The original version of the Guide was produced in response to a request, from the then-President of the SENT (now FTT), for a “Noddy Guide” to train SENT Chairs (now FTT Judges). (The name was chosen to indicate straight forward, no-nonsense advice.) It is intended to be useful for people new to this area of law without compromising on detail to keep it comprehensive for use by experts. The Guide is regularly updated as a free public resource to assist all those who deal with Special Educational Needs (SEN) law in England – including judges, legal practitioners, schools, parents and local authorities.

It is co-written by David Wolfe KC (Matrix) and Leon Glenister (Landmark Chambers), both public law barristers who have significant experience and expertise in SEN Law.

The Guide sets out SEN law but only as it applies in England. It also picks up some of the areas of overlap between SEN law and Disability law of relevance to children and young people in education in England, but it does not cover Disability law points which are distinct from SEN law. The Welsh SEN cases that remain relevant to SEN law in England are set out in the Guide. 

The Government’s proposals for legislative change will be included if and when they become law.

Our aim is to bring together the relevant legal provisions, the codes of practice, Government guidance and case law (principally from the High Court and, latterly, the Upper Tribunal). However, the Guide is not intended to be a substitute for direct consideration of the legal materials or relevant code of practice.

As for the law itself, in many respects the post 2014 framework in England replicates the former (and in many respects, COP2015 directly reflects case law arising from the EA1996). So it is likely that High Court and Upper Tribunal decisions dealing with the former can be read across to the latter. Some areas are identified where that may not be the case. To make the text of the Noddy Guide easier to read, we have used the terms relating to the CFA2014 (such as section F and EHCP) even when we are talking about case law decisions which would have used the terms from the EA1996 (part 3 and Statement of SEN in those case) other than where we directly quote from the old decisions (in which case we have just quoted).

Law covered by the Guide:

• CFA2014 Children and Families Act 2014 – the principal piece of legislation which governs SEN law in England
• COP2015 SEN Code of Practice. More: What is the SEN Code of Practice?
• EA1996 Education Act 1996 – the legislation which used to govern SEN in England (and was the basis for Statements of SEN). The SEN aspects are now covered by CFA2014, but some other elements of EA1996 (such as in relation to home-school transport) are still in operation.
• EA2002 The Education Act 2002
• EqA2010 Equality Act 2010
• FTT (HESC) Rules First Tier Tribunal (Health, Education and Social Care) Rules 2008; i.e. the rules that specify the processes for FTT appeals.
• NHSA2006 National Health Services Act 2006
• Recoupment Regulations Inter-authority Recoupment (England) Regulations 2013
• SEN Regs2014 Special Educational Needs Regulations 2014
• SEND Guidance 19-25 DoE’s guidance ‘SEND: 19-25 year olds’ entitlement to EHC plans, access guidance here
• TCEA2007 Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, the legislation that established the FTT and UT

The Guide is a public resource, shared under creative commons licence Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International. Please download, use, circulate and quote from it, crediting the authors. 

Accessing the Guide through our Q&A allows you to give us, the authors, your comments on questions or answer so we can improve content with each annual update.