Education Law Case Study: Appeal against contents of Education, Health and Care plan

Who did we act for?

We had the pleasure of acting for Maya, an 8 year old girl, with significant complex educational and physical needs, and her parents.

Maya is non-verbal and non-mobile.  Maya attended a special school. She had an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), but the provisions contained within the EHCP were no longer meeting Maya’s needs.  The Local Authority had not carried out annual reviews and, hard as Maya’s parents fought the Local Authority, they felt they were banging their heads against a brick wall.

What did we do?

First of all, we listened.  That enabled us to understand what assistance Maya and her family needed.  We commissioned reports from an Educational Psychologist, Speech and Language Therapist and Occupational Therapist to assess Maya’s special educational, health and social care needs. We also identified what support she needed.

We wrote to the Local Authority demanding an emergency Annual Review be undertaken, given the Local Authority’s failures to review Maya’s EHCP.

We urged the Local Authority to amend Maya’s EHCP in line with the recommendations made by the medical experts we instructed.  We attended mediation with Maya’s family and the Local Authority and, when this failed, due to the Local Authority’s inadequate decision making, we supported Maya’s family to appeal to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal (SEND).

After the appeal had been lodged, we continued to correspond with the Local Authority and urged them to amend Maya’s EHCP.  We prepared the case for final tribunal hearing. The local authority capitulated days before the final hearing, enabling us to negotiate an agreement on the contents of Maya’s EHCP. This spared the parents the distress of a contested final hearing.

The outcome

Maya’s family was delighted to achieve an agreed EHCP.  Maya now has the benefit of full time 1:1 support at school. She also has regular speech and language therapy, as well as occupational therapy support.

This was a great success.