Q:

12.18 Do the LA and CYP/parents have to ‘play fair’?

Nodi No-nonsense Guide Wales

Nodi No-nonsense Guide Wales
Authors: Civitas Law education team
01 Nov 2024

A: SenseCheck

  • 1 Yes
  • 0 No
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  • 01 Nov 2024
  • Yes

    Complex

    Yes. r.5 ETW 2021 makes clear that the parties have a duty to co-operate with each other and to help the ETW to further the overriding objective.

    Although the proceedings are in part adversarial because the LA will be responding to the parents’ appeal, the role of an LA as a public body at such a hearing is to assist the ETW by making all relevant information available. Its role is not to provide only so much information as will assist its own case. 

    There is case law in England which says that at the hearing, the LA should be “placing all its cards on the table,” including those which might assist the parents’ case. Its role as a public body is to assist the ETW by making all relevant information available. It is not an adequate answer to a failure to disclose information to the ETW for an LA to say that the parents could have unearthed the information for themselves if they had dug deep enough: JF v Croydon [2006] EWHC 2368 para 11 & 129 - 130. 

    As an example of that, it was incumbent on the LA to tell the FTT about the impending conversion into an academy of the school it was proposing: LS v Oxfordshire CC [2013] UKUT 135 (AAC) para 50-52.

    “[W]here a local authority is in doubt about whether such material in its possession would assist the [FTT] in reaching a just decision it should play safe and produce it”AC v LB Richmond on Thames [2020] UKUT 380 (AAC) para 4, para 17. Given the duty to co-operate and the overriding objective in Wales, a similar approach is likely to be adopted by the ETW.

    More: >12.13 Does the ETW just decide between competing positions and competing evidence? 

    Nodi glossary:  Education Tribunal Wales

    Nodi No-nonsense Guide Wales

    Nodi No-nonsense Guide Wales
    Authors: Civitas Law education team