Commentary on Sections of the Act Part 2 – Additional Learning Needs Local authority reconsideration of governing body decisions and plans Section 27 - Reconsideration by local authorities of plans maintained under section 12
76.Section 27 enables a child, child’s parent or young person to ask a local authority (which is responsible for a child or young person) to reconsider an IDP maintained by the governing body of a maintained school with a view to revising it. Before deciding whether or not to revise the plan, the local authority must inform the governing body of the request and invite representations from the governing body.
77.Where the local authority decides that the IDP does not require revision it must notify the child and their parent, or the young person, of the decision and the reasons for that decision and give a copy of that notification to the governing body (subsections (4) and (5)). Where a local authority revises an IDP, the local authority must give a copy of the revised plan to the governing body (subsection (7)) and section 23(11) requires that a copy be given to the child, their parent, or young person. See sections 84 and 85 in respect of a request by a child and the requirements to notify, or give a copy of an IDP to, a child.
78.Where the local authority decides that the IDP requires revision, it may direct the governing body to maintain the revised IDP; alternatively, the local authority may take on responsibility for maintaining the IDP itself. The former may occur where the local authority considers that the content of the IDP is such that the governing body can reasonably be expected to deliver the ALP it contains; the latter where this would not be a reasonable expectation of the governing body.
79.The position regarding revisions applies equally to the case of a local authority revising a plan as a result of the Tribunal ordering it to do so.
80.This section provides children, their parents, and young people with an effective means of challenging the content of the IDP put in place for them by the governing body of a maintained school, in the absence of a right of appeal against these bodies (see section 70 which gives rights of appeal relating to local authority actions). See also paragraph 73 above for further information.
81.Section 29 deals with the circumstances in which the duty in this section does not apply.