My 9 year old child has a long term medical condition which means they can’t manage full-time attendance at school. The school records them as absent due to illness and says they can’t agree to an indefinite part-time timetable. Is this true?

• Education can be provided partly at school and partly elsewhere

The statutory guidance Working together to improve school attendance (applicable from 19 August 2024) confirms that part-time timetables must be temporary and have a proposed end date (paragraphs 66 and 67). However, as explained at paragraph 65 of this guidance, in some circumstances a pupil’s education may be provided partially at school and partially somewhere else.

• Schools have to tell local authorities (LAs) about sickness absences

As your child is of compulsory school age, has been recorded as absent due to illness and there are reasonable grounds to believe they will have to miss 15 school days or more in the school year, the school has a legal duty tell your LA this as soon as possible. This is called making a sickness return and the school must do this (regulation 13(9) of The School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 and paragraph 58 of Working together to improve school attendance). The 15 days don’t have to be consecutive (in one block), for example it could be made up of one day off per week.

• LAs have to make sure children get full-time education

Your LA has a legal duty to secure suitable, full-time alternative education for children of compulsory school age who would not otherwise receive it due to illness, exclusion or another reason (section 19 of the Education Act 1996). The statutory guidance called  'Arranging education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs' says (on page 7) as soon as it is clear that a child will be away from school for 15 days or more (consecutive or not) because of their health needs, the LA should arrange suitable alternative provision. When an LA arranges alternative education, it should begin as soon as it is possible, and at the latest by the sixth day of the child’s absence from school. Where an absence is planned, LAs must make suitable, timely arrangements in advance to allow provision to begin from day one, unless exceptional circumstances apply. 

The statutory guidance 'Arranging education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs' confirms (on page 9) that this applies whether a child is on the roll of a school or not and whatever type of school they attend.

This means that once your child’s school makes a sickness return informing the LA that your child will miss at least 15 school days over the school year, the LA’s duty to provide alternative education to supplement their school attendance will apply. This does not mean the LA will provide a full day’s education; it could provide a few hours of one-to-one tuition. The guidance says where possible, children with health needs should receive education which is equivalent to the education they would receive in a mainstream school and that one-to-one face-to-face provision could be fewer hours than the usual school day as the education may be more intensive (pages 9 and 10).

If you’re not sure if the school has made the sickness return, ask it for a copy of it (it may help to share this webpage with the school). You can contact the LA directly to request alternative education too and we have a template letter which may help.

• An EHC plan can provide more or different support

Where a child is not able to access school, this indicates that more or different support is needed than they are currently receiving. If it is not foreseeable that your child will be able to attend school full-time and they do not have an EHC plan you can make a request for an EHC needs assessment, in order to ensure that their special educational needs are properly identified and the required special educational provision can be put in place. This may be to enable them to attend school full-time with that support, or to demonstrate that receiving all of their educational provision at any school would be inappropriate, in which case the education that they would receive out of school (known as education otherwise or EOTAS) would be set out in an EHC plan. An EHC plan is a legal document that parents can enforce if there are any issues with their child receiving the special educational provision set out within it.

If your child already has an EHC plan and is not receiving the provision in it, see our information on enforcing it. Even if they are, it may be appropriate to ask the LA to make changes to the EHC plan to better support your child’s needs and enable them to attend school full-time or have some of their education via EOTAS.

The LA’s duty to secure alternative education under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 applies to compulsory school age children regardless of whether or not they have an EHC plan. Getting or changing an EHC plan takes time and the duty under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 is a safety net to prevent a child who would otherwise miss education from doing so in the meantime.