Section 19

Section 19 of the Education act 1996 is the statutory duty to provide suitable education for all children and young people of compulsory school age who cannot access mainstream school places. This includes, permanently excluded pupils, and pupils who, because of illness or other reasons, cannot attend mainstream.

Bolton Council determine the number of high needs places required each year and submits the figures to the DfE by December 5th for the following academic year. These are finalised and published in February before September term starts. This process should reflect planned and predicted changes for the following academic year, so that schools and colleges receive an appropriate level of core funding, that enables them to make the special provision that is to be commissioned, particularly any expansion of that provision.

The Authority intends to Direct Award this provision for one year to Bolton Impact Trust for the Academic Year 2026 to 2027 in accordance with section 41 and Schedule 5 clause 6(a) and (b) of the Procurement Act 2023:

6(a)due to an absence of competition for technical reasons, only a particular supplier can supply the goods, services or works required, and

6(b)there are no reasonable alternatives to those goods, services or works.

There is an absence of competition for technical reasons including size of premises to support placements, and the expectation to deliver the service for the whole of Bolton. Only this supplier can supply the services within the timescales required due to the specific requirements and there are no reasonable alternatives to provide this service.

The intention is to run an Open Tender process for the 2027-2028 provision and to run a further process for the 2028 provision onwards.