Find a specialist SEN school in your area

Here is the April 2025 DFE s41 list of independent and non maintained special schools.

Please see our FAQ section below where this is explained in greater detail.

Our advice is to look at as many schools as you can so that you can be as confident as possible that you are making an informed choice on school preference. It is a key decision that will impact you and your child for many years to come and you need to be sure you make the right decision.

Have a look at our article on Choosing an SEN School for more information.

FAQs

If our parental preference is for an in-borough Local Authority Maintained Special School, is the Placement Officer statutorily obliged to consult for a place for my child?

Answer: 100% Yes and the School must reply within 15 working days, whereupon they will advise you of the outcome. The legal gap is when they must inform you. It may also be that if the school say “No” the LA may seek to put additional pressure on the school to take the child by way of perhaps undeclared (to you or the Tribunal) financial inducement or the need to “take the child for the team to keep money within the LA rather than a wildly expensive independent school”. You have to keep checking with the LA and the school.

If our parental preference is for a Local Authority Maintained Special School in a neighbouring borough, is the Placement Officer statutorily obliged to consult for a place for my child?

Answer: 100% Yes and the responsible Local Authority are also part of the consultation. Both the School and the Local Authority must respond within 15 working days to your Placement Officer. There may be an additional complication in that if the other LA is the admissions authority they may want to keep places in the school for their own children. You might want to check with the school to see if they have received the enquiry and what their views are compared to what the LA say they are. The LA’s/schools views views can be overridden by the Tribunal.

If our parental preference is for a Non-Maintained Special School, is the Placement Officer statutorily obliged to consult for a place for my child?

Answer: 100% Yes and the School must reply within 15 working days.

If our parental preference is for a Section 41 Independent Special School, is the Placement Officer statutorily obliged to consult for a place for my child?re

Answer: 100% Yes and the School must reply within 15 working days.

If our parental preference is for a non-Section 41 Independent Special School, is the Placement Officer statutorily obliged to consult for a place for my child?Here

Answer: No. There are different regulations for this type of setting and the onus will be on the parents to prove that such a setting is an efficient use of resources (that it is not an unreasonable expenditure of monies in the public purse) AND that a Local Authority Maintained School is not able to meet the needs of the child. For more specific information in relation to this generic scenario, please consider requesting a free consultation with Education Advocacy.

Can the Local Authority Maintained Special School refuse to make a placement available for my child?

Answer: Yes. If the School does not consider they are able to meet your child’s needs and/or to do so would be incompatible with the efficient education of the other pupils already at the school, they will inform the Local Authority of their opinion. The Local Authority will consider their views but has the power to insist your child does attend the school. This tends to be a strong appeal point particularly if you have written evidence from the school. For more specific information in relation to this generic scenario, please consider requesting a free consultation with Education Advocacy.

If the Local Authority are unwilling to name the school of parental preference, can the parents challenge the decision?

Answer: Yes – through the Tribunal. For more specific information in relation to this generic scenario, please consider requesting a free consultation with Education Advocacy.

Can a Section 41 Independent Special School refuse to offer a placement for my child?

Answer: Yes. However, as in the response to Question 6 above, the Local Authority can still insist the School offer a placement. If the Local Authority do not insist when a Section 41 Independent Special School objects to placement of a potential pupil, the decision can be challenged at SENDIST. For more information in relation to this generic scenario, please consider requesting a free consultation with Education Advocacy.

Can a Non Section 41 Independent Special School refuse to offer a placement for my child?

Answer: Yes and in these circumstances neither the Local Authority or SENDIST have the power to insist that the child does attend the school. For more information in relation to this generic scenario, please consider requesting a free consultation with Education Advocacy.

I understand that appeals to Tribunal are in a bottle-neck which is causing immense delay. Can we request an urgent hearing?

Answer: SENDIST have set aside timeslots for hearings of pupils who are of secondary transition phase or if a child is out of school. For more information in relation to specific circumstances, please consider requesting a free consultation with Education Advocacy.