children with SEND, whose overriding wish is for their child to thrive in school with their special educational needs understood and met in accordance with the law. 

16. We urge the committee to amend clause 25 to make clear that local authorities have a duty to ensure that children with SEND receive an education that meets their needs. 

17. This would have an impact on clause 26, which allows local authorities to issue School Attendance Orders where "it appears a child may not be receiving a suitable education". As previously noted, children with SEND may not be receiving a suitable education in their school placement, leading their parents to withdraw them – or they may have been off-rolled. The priority should be identifying and meeting any special educational needs a child has, as per the Children and Families Act 2014, before sanctioning their parents. 

January 2025