Using Best Endeavours
A key duty for certain settings is the duty to use their ‘best endeavours’ to secure special educational provision for all children or young people for whom they are responsible. This means doing everything that could reasonably be expected of it to meet the SEN of its pupils.
This duty applies to:
- mainstream schools (including mainstream academies)
- maintained (state-funded) nursery schools
- 16-19 academies
- alternative provision academies
- Further Education institutions
- Pupil referral units
It does not apply to special schools or independent schools.
Section 66 of the Children and Families Act 2014 says:
‘If a registered pupil or a student at a school or other institution has special educational needs, the appropriate authority must, in exercising its functions in relation to the school or other institution, use its best endeavours to secure that the special educational provision called for by the pupil’s or student’s special educational needs is made.’
‘Appropriate authority’ here means the governing body, proprietor, or management committee of the school or other setting. The legal duty is directly on them as a body, and not the head teacher of the school or principal of the college.
The governing body (or equivalent) is in a position to bring about change as it is responsible for the appointment and performance management of such posts.
Who does the duty apply to?
This duty applies to all children with SEN, whether they have an EHC plan or not. This means that the governing body, proprietor, or management committee must do everything that could reasonably be expected of it to meet a child or young person’s SEN.
For children or young people with an Education Health Care plan, the best endeavours duty also applies, but additionally the local authority (LA) has an absolute duty to secure the provision in their EHC plan. It is not enough for the LA to simply ‘try its best’ to provide it: the LA must make sure that it is provided.
What does using ‘best endeavours’ mean?
Using best endeavours means doing everything they can to meet the child or young person’s SEN. There are further details of what this might include in the SEN and Disability Code of Practice 2015. Please see our page on Legislation
It is a proactive duty that requires the appropriate authority to enquire and make sure that the nursery, school, or college is actually making the special educational provision that children and young people require. It is not enough to accept the word of a school’s head teacher, for example, that an adequate record keeping process is in place – the school governors should make sure that it is.
The best endeavours duty can require schools or other settings to obtain specialist help, such as speech and language therapists or educational psychologists.
The Code also includes a requirement that,
‘where a pupil continues to make less than expected progress, despite evidence-based support and interventions that are matched to the pupil’s area of need, the school should consider involving specialists, including those secured by the school itself or from outside agencies’
(paragraph 6.58 for schools, or 5.48 for early years settings).