Part I Representation and Assessment
5 Disabled persons leaving special education F1: England.
(1)
Where—
(a)
a local authority F2in England have made a statement under section 7 of the M1Education Act 1981 F3section 168 of the Education Act 1993 or section 324 of the Education Act 1996 (statement of child’s educational needs) F4, or have maintained an EHC plan under section 37 of the Children and Families Act 2014, in respect of a child F5... and
(b)
the statement F6or plan is still maintained by the authority at whichever is the earlier of the following times, namely—
(i)
(ii)
any time falling after F8they have carried out the review prescribed for the purposes of sub-paragraph (i) when they institute a re-assessment of his educational needs,
the authority shall at that time require the appropriate officer to give to the authority his opinion as to whether the child is or is not a disabled person.
(2)
Where—
(a)
(b)
a F9local authority F12in England maintain any such statement F13or plan in respect of a child in whose case the appropriate officer has, in pursuance of subsection (1), given his opinion that the child is not a disabled person, but the authority have become aware of a significant change in the mental or physical condition of the child giving them reason to believe that he may now be a disabled person,
the authority shall, at the time of making the statement F14, securing the preparation of the plan or (as the case may be) of becoming aware of that change, require the appropriate officer to give to the authority his opinion as to whether the child is or is not a disabled person.
F15(3)
In the following provisions of this section and in section 6 a person in respect of whom the appropriate officer has given his opinion that he is a disabled person is referred to as a “disabled student”.
(3A)
The responsible authority shall give to the appropriate officer written notification for the purposes of subsection (5) of the date on which any disabled student will cease to be of compulsory school age, and the notification shall state—
(a)
his name and address; and
(b)
whether or not he intends to remain in full-time education and, if he does, the name of the school or other institution at which the education will be received;
and shall be given not earlier than twelve months, nor later than eight months, before that date.
(3B)
Where, in the case of a disabled student over compulsory school age who is receiving relevant full-time education, that is—
(a)
full-time education at a school; or
(b)
full-time further or higher education at an institution other than a school;
it appears to the responsible authority that the student will cease to receive relevant full-time education on a date (“the leaving date”) on which he will be under the age of nineteen years and eight months, the responsible authority shall give written notification for the purposes of subsection (5) to the appropriate officer.
(3C)
That notification shall state—
(a)
his name and address; and
(b)
the leaving date;
and shall be given not earlier than twelve months, nor later than eight months, before the leaving date.
(4)
If at any time it appears to the responsible authority—
(a)
that a disabled student has ceased to receive relevant full-time education or will cease to do so on a date less than 8 months after that time, and
(b)
that no notification has been given under subsection (3B), but
(c)
that, had the responsible authority for the time being been aware of his intentions 8 months or more before that date, they would have been required to give notification under that subsection with respect to him,
that authority shall, as soon as is reasonably practicable, give written notification for the purposes of subsection (5) to the appropriate officer of his name and address and of the date on which he ceased to receive, or will cease to receive, that education.
(5)
When the appropriate officer receives a notification given with respect to F16a student under subsection (3A) that he does not intend to remain in full-time education or under subsection (3B) or (4), he shall (subject to subsections (6) and (7) make arrangements for the local authority of which he is an officer to carry out an assessment of the needs of that person with respect to the provision by that authority of any statutory services for that person in accordance with any of the welfare enactments, and any such assessment shall be carried out—
(a)
in the case of a F17notification under subsection (3A) or (3B), not later than the end of the period of 5 months beginning with the date of receipt of the notification, or
(b)
in the case of a notification under subsection (4), before the date specified in the notification, if reasonably practicable, and in any event not later than the end of the period referred to in paragraph (a) above.
(6)
If—
(a)
a notification has been given to the appropriate officer with respect to any person under subsection F18(3A) that he does not intend to remain in full-time education or under subsection (3B) or (4), but
(b)
it subsequently appears to F19the responsible authority that the person will be receiving relevant full-time education at a time later than the date specified in the notification,
the authority shall give written notification of the relevant facts to that officer as soon as is reasonably practicable; and on receiving any such notification that officer shall cease to be required under subsection (5) to make arrangements for the assessment of the needs of the person in question (but without prejudice to the operation of that subsection in relation to any further notification given with respect to that person under subsection F18(3A) that he does not intend to remain in full-time education or under subsection (3B) or (4)).
(7)
Nothing in subsection (5) shall require the appropriate officer to make arrangements for the assessment of the needs of a person—
(a)
if, having attained the age of 16, he has requested that such arrangements should not be made under that subsection, or
(b)
if, being under that age, his parent or F20other person who is not a parent of his but who has parental responsibility for him has made such a request.
(8)
Regulations under F21paragraph 7 of Schedule 27 to the Education Act 1996 (assessments and statements of special educational needs) may, in relation to the transfer of statements F22maintained under section 324 of that Act, make such provision as appears to the Secretary of State to be necessary or expedient in connection with the preceding provisions of this section.
F23(8A)
Regulations under section 47 of the Children and Families Act 2014 (transfer of EHC plans) may make such provision as appears to the Secretary of State to be necessary or expedient in connection with subsections (1) to (7) of this section.
(9)
In this section—
“the appropriate officer”, in relation to the child or person referred to in the provision of this section in question, means such officer as may be appointed for the purposes of this section by the local authority for the area in which that child or person is for the time being ordinarily resident;
F26“establishment of higher or further education” means an institution which provides higher education or further education (or both); and
“the responsible authority”—
(a)
(b)
F32 in relation to a person receiving full-time further education or higher education at an institution within the further education sector or the higher education sector, means the governing body of the institution; and
(c)
in each case whether any such opinion as is mentioned in subsection (3) was given to that authority or not;
(10)
This section applies to England F43... only.