[2025] UKUT 323 (AAC)

This is an appeal by the appellants against the decision of the First-tier Tribunal of 14 March 2025 in relation their son’s Education Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan). For the purposes of this decision, I will call their son Ali. This is not his real name. The Tribunal concluded that Ali’s special educational needs could be met in day maintained special school (School X) and that accordingly School X should be named in Section I of Ali’s Education Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan) because complying with parental preference for a 52-week placement at an independent residential special school (School Y) would cost approximately £400,000 per annum and constitute unreasonable public expenditure.

The practical consequence of the Tribunal’s decision was that Ali, who had been attending School Y since September 2024, would have to return to School X, which he had attended from 2019 until 2024. However, the local authority, while resisting the appellants’ appeal, has agreed to maintain Ali’s placement at School Y while this appeal is determined.

The grounds of appeal focus on the question of whether the Tribunal erred in law in its approach to assessing what special educational provision was required to meet Ali’s special educational needs, although there are also some issues as to the Tribunal’s analysis of the evidence.