If the provision is part of a mainstream school, you have a right to request that the school is named in the EHCP.

However, the provision should not be named in section I of the EHCP, but instead, be described in section F.

It is essential that section F of the EHCP includes a full description of the special education provisions (SEP) that your child / young person requires, which is provided for in the provision, for example small class teaching, onsite speech and language or occupational therapy, or specially trained staff.

Without a clear description in section F, your child could be placed in the mainstream school within which the provision is based and not have any access to the provision.

LAs can name a provision in section I even where it is not a separate provision, but they are not legally obliged too.

If you need to appeal to the SEND Tribunal so your child / young person can access the provision, the SEND Tribunal will not be able to order the LA to name the provision in section I.

A mainstream school is a school which is not a special school and is either a maintained school or an Academy. This is set out in section 83 CFA 2014. Independent schools are not classed as mainstream schools.

These are schools controlled and funded directly by the Secretary of State for Education and include:

• Academies
• Free schools
• University Technical College schools
• Studio schools
• Academy special schools
• alternative provision Academies, and
• Academy boarding schools.

These are not maintained or controlled by LAs. They are subject to a contract between the Academy trust (owner) and the Secretary of State known as the “Funding Agreement”. Much (but not all) of the law and guidance for maintained schools applies to them as do many of the regulations for independent schools. They are subject to the same inspections as state schools by Ofsted.

An Additionally Resourced Provision (ARP) is a specialist provision within a mainstream school for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

A special school is a school which is “specially organised to make special educational provision for pupils with SEN”. This is set out in section 337 of the Education Act 1996.

Section 41 approved schools are independent schools which have been approved by the Secretary of State under section 41 of the Children and Families Act (CFA) 2014 as schools which a parent or young person can request to be named in an EHC plan. This means parents or young people have a right to request this type of school is named in an EHCP in the same way they can request a maintained school, for example.

Private post-16 institutions may also opt for section 41 status. 

Schools or institutions not controlled by either an LA or the Secretary of State, are schools that are broadly referred to as independent schools. It is worth understanding the different types as these schools often have provision available for children and young people with SEN.

These are:

• Independent schools – these are mostly controlled by charities (and therefore, “not for profit”) but there are some private “for-profit” owners. Due to their independence their provision is not the same across the sector as for the state sector. They include prep schools, public schools, and private nurseries (early years provision). Some private schools are registered as “specially organised to make provision with pupils for SEN”. However, for legal purposes independent schools are neither special nor mainstream, but all simply “independent”.

• Non-maintained special schools – all charitable foundations and “not for profit”. This type of school will take a mixture of children and young people with and without EHCP's but in practice almost 100% of their pupils are publicly funded through EHCP's.

for children who need to be educated out of school, often because they have been excluded. They have the same legal status as schools in some respects but do not have to teach the national curriculum.