The Upper Tribunal has considered how the First-tier Tribunal should approach expert evidence about special educational needs and provision: The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea v CD [2015] UKUT 0396 (AAC).
Education Law Blog, 19th August 2015
Source: www.education11kbw.com
‘First up, MA v Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (SEN) [2015] UKUT 0186 (AAC). In this judgment, the Upper Tribunal considers the legal status of an ASD unit within a mainstream school.’
Education Law Blog, 31st May 2015
Source: www.education11kbw.com
‘The claim was brought by a 15-year-old school girl with a range of medical problems and a statement of special educational needs which named an independent school 27 miles from her home. The local authority accepted that she was an eligible child entitled to free school transport under section 508B of the Education Act 1996, which duty it discharged by providing a taxi service shared with other pupils. That service took her to and from school at the beginning and end of the normal school day. She asked for this arrangement to be varied in two respects: (1) to take her from home to school later than usual when she arrived back there from the frequent medical appointments she required, and (2) to take her from school to home later than usual on certain days to enable her to attend after-school clubs.’
Education Law Blog, 9th April 2015
Source: www.education11kbw.com
‘The introduction of EHC plans for some 16-25 year olds was one of the most important changes to SEN in the Children and Families Act 2014. Under the previous regime, a special educational needs statement could not provide for a young person to attend further education or higher education. Even if the child remained in a school setting post-16, the statement would lapse (if the local authority had not already ceased to maintain it) when the young person turned 19, although the local authority could choose to maintain it until the end of that academic year. Young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities who were moving into further education, training or higher education received instead a learning difficulties assessment. This assessment would result in a written report of their educational and training needs and the provision required to meet them (“the LDA”). Any challenge to an LDA was by way of judicial review (as, in contrast to the position for challenges to the contents of SEN statements, there was no statutory right of appeal to the tribunal). That is all changing, with the introduction of EHC plans, which can continue until the young person reaches the age of 25, which can include further education provision (but still not higher education) and which can be appealed to the tribunal. Whilst EHC plans were introduced on 1 September 2014, there is a fairly lengthy transition period and so LDAs will be with us for a little longer yet.’
Education Law Blog, 16th December 2014
Source: www.education11kbw.com
‘These regulations will come into force on 1 September 2014. They basically extend the current pilot scheme for personal budgets to all local authorities and apply it to the new Education Health and Care Plans regime. I posted back in 2012 about the pilot scheme and these new regulations make very few changes to the substance of that scheme.’
Education Law Blog, 28th June 2014
Source: www.education11kbw.com
‘The Department for Education has published a new code of practice for organisations working with children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.’
Local Government Lawyer, 18th June 2014
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
Haining v Warrington Borough Council [2014] EWCA Civ 398; [2014] WLR (D) 152
‘When assessing whether the school the parents preferred to be named in their child’s statement of special educational needs would incur “unreasonable public expenditure” within section 9 of the Education Act 1996, a local authority was to have regard to all public expenditure by a public body, not only the expenditure incurred by that authority in discharging its education functions.’
WLR Daily, 2nd April 2014
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
‘Local authorities no longer run many of our publicly funded schools in England but still have plenty to occupy them in the education field. They have a role in the setting up of new academies. They still run their maintained community schools. In Wales, they remain the Welsh government’s preferred providers of state education. They have intervention powers and can suspend a school’s delegated budget.’
11 KBW, 24th February 2014
Source: www.11kbw.com
‘Four in 10 children with autism have been temporarily excluded from school activities, it has been revealed.’
The Independent, 11th February 2014
Source: www.independent.co.uk
“The case of Mr John Scarborough v Canterbury Christ Church University (Scarborough) which was recently decided carries potentially significant implications in terms of bringing a case that may fall under separate heads of action.This article discusses this decision and its practical effect on future litigation.”
Hardwicke Chambers, 7th November 2013
Source: www.hardwicke.co.uk
“The Local Government Ombudsman has sharply criticised a council that tried to force a vulnerable 13-year-old girl to move from the residential school she attended.”
Local Government Lawyer, 1st October 2013
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
“We’re back to school with a bang with the decision of the Upper Tribunal in WH v Warrington BC [2013] UKUT 0391 (AAC) where Judge Williams declined to follow O v Lewisham [2007] EWHC 2130 (Admin) and instead held that the only relevant “public expenditure” for the purposes of section 9 of the Education Act 1996 is that which comes out of the local authority’s education budget.”
Education Law Blog, 1st September 2013
Source: www.education11kbw.com
“In R (LR) v FTT [2013] UKUT 0294 (AAC) the parents and local authority had settled an appeal against a statement of special educational needs and entered into a consent order. The local authority subsequently sought to re-open the tribunal’s approval of that order and, following a review, the FTT set it aside.”
Education Law Blog, 9th July 2013
Source: www.education11kbw.com
“In Harrow Council v AM [2013] UKUT 0157 (AAC), the Upper Tribunal considered a local authority’s obligations where a parent chose mainstream education for a child with complex special educational needs. The decision also discusses two important procedural issues, namely when a First-tier Tribunal can rely on its own knowledge without seeking views from the parties and its powers on review.”
Education Law Blog, 6th May 2013
Source: www.education11kbw.com
“A teacher who force-fed custard to a special needs child has been banned following a disciplinary hearing.”
BBC News, 11th April 2013
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
“In this paper, I intend to cover the following areas:-
(1) An update on reform to the special educational needs regime
(2) Case law update on recent special educational needs cases
(3) School transport.”
Full story (PDF)
11 KBW, 3rd April 2013
Source: www.11kbw.co.uk
“The Inter-authority Recoupment (England) Regulations 2013 have now been made and will come into force on 1 April 2013.”
Education Law Blog, 13th March 2013
Source: www.education11kbw.com
“Part 3 of the Children and Families Bill 2013 (‘the Bill’) was intended to deliver ‘the biggest
reforms for 30 years’ for children and young people with SEN.”
Full story (PDF)
11 KBW, 5th March 2013
Source: www.11kbw.com
“The legislative framework governing the approach to children with special educational needs (‘SEN’) in England has remained broadly the same since the coming into force of Part 4 of the Education Act 1996 on 1st November 1996. However, on 18 March 2012, the Department for Education published a Green Paper, Support and Aspiration: A New Approach to Special Educational Needs and Disability, signalling an intention to review that framework. The intention to legislate in this field was reiterated in the Queen’s Speech on 9th May 2012, which was swiftly followed by the follow-up to the Green Paper, Progress and Next Steps, on 15 May 2012.”
Full story (PDF)
11 KBW, 5th March 2013
Source: www.11kbw.com
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