The placement that worked in July doesn’t work in September. You’ve stopped asking whether the school can be fixed, and started asking whether your child needs to be somewhere else.
If you’re asking because you’ve moved house to a different council area, this isn’t the guide you need. Our post on moving to a new council with an EHCP covers what happens to your child’s Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) when your address changes. This one is for when your address hasn’t changed, but the school itself has stopped working, whether your child has an EHCP or not.
It’s also different from a managed move, where the school suggests a fresh start somewhere else. A managed move needs your genuine agreement, and you can say no to it. Our guide on managed moves covers what to check before you sign anything, and the signs a “fresh start” is really an exclusion by another name.
This guide is for parents and carers in England. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run different systems, so if you’re outside England, this won’t apply to you.
Key facts
- If your child has an EHCP, you can ask for an early annual review at any point in the year. You don’t have to wait for the one already scheduled.
- Once the local authority (LA) holds that review and proposes a change, it must notify you within 4 weeks of the meeting. The final amended plan then follows within a further 8 weeks, a maximum of 12 weeks in total, confirmed in R (L, M and P) v Devon County Council [2022].
- If your child doesn’t have an EHCP, an in-year application runs differently to the normal round. You apply through your council or direct to the school, and admission authorities must reply in writing within 15 school days.
- If normal admissions fail and your child is left without any place, the Fair Access Protocol should get them into a school within 20 school days of referral. The exception is a child who already has an EHCP: theirs runs through a different process entirely.
Which route applies to your child’s move?
The fork depends on one thing: does your child have a finalised EHCP right now.
If yes, the process runs through an amendment to Section I of the plan, the part that names the school. That amendment is triggered by an early annual review, not by filling in a school application form.
If no, your child moves through the ordinary in-year admissions system: the same one every family without a plan uses, just applied outside the September timetable. If things go wrong there, a Fair Access Protocol exists as a safety net, covered further down.
If an EHC needs assessment is underway but no plan exists yet, apply through the normal in-year system anyway while you wait. It costs nothing, and it keeps a door open if the assessment takes longer than the search for a new school does.
| Aspect | With an EHCP | Without an EHCP |
|---|---|---|
| Legal mechanism | Amendment to Section I via an early annual review | Ordinary in-year admissions application |
| Who has to agree | The LA, once it accepts the review request | The admission authority (school or council) |
| Key deadline | 12 weeks maximum from the review meeting to the final amended plan | 15 school days for a decision; 20 school days to appeal if refused |
| If it goes wrong | Appeal to the SEND Tribunal over Section I | Appeal to an independent admission appeal panel, or the Fair Access Protocol |
Whichever column you’re in, the underlying question doesn’t change: you need to show the current placement isn’t meeting your child’s needs, and that a specific alternative would. Keep that evidence building from day one, not just once you’ve decided to formalise the request.
How does an in-year EHCP amendment actually work?
Start by writing to the Director of Children’s Services, not the school, asking for an early annual review under section 44 of the Children and Families Act 2014. Set out exactly what’s failing: missed provision, incidents with dates, professional reports if you have them, and the school you’d want named instead if you already know it.
There’s a second lever if that request stalls. Regulation 28 of the SEND Regulations 2014 lets the LA propose an amendment at any time, treating it “as if the proposed amendment were an amendment proposed after a review.”
In practice, the LA doesn’t have to wait for the next scheduled review meeting to start the amendment process. Some people call this an “emergency review,” but there’s no separate emergency procedure in law. It’s the same process, just triggered early.
Asking for an early annual review isn’t the same as having a statutory right to one. There’s no fixed deadline for the LA to agree, and no appeal if it refuses outright. If it stays silent, ask instead for a formal reassessment under section 44 and regulation 25, which does carry a statutory 15-day deadline for the LA to tell you whether it will reassess.
Once the LA holds the review meeting, the clock genuinely starts running.
- Ask for an early annual reviewWrite to the Director of Children’s Services under section 44, with dated evidence that the placement is failing
- LA holds the review meetingBring evidence of unmet provision, and a preferred school if you have one in mind
- Decision noticeThe LA tells you whether it will amend, maintain, or cease the plan
- Amendment notice and your representationsYou get at least 15 calendar days to comment and to name a preferred school
- Final amended planNames the new school in Section I
You can name a preferred school at this stage under section 39 of the Children and Families Act 2014. The LA has to agree unless one of three narrow grounds applies.
Our guide on when no school is named on an EHCP goes deep on those three grounds, and on what happens if the LA still won’t name your choice.
If a tribunal later orders the LA to change the school named in Section I, the amended plan must follow within 2 weeks of the order.
How do you apply for an in-year place without an EHCP?
Contact your home council’s admissions team directly rather than waiting for the next application window. Most councils run a single in-year form covering all their maintained schools.
An academy or voluntary-aided school acting as its own admission authority may want a separate application too, so check both. Admission authorities must give you a written decision within 15 school days.
