Disclosure Log

Independent and out-of-area SEND placements (FOI/7897)

Message from Nottinghamshire County Council - 10 June 2026

Dear Requester,
Request FOI/7897
Further to your request received on 8th May 2026, I confirm that the Council has now considered your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Questions)
Please provide the following information regarding new placements commissioned for children and young people with EHCPs.

Please provide, for:
  • the current financial year to date, and
  • where necessary, the most recent full financial year.
The following:
  1. The number of new placements commissioned in:
  • independent special schools
  • non-maintained special schools
  • out-of-area placements of any type
 
  1. Of the placements in Q1, the number that were:
  • in-area
  • out-of-area
 
  1. The average annual fee for newly commissioned independent and non-maintained special school placements.
 
  1. The median annual fee for newly commissioned independent and non-maintained special school placements.
 
  1. The average time in calendar days between:
  • panel approval and placement offer
  • placement offer and placement start
 
  1. Whether the authority primarily commissions such placements through:
  • a framework agreement
  • a dynamic purchasing system
  • spot purchasing
 
  1. If a framework agreement or dynamic purchasing system is used, please provide:
  • the name of the system or portal
  • a public link to it, if available
Answers)
For Questions 1 to 5, this information is not held in a readily reportable format and would require manual review and calculation exceeding the appropriate limit under Section 12 of the FOIA2000.

Using the 871 independent special school day placements referenced in previous FOI data sent to you as the relevant record set, even a basic review at approximately 3 minutes per record would equate to:

3 minutes × 871 records = 2,613 minutes
2,613 minutes ÷ 60 = 43.55 hours

This would exceed the 18-hour / £450 FOI cost limit set out in Section 12 before any further checking, fee calculation, median calculation, quality assurance or cross-referencing with panel/placement records is completed.

In terms of Section 16 advice and assistance, you may wish to refine the request to information that is already held or more readily reportable, for example:
  • total current independent/non-maintained special school placement numbers, rather than newly commissioned placements;
  • total spend by independent/non-maintained provider, rather than average/median fee for newly commissioned placements;
  • a narrower time period or smaller sample of placements;
  • placements recorded through a specific framework route only;
  • framework/commissioning route information only.
For Questions 6 and 7, the Council primarily commissions independent/non-maintained special school placements through framework arrangements where applicable. Where a placement cannot be made through the framework, spot purchasing arrangements may be used.

The relevant framework is the NCC Independent Non-Maintained Special Schools Framework Part 2 Lot 2, Framework Agreement reference DN719545.

Please refer to the links below where you will find the information you have requested:
Contract: Specialist Education Framework Phase 1 – Independent Non-Maintained Special Schools Lots 1 (Initial framework set up).
Contract details
Contract: Specialist Education Framework Phase 1 – Independent Non-Maintained Special Schools Round 2.
Contract details
Contract: Specialist Education Framework Phase 1 – Independent Non-Maintained Special Schools Round 3.
Contract details

We have not yet finalised the information for Round 4 and has not yet been published on the contracts register. Therefore, Round 4 is exempt under Section 22 ‘Information intended for future publication’ of the FOIA2000.

We hope you find this information useful.
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Yours sincerely



Freedom of Information
Complaints and Information Team
Chief Executives Department                                         
Nottinghamshire County Council
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