Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986

5 Disabled persons leaving special education. E+W

(1) Where—

(a) a local authority have made a statement under section 7 of the M1 Education Act 1981 (statement of child’s educational needs) in respect of a child under the age of 14, and

(b) the statement is still maintained by the authority at whichever is the earlier of the following times, namely—

(i) the time when they institute the first annual review of the statement following the child’s fourteenth birthday, and

(ii) any time falling after that birthday 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) a local education authority make any such statement in respect of a child after he has attained the age of 14, or

(b) a local education authority maintain any such statement 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 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.

(3) Where an opinion has in pursuance of subsection (1) or (2) been given in the case of a child that he is a disabled person and it subsequently appears to the responsible authority—

(a) that the child will cease to receive full-time education at school on a particular date and will not subsequently be receiving full–time education at [F1 an establishment of higher or further education], or

(b) that the child will cease to receive full-time education at such an establishment on a particular date,

and (in either case) that he will be under the age of 19 on the relevant date, the authority shall give to the appropriate officer written notification for the purposes of subsection (5) of the date referred to in paragraph (a) or (b); and any such notification shall be given not later than the relevant date and not earlier than four months before that date.

In this subsection “the relevant date” means the date falling 8 months before the date referred to in paragraph (a) or (b) above.

(4) If at any time it appears to a local education authority—

(a) that a person has on a particular date ceased to receive full-time education as mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b) of subsection (3) or will cease to do so on a particular date falling less than 8 months after that time, and

(b) that no notification of that date has been given to the appropriate officer under that subsection with respect to that person, but

(c) that, had that or any other authority (as 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 of that date under that subsection with respect to him,

that authority shall, as soon as it is reasonably practicable, give to the appropriate officer written notification for the purposes of subsection (5) of that date.

(5) When the appropriate officer receives a notification given with respect to any person under subsection (3) 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 notification under subsection (3), 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 (3) or (4), but

(b) it subsequently appears to a local education authority that that person will be receiving full-time education (whether at school or at [F1 an establishment of higher or further 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 (3) 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 [F2 other person who is not a parent of his but who has parental responsibility for him] has made such a request.

(8) Regulations under paragraph 4 of the Schedule 1 to the M2 Education Act 1981 (assessments and statements of special educational needs) may, in relation to the transfer of statements made under section 7 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.

(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;

• “child” means a person of compulsory school age or a person who has attained that age but not the age of 19 and is registered as a pupil at a school or [F1 an establishment of higher or further education];[F3 “establishment of higher or further education” means an institution which provides higher education or further education (or both);] and

• “the responsible authority”—

(a) in relation to a child at school, means the local education authority who are responsible for the child for the purposes of the Education Act 1981;

(b) in relation to a child at a further education establishment, means the local education authority who were responsible for the child immediately before he ceased to receive full-time education at school;

in each case whether any such opinion as is mentioned in subsection (3) was given to that authority or not;

and other expressions used in this section and in the M3 Education Act 1944 (and not defined in this Act) have the same meaning in this section as in that Act.

(10) This section applies to England and Wales only.

Textual Amendments

F1 Words substituted by Education Reform Act 1988 (c. 40, SIF 41:1), ss. 231(7), 235(6), 237(1), Sch. 12 para. 97(2)

F2 Words in S. 5(7)(b) substituted (E.W.) (14.10.1991) by Children Act 1989 (c. 41, SIF 20), s. 108(5), Sch. 13 para. 60 (with s. 108(6), Sch. 14 para. 1(1)); S.I. 1991/828, art. 3(2)

F3 Definition inserted by Education Reform Act 1988 (c. 40, SIF 41:1), ss. 231(7), 235(6), 237(1), Sch. 12 para. 97(3)

Marginal Citations

M1 1981 c. 60.

M2 1981 c. 60.

M3 1944 c. 31.