Children and young people with an EHCP who, at any point in 2025-26, had no confirmed school or college named in Section I of their plan

Please provide the following information for the financial year 2025-26 (1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026). It concerns children and young people with an Education, Health and Care Plan who, at any point in that year, had no confirmed school or college place named in Section I of their plan (the group your authority reports to the Department for Education in the SEN2 return as having no confirmed placement).


For each of the arrangements A to D below, please give (i) the number of children and young people and (ii) the total amount the council spent on them in 2025-26. For E, please give the number of children only.


A. Education otherwise than at school (EOTAS) under section 61 of the Children and Families Act 2014.

B. Interim, home or online tuition while awaiting a placement.

C. An alternative provision place (PRU, AP academy or independent AP) used while awaiting a placement.

D. A personal budget or direct payment used for the child's education.

E. No education arranged by the council during the wait.


A child who moved between arrangements during the year may be counted in more than one row; please count them in each row that applies.


If a figure is not held, please write "not held" for that item and provide the rest, rather than withholding the whole response. If answering in full would exceed the cost limit, please provide the items you can within the limit, as your duty to advise and assist under section 16 of the Act requires.


A spreadsheet with one row for each of A to E, and columns for number of children and total spend, would be ideal.

In accordance with Section 1(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, you are advised that Lincolnshire County Council (the Council) does hold some information that falls within the description specified in your request.

Section 12

The Council considers that the information requested is exempt from disclosure under Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Under Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information 2000, the Council is not obliged to comply with a request for information if it estimates that the cost of complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit. The appropriate limit is currently £450 or 18 hours at a cost of £25 per hour (Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004)

We estimate that it would take significantly more than 18 hours to comply with your request, given the scope of your request and because we would have to manually review our files.

Therefore, we are satisfied that the cost of complying with this request, taking to account the costs we reasonably expect to incur in carrying out the below permitted activities, would exceed the appropriate cost limit.

1. Determining whether the information is held;

2.Locating the information, or a document containing it;

3. Retrieving the information, or a document containing it; and

4.Extracting the information from a document containing it.

We are, therefore, satisfied that the exemption under section 12(1) is engaged and that the information requested does not have to be provided under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

The exemption under section 12 is not subject to consideration of the public interest test.

The First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights) in the case of Marco Renna v Information Commissioner (EA/2015/0248) held that section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 did not require a public authority to attempt to comply with a request up to the appropriate limit established by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004.

Section 16

The Council recognises it has a duty to provide advice and assistance to individuals making requests for information under section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, to assist them to narrow their request where the 'appropriate limit' is exceeded.

The Council considers that it can provide you with the information requested below within the appropriate cost limit: Question A(i), Question A(ii), Question B(i), Question D(i).

Open at any Point throughout 25/26 FY