Parent asks:

My adult son has an EHC plan. It states his College and last year he studied a course with additional functional skills maths and English. This year the College is trying to outsource these sessions to a different centre in a different place already discounted as part of a Tribunal last year. Can they force him to go as it is not named in his EHC plan?

He only had 1 hour of each subject given, so he was not going to progress.Now, he is being provided with 6 hours was this discrimination by the College?

He is completing a pre-uni course in Art but can't progress.What should we do as we do not want him to attend the centre? Can the College do this they seem to be running his EHC plan and not the authority?

IPSEA Answers:

If the EHC plan specifies the college in Section I then this is the place your son should be attending and the college can’t direct him off to another centre for certain courses or lessons.  It’s not within its power to do so.

It’s unclear from the information we’ve got whether the provision of 1 hour per subject was in some way discriminatory.  It was clearly inadequate but this seems to have been resolved by an increase in the amount of tuition being given.  If the EHC plan states how many hours of tuition your son should receive and the college was or is not delivering this, then your complaint is, ultimately, with the local authority (LA).  Under s.42 Children and Families Act 2014, it is the LA (and not the college) which is responsible in law for securing that the plan specifies the special educational provision your son needs and that this is delivered.

If this isn’t happening then a complaint can be made and IPSEA has a model letter which

can be used: https://www.ipsea.org.uk/what-you-need-to-know/model-letters/model-letter-6

Obviously, you can complain to the college first and point out that only the LA can change the provision in the plan and then only by following the statutory process in the SEN and Disability Regulations 2014.  But if college won’t do what the plan says then the sooner the LA are aware of the problems the better.

If the plan is not providing adequate support to enable your son to progress, then this is an issue he can raise (with your support) at the annual review.  It may be that changes need to be made to the plan if the provision isn’t adequately specified or sufficient.