Section 19: What Your Council Must Arrange When Your Child Cannot Attend School

There are 176,361 children in England who miss at least half of school. Almost none of their families have been told that a legal duty exists to educate them anyway, and almost no council volunteers it.

This is that duty, in plain English, with the parts other guides get wrong.

What the duty actually says

Section 19(1) of the Education Act 1996 makes local authorities responsible for arranging suitable and, normally, full-time education for children of compulsory school age who, because of “exclusion, illness or other reasons”, would not receive suitable education without it.

Those three words, or other reasons, are doing a great deal of work. The duty is not limited to hospital stays. The statutory guidance is explicit that it covers mental health:

“where a child cannot attend school because of a physical or mental health need, and cannot access suitable full-time education, the local authority is responsible for arranging suitable alternative provision.”

Anxiety-based school avoidance, school-related trauma and mental ill health are not excluded from this. They are the point of it.

When the clock starts

Be careful here, because this is where a lot of advice online is loose in the other direction. The guidance says plainly:

“There is no absolute legal deadline by which local authorities must start to arrange education for children with additional health needs.”

So anyone telling you the council is automatically in breach on a particular day is overstating it. What the guidance then says is still strong, and it is what you quote back:

• “As soon as it is clear that a child will be away from school for 15 days or more because of their health needs, the local authority should arrange suitable alternative provision.”
• Those 15 days “may be consecutive or over the course of a school year”. Scattered absence counts. Add it up.
• Provision should begin “as soon as it is possible, and at the latest by the sixth day of the child’s absence”.
• Where an absence is planned, for example a hospital stay, arrangements should be made in advance so provision starts from day one.

The five hours figure is out of date

You will read almost everywhere that the council must provide “a minimum of five hours a week”. Council pages say it. Parenting sites say it. Charities repeat it.

That figure does not appear anywhere in the current statutory guidance. We searched the December 2023 document in full. It is not in there. It comes from earlier guidance that has since been replaced.

What the current guidance actually says is more useful to you, not less:

• Councils must arrange suitable full-time education, and “the law does not define full-time education”.
• Provision should, where possible, be “equivalent to the education they would receive in a mainstream school”.
• Hours of one-to-one tuition “could be fewer as the education may be more intensive”. That is the honest caveat, and it is about intensity, not a licence to offer scraps.
• Part-time is only permitted where full-time “would not be in a child’s best interests for reasons relating to their physical or mental health”.

So if you are offered a few hours a week, the question is not “is this five hours”. It is “why is this not full-time, and how is part-time in my child’s best interests?” That is a much harder question for a council to answer.

It applies even if your child is not on a school roll

This one is missed almost universally, and it matters enormously if you have deregistered or are thinking about it. The guidance says the duty to arrange suitable full-time education:

“applies whether the child is on the roll of a school or not and whatever type of school they attend.”

Read that before you deregister in desperation. Choosing elective home education does transfer responsibility for your child’s education to you, and councils will often treat a deregistration as closing the matter. But withdrawing your child is a decision you should take because you want to home educate, not because you were told there was no alternative. If your child cannot attend and you have not chosen home education, ask about section 19 first.

Medical evidence, and the loop councils use to stall

A common experience: the council asks for medical evidence, the GP will not write what is asked for, and months pass. The guidance limits this in two ways:

• Where specific medical evidence “is not readily available”, the school or council “should consider liaising with other medical practitioners and consider other evidence to ensure appropriate provision can be arranged as soon as possible”.
• “Once a parent / carer has provided evidence from a medical practitioner, local authorities should not demand continuing evidence without good reason.”

Absence of a letter is not permission to do nothing.

What to do, in order

1. Write it down and date it. Count the days missed this school year, including scattered ones. Note who you have told and when.
2. Ask the school first, in writing, what is being put in place and whether they have referred to the council. Keep it factual.
3. Write to the local authority naming the duty. Say that your child is not receiving suitable education, state the number of days, and ask what arrangements they are making under section 19 of the Education Act 1996. Ask for a written response with a timescale. Naming the section matters, because it changes the conversation from a wellbeing chat to a statutory duty.
4. Ask for it in writing, always. Verbal reassurance is not provision.
5. If your child has SEND, run this in parallel with, not instead of, an EHC needs assessment request. They are different processes and one does not have to wait for the other.

If the council says no, or says nothing

Go through the council’s formal complaints procedure first, in writing, and let it run its course. If that does not resolve it, you can complain to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, which is free.

The Ombudsman takes this duty seriously and publishes its decisions. It has repeatedly found fault where councils failed to consider section 19 at all, and has ordered apologies, policy changes and financial remedies. In one 2024 decision the council was told to pay £3,400 to recognise the injustice of a child not receiving sufficient education. You can read the published alternative provision decisions yourself, and finding one against your own council is often persuasive.

The legal test the Ombudsman applies is whether there is suitable education available that is “reasonably practicable” for the child to access. A school place that exists on paper but that your child genuinely cannot attend may not meet that test.

How common is this where you live

Severe absence, meaning a child missing 50% or more of sessions, has risen about 44% since 2021/22 even while overall absence improved. It is not rare and you are not an outlier.

• School absence figures for every council in England, including how many children in your area are severely absent.
• EHC needs assessment refusal rates by council, if support has been refused.
• School refusal: a parent’s guide
• Home educating an anxious child

Common questions

What is the section 19 duty?

Section 19 of the Education Act 1996 requires a local authority in England to arrange suitable, normally full-time, education for a child of compulsory school age who because of exclusion, illness or other reasons would not otherwise receive suitable education.

Does section 19 cover anxiety and mental health?

Yes. The statutory guidance states that where a child cannot attend school because of a physical or mental health need and cannot access suitable full-time education, the local authority is responsible for arranging suitable alternative provision.

After how many days must the council provide education?

There is no absolute legal deadline. The statutory guidance says that as soon as it is clear a child will be away for 15 days or more, consecutive or cumulative across a school year, the council should arrange provision, and that provision should begin at the latest by the sixth day of absence. Where absence is planned, arrangements should allow provision to start from day one.

Is the council only required to give five hours a week?

No, and that figure is not in the current guidance. The December 2023 statutory guidance contains no minimum weekly hours. It requires suitable full-time education, says the law does not define full-time, and says provision should where possible be equivalent to what the child would receive in a mainstream school. Part-time is only appropriate where full-time would not be in the child’s best interests.

Does section 19 apply if my child is not registered at a school?

The guidance says the duty applies whether or not the child is on the roll of a school. If you have chosen elective home education you have taken on responsibility for providing that education yourself, so speak to your local SENDIASS about how the duty applies to your particular situation before assuming either way.

What can I do if the council refuses?

Use the council’s formal complaints procedure in writing first. If that fails, you can complain free of charge to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, which has repeatedly found councils at fault over this duty and has ordered apologies, policy changes and financial remedies.

Sources

• Education Act 1996, section 19.
• Department for Education, Arranging education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs, statutory guidance, December 2023.
• Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, published alternative provision decisions.
• Department for Education, Pupil absence in schools in England, 2024/25.