Ombudsman upholds third complaint against council over support for boy with SEN – Local Government Lawyer

Posted September 15th, 2017 in compensation, complaints, local government, news, ombudsmen, special educational needs by tracey

‘The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has criticised a London borough over repeated failures in relation to a boy with special educational needs, in a case where at one stage a council decision-making may have acted illegally when it withdrew support.’

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Local Government Lawyer, 14th September 2017

Source: localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

Cornwall compensates autistic former pupil for “educational neglect” – Local Government Lawyer

Posted September 1st, 2017 in autism, compensation, news, special educational needs by sally

‘A 21-year-old man has agreed to accept £165,000 in compensation and costs from Cornwall Council in an out-of-court settlement after claiming that he suffered educational neglect.’

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Local Government Lawyer, 31st August 2017

Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

Council agrees £10k-plus payout after grandmother left without respite – Local Government Lawyer

‘A London borough has agreed to pay out more than £10,000 after an investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman into how a grandmother was left without respite for two years.’

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Local Government Lawyer, 13th July 2017

Source: localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

Lawyer rebuked for gloating at ‘win’ over parents seeking special needs support – The Guardian

‘he lawyer who sent a series of tweets gloating at a tribunal victory over parents who were trying to get specialist support for an autistic child has been given an official rebuke by the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority.’

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The Guardian, 2nd November 2016

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Special Educational Needs: Guidance given on approach where parents cannot agree on choice of school in SEN statement – Education Blog

Posted October 31st, 2016 in children, divorce, local government, news, special educational needs, Wales by sally

‘In SG v Denbighshire County Council and B (SEN) (Special Educational Needs: Special Educational Provision – naming school) [2016] UKUT 460 (AAC), the Upper Tribunal gave guidance on the approach to be taken where parents cannot agree on the choice of school to be named in Part 4 of a statement of special educational needs (“the Statement”).’

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Education Blog, 31st October 2016

Source: www.education11kbw.com

The Disabled Child: State Provision of Care & Education, and the Implications for a Civil Claim – Byrom Street Chambers

‘This paper seeks to outline:
a. Local Authority (“LA”) obligations to provide care or other services to children under the Children Act 1989 and the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970
b. LA obligations under the Children and Families Act 2014 in relation to special educational needs and disability.’

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Byrom Street Chambers, 14th June 2016

Source: www.byromstreet.com

Academy trust faces legal challenge over treatment of disabled pupils – The Guardian

‘Parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities are taking legal action against an academy trust for proposing to bus their children from a well-performing school to a worse alternative because of limited resources.’

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The Guardian, 2nd June 2016

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Expert evidence about SEN – Education Law Blog

Posted August 20th, 2015 in education, expert witnesses, news, special educational needs, tribunals by sally

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).

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Education Law Blog, 19th August 2015

Source: www.education11kbw.com

Upper Tribunal decisions on Part 4 of SEN statements – Education Law Blog

Posted June 2nd, 2015 in education, news, special educational needs, tribunals by sally

‘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.’

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Education Law Blog, 31st May 2015

Source: www.education11kbw.com

School transport judgment arrives – Education Law Blog

Posted April 10th, 2015 in equality, local government, news, special educational needs, transport by tracey

‘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.’

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Education Law Blog, 9th April 2015

Source: www.education11kbw.com

Learning difficulties assessments – High Ct judgment – Education Law Blog

‘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.’

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Education Law Blog, 16th December 2014

Source: www.education11kbw.com

The Special Educational Needs (Personal Budgets) Regulations 2014 – Education Law Blog

‘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.’

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Education Law Blog, 28th June 2014

Source: www.education11kbw.com

DfE issues new code of practice for special educational needs and disabilities – Local Government Lawyer

‘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.’

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Full code

Local Government Lawyer, 18th June 2014

Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

Haining v Warrington Borough Council – WLR Daily

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

Children and Families Act 2014

Children and Families Act 2014 published

Full text of Act

Source: www.legislation.gov.uk

Education Law for Local Authorities in the Age of Academies – 11 KBW

‘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.’

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11 KBW, 24th February 2014

Source: www.11kbw.com

Children with autism are illegally excluded from school activities study finds – The Independent

Posted February 12th, 2014 in autism, children, news, school exclusions, special educational needs by sally

‘Four in 10 children with autism have been temporarily excluded from school activities, it has been revealed.’

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The Independent, 11th February 2014

Source: www.independent.co.uk

Student litigation – Choosing the right words – Hardwicke Chambers

“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.”

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Hardwicke Chambers, 7th November 2013

Source: www.hardwicke.co.uk

LGO censures council over bid to force vulnerable girl to move schools – Local Government Lawyer

Posted October 2nd, 2013 in children, news, ombudsmen, social services, special educational needs by tracey

“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.”

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Local Government Lawyer, 1st October 2013

Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk

New term, new approach to social care costs in SEN appeals – Education Law Blog

Posted September 2nd, 2013 in budgets, education, local government, news, special educational needs, tribunals by sally

“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.”

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Education Law Blog, 1st September 2013

Source: www.education11kbw.com