For each of the last two calendar years (2023 and 2024) could you please provide me with:
The total number of applications to attend a special school (by which I mean a school that caters specifically for students with special educational needs) that have been rejected by your local authority?
The process of applying for a special school placement is part of an Education, Health and Care Needs assessment. As part of this process a school will be consulted as to whether they are able to meet the child’s needs.
We do not collate or analyse schools’ responses within this process . A school maybe consulted multiple times through this process and decisions reconsidered therefore, to determine the number of rejections would require looking at each individual consult.
Compliance with this request would exceed the appropriate cost limit under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 which is £450 or 18 hours of officer time. There have been 4472 consults this year, to locate and retrieve the information from each consult at 2 minutes per consult would be 149 hours of officer time and therefore exceed the appropriate cost limit.
Under the Act, there is a duty to provide advice and assistance as to how a request can be refined to fit within the appropriate limit. Unfortunately, due to the way the data is held, this is not possible for this request.