Sam

LEAs can share the cost of provision with schools by agreement, but must bear the whole cost if the school were to end the arrangement.

Sam’s statement gave him 20 hours of support in a mainstream primary school. The LEA informed the school that they would have to pay for 5 hours of this from their own funds. Sam’s parents thought this would jeopardise his chance of being accepted by a mainstream secondary school when the time came to transfer and so appealed to the High Court. The court ruled that it was not illegal for an LEA to come to this arrangement provided the school agreed. “But if ... the school were to ... say that they were no longer prepared to apply any part of their budget to the cost of the 20 hours ... the (LEA) would immediately have to meet the full cost. The provision would in any event be secure.”

This judgement, known as R v Oxfordshire County Council ex parte P 1995, is now quoted by parents when LEAs try to make schools pay for some of the provision specified in Part 3 of a statement.

Parents’ comments

“We were at our wits end. We could not have pursued the legal route without IPSEA’s help. We are a low-income family and could not afford legal advice. IPSEA’s practical and emotional support was excellent. Here was a group with no hidden agenda who were supporting us 100%. They gave us the strength to carry on.”

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