Latest News:Latest News - June 2010
New Government, New Ideas?
As has been the pattern for the last 20 years or so, education is high up on the agenda for the new government with a large number of proposals for legislation. We will have to wait and see the detail, but there are some issues that will almost definitely come up, and have a major effect on our clients.
Academies/parent run schools
The previous government had already announced an expansion of the academy programme, and unsurprisingly the new government is proposing to increase this still further. While there may be many parents who may welcome the possibility of opening their own school with public funding, from our perspective, the growth of academies may well increase the difficulties many of our clients face, particularly if they have children with special educational needs. It has been reported that over half of those secondary schools who have an outstanding OFSTED report have applied to become academies within less than a month of the election
Set up of academies
We are concerned that this rush to convert to academy status in the hope of gaining additional funding, may be carried out without adequate consultation, or indeed proper consideration on the impact it may have on the school’s ability to make proper provision for children with special needs. This in turn could have serious and unforeseen effects on their budgets. We have little doubt that we will need to be involved in a number of court challenges on the actions of schools in some cases, and have set up a specialist team in conjunction with barristers from Matrix Chambers in London to advise parents and governors in these cases. If you are concerned about the way in which your school has reached a decision on academy status, contact Victoria Pogge von Strandmann for further details of how we can help. We can also advise whether the proposals for the composition of governing bodies comply fully with the legal requirements.
Special Needs, individual pupils’ rights and Academies
We have already seen cases where academy schools try to limit the numbers of children with statements who are accepted in their school, and successfully challenged this in two cases last year. However we have no doubt that this practice by academies will continue.
We have also seen cases where independent companies have been able to set up Academies from existing schools with specialist units on the basis that they need not take over responsibility for the units. This potentially creates problems if the academy refuses to allow pupils in the unit integrate into the mainstream school for some lessons.
Also academies are not automatically subject to all the same legislative restrictions as local authority schools – indeed this is meant to be one of the benefits from the school's point of view. However it also goes to reduce the legal protection which may be given to children and parents and require legal action to be taken to enforce rights, in cases where the local authority might otherwise have stepped in.
Many parents and pupils may also be concerned if the only available school in their area is an academy which has, for example, a strong evangelical Christian ethos which is different from their own belief system. This could cause problems if they wish to ensure that their child is able to withdraw from Religious Education but this is not acceptable to the school.
Although current Academy funding agreements require them to operate school admissions and exclusions in the same way as state maintained schools, nevertheless we have already seen a number of odd admission and exclusion decisions from academies which we have challenged successfully. We are concerned that increasing pressure on such schools to demonstrate good results may result in funding agreement provisions being watered down to allow academies to select out less able applicants or pupils seen to present other difficulties.
As a result of the increase in the academies programme we expect to see a significant increase in demand for our services both for appeals to Special Needs Tribunals and also against adverse exclusion and admission decisions.
If you have any queries or concerns about the way an individual academy school is reaching decisions, then contact Elaine Maxwell or Emily Gent for further details on how we can help.
Inclusion
The new government has indicated that it is considering removal of a perceived bias towards inclusion for children of special needs within mainstream schools. As a firm we act for a wide range of parents, some of whom want specialised schools for their children, while others want mainstream. At present, parents who want mainstream schooling are entitled to seek this, and it can only be refused if the provision of a place would prejudice the education of other children and this can't be avoided by the provision of more support for example. We do not consider that in fact there is a bias in favour of mainstream education, but a re-statement of parental rights to choose what education is right for their child. We find that while many parents of children with Aspergers syndrome, for example, may want a specialist school, many parents of children with Downs syndrome want mainstream. Neither group finds it easy to get the right education for their child without a struggle often involving a Tribunal appeal. It will be difficult to see how the new government will deal with this without adversely affecting the rights of those who want mainstream, resulting in yet more Tribunal appeals.
Exclusions
Alongside the proposal to increase the number of schools which are outside local authority control, there appears to be a move to enable head teachers to exclude pupils without any real fear that they will be reinstated on appeal. In fact the number of successful exclusion appeals is in any even very low, but we will look closely at attempts to reduce the right to appeal. If this does occur, we would expect a significant rise in the number of legal challenges we are asked to bring as initial exclusion decision taken by head teachers do not always comply fully with the law. The present system of appeal could provide a solution to this problem, but its removal is likely to cause problems for parents and schools alike.
Maxwell Gillott are able to advise on many areas of education law so please get in touch with our team on: 01524 596080 or email us at office@mglaw.co.uk.
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© Maxwell Gillott 2008
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