Choosing the Right School or Placement

Choosing the Right School or Placement

Choosing the right school is rarely just about choosing a school.

For families navigating SEND, the decision can involve EHC plans, school consultations, specialist provision, transport, admissions, appeals and the practical reality of whether a placement can actually work for your child and your family.

For the wider No Village framework, start with When You Don’t Have a Village. This guide is a practical companion resource focused specifically on navigating school and placement decisions for children and young people with SEND.

Choosing the Right School or Placement is a 66-page practical, plain-English digital guide for families in England.

It helps you move from:

“Which school looks best?”

to the more useful question:

“Which setting can actually meet this child’s needs?”

Rather than telling you which type of school is “best”, the guide helps you understand the options, identify what your child actually needs, compare provision and ask more useful questions before making or challenging a placement decision.

What’s included

20 short guidance chapters covering mainstream schools, resourced and specialist provision, special schools, independent and Section 41 settings, school visits, EHC plan placement decisions, transport, consultation, appeals and transition.

You’ll also get 30 printable tools to help you map needs and provision, build a realistic shortlist, prepare for school visits, question what is actually available, compare settings, record evidence, respond to EHC plan placement decisions and plan transition.

The guide includes practical prompts, checklists, comparison tables and planning pages designed to help you turn a complicated placement decision into smaller, more manageable steps.

Who this is for

This guide is for parents and carers in England who are trying to understand or compare school and placement options for a child or young person with SEND.

It may be useful whether you are considering mainstream or specialist provision, looking for a different school, navigating a draft or amended EHC plan, approaching a phase transfer, questioning whether a proposed setting can meet need or trying to make sense of conflicting advice.

You do not need to know exactly which type of placement you are looking for before using the guide.

How to use it

You do not need to read or complete everything in order.

Start with the chapter or tool that matches the decision you are dealing with now.

Use what helps. Leave what does not. Return to other sections when they become relevant.

The aim is not to research every possible school or create a perfect evidence file.

The aim is to help you ask better questions, compare what settings can actually provide and make the placement process easier to navigate.

Digital download

This product is a 66-page digital PDF download. No physical item will be posted.

You can download it, save it and print the pages you need for your own personal use.

Licence

This purchase includes a Personal Use Licence for one individual.

You may download, print and use the guide and printable tools for your own personal or household use.

You may not share the PDF with other people, upload it to shared drives for others to access, reproduce or redistribute it, resell or republish any part of it, use it with clients or families, or use it across an organisation without the appropriate licence.

Professional, practitioner and organisation licences are available separately.

Need to use this resource professionally?

No Village offers licences for practitioners, charities, schools, housing providers, health and social care services, local authorities and other organisations.

Please contact hello@novillage.co.uk to discuss organisation licensing, workshops or bulk access.

Important note

This guide provides general information and practical support. It is not individual legal advice and does not determine which placement is right for an individual child.

Admissions arrangements, local processes, transport policies, available provision and legal deadlines can change.

The guide is written for families in England. Guidance and sources were last checked on 27 July 2026. Always check current official information and seek specialist SEND or legal advice where appropriate, particularly where there is a refusal, appeal, Tribunal deadline, urgent placement breakdown or other significant decision.

Format: 66-page digital PDF

Licence: Personal use

Region: England