Liverpool Law Clinic successful in Upper Tribunal with SEN case
Liverpool Law Clinic has received a successful decision from the Upper Tribunal on a Special Educational Needs case it has been helping with. It is a case where the judgement is published and makes law that will have to be followed in other cases.
Liverpool Law Clinic is pleased to have been able to support a local family to successfully appeal to the Upper Tribunal. The appeal concerned a seven-year-old boy with special educational needs including autism and a visual impairment.
The family had originally appealed to the Special Educational Needs Tribunal asking that their son be placed in a school that specialises in supporting children with visual impairments. The local authority had suggested a mainstream school with a resource base that his parents felt could not meet the boy’s needs. That appeal was not successful.
With the help of Liverpool Law Clinic (specifically Solicitor James Betts and Trainee Solicitor Cameron Dunleavy), and specialist barrister Leon Glenister of Landmark Chambers, the family appealed to the Upper Tribunal.
The appeal was brought as the family believed that the Tribunal and local authority had failed to take into account the strong feelings their son had expressed about attending the school proposed by the local authority. Local authorities are legally obliged to consider the views, wishes and feelings of a child before making decisions, but no information had been collected about how their son felt about going to the school the local authority had proposed. The family felt this was important as their son had expressed strong feelings of anxiety about going to the school proposed by the local authority. He had also expressed thoughts of self-harm and suicide. The young boy’s strength of feeling was such that, despite the best efforts of his parents and school, he had not been able to attend the school and had been out of education for several months.
The Upper Tribunal decided that the child’s wishes and feelings had not been considered properly and have therefore set the decision aside. This means a new decision will now need to be made which properly takes the child’s views into account.
The parents who brought the appeal said: “We, as parents, feel the Upper Tribunal has acknowledged the importance of a young boy’s feelings. Our son simply wants to go to a placement that is able to meet his needs. We hope that the local authority is now able to reconsider and make a new decision in our son’s best interests. All we want is for our son to be able to attend a school where he will thrive and succeed.”
Solicitor James Betts at Liverpool Law Clinic said: “The decision emphasises the importance of ensuring a child’s views, wishes and feelings are taken into account when making decisions about what placement they should attend. Many children with special educational needs may not be able to express their views in words but this decision confirms that local authorities must take steps to find out what their feelings are. This will involve careful consideration and understanding of each particular child’s needs and how they communicate and show their feelings.”