Q:
(In)appropriate Local Authority attendance at the Annual Review
My daughter’s EHCP Annual Review (AR) takes place one week today. Per the norm, the LA has been invited to attend. We’d not had an indication one way or the other if they would; our LA doesn’t usually attend. Today, her college received a phone call from the caseworker saying that they would / could not attend, but their superior would (we do not know yet if this is virtual or in person).
The named person they propose was the lead and very adversarial protagonist on the LA’s behalf for a Lower Tribunal hearing (which we ‘won’), a subsequent appeal (which was also won), and then made an LA appeal to the Upper Tribunal, which we again won, which resulted in the (very successful) placement at the current college.
My questions are:
1) Is it permissible that an LA representative be substituted at this late stage and can we ask for an alternative person?
2) Can we request that the LA does not allow this person to be involved in our daughter’s AR, or indeed any aspect of her ongoing engagement with the LA SENAT?
We feel threatened and intimidated by the named person’s involvement because:
a) their extremely adversarial approach to the tribunals caused a lot of pain, distress, delays and expense – both to us, and to the public purse.
b) their various submissions and representations were found to be at best irregular, at their base level they were incorrect and manipulative, which the judge(s) concurred with (in other words, they were not faithful and truthful, but this is of course tricky territory).
c) we believe they are very prejudiced against us as a family.
d) my daughter is vulnerable and is still scarred by the tribunal process and we do not want this person to have any contact with her.
Thank you in advance for any guidance at this difficult moment, served on us at very short notice.
A: SenseCheck
- 0 Yes
- 0 No
- 2 Other
- 29 Mar 2025
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Other
Simple
Other ...:
Yes. You can make that request but they don’t have to agree.
If you don’t make the request, it sounds like you can be almost certain that they will be there. If you do make the request, you have a chance that they won’t be.
Sean’s answer is, as ever, very sensible advice.
If you are going to raise it with the LA, I’d take care about how you frame the points in 2b) of your question. Your goal is to have a productive meeting. If a director with no knowledge of your case reads you using the word manipulative, unless you are quoting the actual words of the tribunal judge. You don’t want the correspondence to come across as vexatious or unduly hostile – after all, you aren’t against the LA attending, it’s just that you want the LA to send someone with whom you can begin to rebuild trust in the LA - parent relationship and the three tribunals were such that it needs to be someone else. You wisely identify that it is tricky territory.
In the interest of fairness, it’s worth noting that people can change. It may be that they come and are nice and supportive – they’ve accepted that the LA has lost and it is where it is (I guess paying for provision that they thought is more expensive than your daughter needs – else why would they have gone to upper tribunal).
As for who oversees your normal caseworker (‘any aspect of her ongoing engagement’), I guess you could ask for correspondence to come from your caseworker or someone who is not that senior colleague who dealt with the tribunal. See what they say. However, I’m not sure that it’s necessarily worth your time.
Aaron King
9000 Lives SEND Consultancy - 24 Mar 2025
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Other
Other
Can't answer yes or no.:
Mr Doherty,
This all sounds very unfortunate, and I am sure we would all like to believe that, although a Local Authority (LA) is entitled to present its position, interactions should still take place in a spirit of cooperation. After all, if one strips away the background noise, your daughter’s education and welfare ought to be at the forefront of all proceedings, and there is no place for petulant or irrational behaviour.
I cannot comment on the veracity of your account, as I am not personally involved. However, in the interests of fairness, I must say that, in my experience, most LA officers do not conduct themselves in the manner you describe.
While I cannot offer formal advice, there are two options you may wish to consider:
- Speak to the school and ask who will be chairing the meeting. You may wish to speak to them request that the meeting be conducted in a fair, balanced, and consultative manner.
- Alternatively—or in addition—you could, in the first instance, write to the LA (perhaps the Director and the Head of Department), politely requesting that an alternative representative be sent. You might explain that you are keen to move things forward in a constructive and cooperative way, but that you have reasonable concerns that the current representative does not share this approach. You could also state that, based on past experience, you have doubts regarding their objectivity and find their manner oppressive and, at times, intimidating—qualities which clearly do not align with best practice.
You may wish to add that if you do not receive a response prior to the review meeting, you will consider invoking the LA’s formal complaints procedure.
I am not aware of any formal mechanism to prevent the individual from attending that could be invoked at this late stage. That said, I will consult a colleague on his website to see if they have any other suggestions to share.
Sean Kennedy
Sean Kennedy
Talem Law
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3 Comments