If your preferred school refuses a place, you can appeal to an independent appeal panel under sections 86 and 94 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. The panel weighs the harm to your child from missing out against the harm to the school from admitting one more pupil. In Reception to Year 2, if the school refuses because one more child would breach the infant class size limit, your appeal can only succeed on narrow grounds.
Say your child has been refused a place at every suitable school within reasonable distance. The LA can then direct a maintained school’s governing body to admit them, under section 96 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998.
It has to consult you and the governing body first, under section 97.
Academies sit outside this power entirely. There, the LA can only ask the Secretary of State to direct admission under the academy’s own funding agreement.
What if your child ends up with no school place at all?
Sometimes the ordinary in-year process doesn’t produce a place at all. That’s what the Fair Access Protocol (FAP) exists for: a safety net for children who are unplaced and vulnerable, set out in paragraphs 3.14 to 3.22 of the School Admissions Code 2021. It only kicks in once a normal in-year application has already been tried and failed.
Once a child is referred, every admission authority in the area, including academies, has to take its share. A place should follow within 20 school days of that referral.
| Status | Criterion |
|---|---|
| Note | - Out of education for 2 or more months A common route in for children stuck without a place after a placement breakdown |
| Note | - Special educational needs (SEN) or a disability, without an EHCP Directly relevant, and schools can’t refuse a child on the grounds that SEN needs are “not catered for” |
| Note | - At risk of, or already excluded Reintegration after exclusion is one of the protocol’s core purposes |
| Note | - Attending a pupil referral unit or alternative provision needing reintegration Covers a move back into mainstream schooling |
| Check | Already has a finalised EHCP Not this route. The EHCP naming process under section 43 applies instead |
FAP doesn’t promise your first-choice school, only a place somewhere suitable, quickly. If the LA hasn’t referred your child despite meeting one of these categories, ask in writing why not. Escalate if nothing moves within 10 working days.
What must the council do while you wait?
Two duties run in parallel, whichever route you’re on, and neither pauses while a new place is being found.
If your child has an EHCP, section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014 puts an absolute, non-delegable duty on the LA. It must secure everything set out in Section F, unless you’ve made your own suitable alternative arrangements.
The High Court was blunt about this in R (LB) v Surrey County Council [2022]. The case involved a teenager whose residential placement broke down. There is “no ‘best endeavours’ defence,” and the council conceded it had breached the duty simply by letting the provision stop.
Separately, section 19 of the Education Act 1996 requires every council to arrange suitable education for any child of compulsory school age who isn’t getting it, EHCP or not. In the same Surrey case, the court found the council had breached this duty too. It had failed to arrange suitable interim education for nearly four months while the search for a new placement dragged on.
Suitable education has to be genuinely “available, possible and accessible,” not a promise to keep looking.
A council can’t treat “we don’t have the budget” or “we’re short-staffed” as a lawful reason to pause your child’s Section F provision or leave them with no education at all. Both duties keep running regardless of how the placement search is going. Get any excuse in writing, and challenge it.
If your child is already out of school, our guide on Section 19 and education otherwise than at school covers what “suitable” means in practice. If exclusion risk is driving the move, our guide to a child’s rights around exclusion covers formal and informal exclusion, the Independent Review Panel route, and when it crosses into disability discrimination.
What can you do if the process stalls?
Treat every stage as a paper trail from the start, because the duties above only protect you if you can show what was asked for, and when.
- Get the refusal or the problem in writing - confirm any verbal answer by email the same day
- Ask the current school for a short written account of what’s happened - dates, incidents, and what support was actually tried
- Write to the council’s SEND or admissions team - state clearly what you’re asking for, and set a date by which you expect a reply
- Keep a day-by-day log while your child is out of school or unplaced - it becomes the evidence behind a complaint or appeal
- Escalate before a deadline passes, not after - the Ombudsman, the Tribunal and judicial review all run on a clock
If the council is simply slow, a formal complaint followed by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) is the right route. It covers maladministration: missed deadlines, ignored requests, provision that never arrives.
If it’s refusing to name your chosen school or amend Section I at all, that’s a matter for the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Tribunal instead. Our guide on what to do when the council misses an EHCP deadline sets out exactly how to chase a specific missed date.
For an urgent situation, such as a named school flatly refusing to admit, judicial review is worth raising with a solicitor or SENDIASS. It has to be filed promptly, so don’t sit on it.
Ask your child’s current school for a short written account of what’s happened, dates included. It carries far more weight in a complaint or appeal than your account alone, whichever route you’re on.
Getting help
Several organisations offer free, specialist advice on school placement moves during the year.
IPSEA (Independent Provider of Special Education Advice) gives free legal advice on EHCP amendments, annual reviews and appeals, including template letters for requesting an early review.
Scope publishes a plain-English guide to changing the named school on an EHCP, including what evidence to gather before the review meeting.
Your local SEND Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS) gives free, impartial, confidential advice in your area. It can help you prepare a request for an early review or an in-year application. Find your nearest service through the Council for Disabled Children.
Contact runs a free helpline for families of disabled children and can talk through the practical side of an in-year move.