Another Order has come through for a family for whom I wrote their tribunal appeal and represented at tribunal.
The local authority had already conceded/ backed down on school placement (specialist) and the bulk of the working document requests. A barrister then represented the local authority for the remaining issues in dispute; the Order clarifies that we won the issues which the local authority disputed.
This really is brilliant news for the child and their family.
However, as I have always said, why on earth did the family have to go to this length in the first place?
The fact that we won demonstrates that legally we were right all along. Yet the local authority chose to spend money on a barrister to defend points which had no substance in law. This is tax payers money, money which I believe could, and should, have instead been spent on the child in the first place. Instead, the money was wasted.
This simply should not be allowed to happen. Why it is allowed to happen, I will never understand.
In my opinion the government needs to take a close look at what is going on in the education and SEN system and stop unlawful actions, actions which ultimately delay children getting what they are entitled to. What also amazes and astonishes me is how many people there seems to be who will readily say and do what they surely know is wrong.
Things need to change. They should have changed long ago; let’s hope they change soon.
Stay strong, Chris.
