Can the LA refuse to attend a dissagreement resolution meeting and / or mediation prior to Tribunal?

I'm working with a family who were thinking of cancelling their Tribunal (luckily they haven't). They have been offered a Disagreement Resolution meeting by the mediation service. I am unsure if this is the same as formal mediation? Having waited 4 weeks for a meeting date the mediation service has responded as per below. I am at a loss as to what to advise further to the family now. Is there no statutory duty for the LA to attend either disagreement resolution and / or mediation?

After contacting your Local Authority, we have now received a response from them to your voluntary Disagreement Resolution request. On this occasion, your LA has, unfortunately, declined to participate in this meeting.

We are therefore closing this case. This does not preclude the possibility of the LA contacting you directly to attempt to resolve the problem. If we subsequently receive a response from your Local Authority, we will contact you to discuss further.

You may wish to consult your SEND Tribunal about your alternative options for proceeding with your Disagreement Resolution request.

Taking children out of school during term time

I will be taking my children out of school next month for our family holiday. 2 of my children have additional needs, one is diagnosed combined adhd and one awaiting assessment for adhd/asd. Neither of them cope well in overcrowded situations with one having social anxiety and the other being liable to wonder off etc. this is the main reason for going out of term time so it will not be as busy. Is there anything I can do in order to not receive an fine from my local authorities for doing this.

Is my child entitled to free transport to a psychiatric day unit for health care and education?

My child has ASD and anorexia. He was Sectioned under the MHA but subsequently the Section was lifted. He will be discharged from psychiatric in-patient services this week.

Going forward, he is to attend day-patient after care services for 12 weeks. This is where he will receive his health care and education between 9am-5pm. Treatment is for anorexia and therapy for ASD. School lessons are also conducted on site due to the inability for them to currently attend their mainstream school.

The day care unit is 1 hour drive from our house, requiring 4 hours driving a day, back and forth, for drop off and pick up.

Under the 117 Act or any other provision, is there a legal obligation for social services or health to provide transport to and from home and the day care?

At the moment, both social services and health are saying that it is either not their responsibility, or that they have no budget.

Patient Transport Services have also refused to help due to the unit not being on their list of addresses to deliver too.

As parents, we are unable to transport due to work commitments and requirements to care for our other children and caring for a sick parent.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sean. Can I ask a further question from the same order? The LA refused to give me a copy of the consultation response from the named school. On the SEND7 I asked the tribunal to direct the LA to submit. This was also refused. "I do not see why a consultation response should exist because X School is Xs current placement". So my question is: Are there circumstances when a consultation does not need to take place if the child was already a pupil before the EHCP? I cannot find any information about such circumstances.

EA 1996 s19 & what is suitable

Autistic, demand-avoidant Child with EBSNA and autistic burnout not able to attend school for mental health reasons. After 7 weeks of asking the Council for alternative education, school offered a tutor to visit at home. Refused by us (parents) as not suitable (child very protective of ‘safe space’ at home & needed to be offered something they could engage with). A PAP letter was sent from our solicitor to the Council and the response was that an allocated place was available (at the school he was unable to attend) and therefore the Council were not in breach of s19. EHCP was issued the day after this, naming the same school (who say can’t meet his needs) in Section I, and we are appealing.

Was it unreasonable of us to refuse the home tutor, and has the Council discharged its duty with any offer of education?

Transport cost - when proving the TFL carer transport assistance, should LA calculate it as a cost to its budget or it comes off the TFL's budget? "A TfL Oyster card or Travelcard for a parent, carer or responsible adult to go with the child between home and school."

When comparing the cost of two placements, should carer's travelcard be calculated as a cost to the LA? Applications for a carer travelcard are made via the LA transport team however do the funds come from the LA budget?

Who is responsible for the quality of commissioned provision in England (whether or not it is meeting need)?

If a AP is named and it is just meeting identified need, but the quality is poor, who would be responsible for ensuring the quality improves?

University exam access arrangements not followed for an autistic student with significant exam anxiety. It is reasonable for the university to only offer the remedy of resitting exams?

The university say they have discharged their responsibility to remedy the error by offering student the opportunity to resit exams "as if for the first time" ie without penalty. Student has severe anxiety around exams and has had no reassurance that errors will not recur. Year was passed but results lower than expected and results will affect final degree classification.

(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.

My friends child is 4 years, due to start primary in September 2025. He is currently in a specialist school with 1:1 and has an EHCP. She has recently got a letter from the council offering places in mainstream schools only. My friend is devasted as knows her child will not cope. He has global learning delay, autism, non verbal and PICA symptoms (not diagnosed but does pick up and eat anything). She has no idea what to do. Can I get advice on what she can do and the steps she needs to take?