Education other than at school

Parent carers can request a Direct Payment (DP) through a Personal Budget if they wish to take responsibility for the delivery and oversight of a specific aspect of the agreed Education Plan. This request must take place during a statutory review of an existing Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan. If City of York Council (CYC) can provide what the parent is requesting through their own resources, then the request may be refused.

In certain circumstances, CYC can refuse to identify a personal budget. This may be when the special educational provision is being provided as part of a larger budget and the local authority can’t separate out or ‘disaggregate’ the personal budget from that overall larger budget.

CYC can also refuse to make a direct payment if they don’t believe the person receiving the payments would be capable of managing the money, or if they do not believe it would be used in an appropriate way. They can also refuse where it would negatively impact other services provided, or if it would not be an efficient use of resources.

Where a direct payment is agreed, parent carers are responsible for commissioning the providers and CYC does not have any contractual basis to monitor the provision, nor be party to the contract. However, the Direct Payment Regulations place a statutory duty upon CYC to monitor the use of the DP. This must be done at least once within the first three months and when conducting an Annual Review or reassessment. Parent carers will be required to provide evidence that payments have been appropriately.

If the DP is not being used appropriately, regulation 14 allows CYC to stop the payment if the recipient is not using the funds for the provision, or the provision can no longer be secured by that means. Likewise, if the recipient fails to abide by the conditions in the regulations or the agreement, CYC can stop the payments, giving clear reasons to the recipient why this has happened.