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 run an Open Tender Process for a 1-year contract for the Academic year 2027 to 2028 provision, as the Provider needs to be in place before November 2026 to be able to submit to the DfE on time. The Authority then intends to run a further process for the 2028 provision for a longer contract of 3 Years with the option to extend for up to 2 x 12 month periods.