Please note, a child or young person must have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) in order to be able to request a place at a specialist setting.
Step 1:
First, look at the information about special schools and specialist provisions on the Local Offer on this page.
You can also use the school search on the Local Offer to search for Specialist settings both in and out of Kirklees—including independent specialist settings.
Local Offer School search page.
Step 2:
A child or young person needs an EHCP to be able to access a specialist setting. If your child does not have one, please go to the How to apply for an EHCP page.
Requests for a specialist setting need to be done through a EHCP review meeting or when an EHCP is created. It is a good idea to speak with the SENCO at your child’s setting BEFORE the meeting so they can invite the right people to the review. More information on EHCP can be found on the EHCP review page.
School will gather all the views of the professionals working with the child and send this along with the review paper work to a team called SENDACT, more information about this team can be found on the SENDACT page.
Step 3:
SENDACT will consider this information at a Specialist decision making group (DMG) where they will either agree or disagree that the child or young person requires a specialist setting. This decision making group (DMG) will include people from special schools, educational psychology, health, social care as well as other educational professionals.
If the decision making group (DMG) agree to the request, SENDACT will contact the schools requested by parents, however they may also contact their own choice of schools if it is closer, less expensive or considered to be more suitable for the child or young persons needs.
If the decision making group (DMG) don’t agree, they may suggest other ways the current setting can support the child. If you don’t agree with this, then you will be able to appeal this decision. More details about this can be found on the EHCP review page.
Step 4:
If the new setting agree to offer the child a place, then they will agree a start date and work with the existing setting to ensure there is a smooth transition from one setting to the next.
If you feel that your child is not getting the support they need, you can get help from the various support groups on the Local Offer who can offer you independent advice. Details of these groups can be found on the Support groups and advice page.
If you disagree with any decisions that have been made, please see the disagreements page.
For more information about how to apply for a specialist school place, please see the Applying for a school place for a child with special needs Local Offer page.
Inclusion Support Offer (ISO)
The Local Offer has a service called the Inclusion Support Offer (ISO) which provides support for all educational settings from 0-25 to help to make sure they are doing everything they can to support children with SEND, without necessarily looking at additional funding or making referrals to assessed services.
You can find more information about this service on our ISO information page. This service is for schools use only, they do not take calls from parents or carers, but you can mention it to your child's educational setting and ask them to get in touch.
