anyone gone to judicial review?

[GreenGoth89]

I've found a charity who are not only willing to support my petition for the local authority to change their rules to include disabled parents and carers in their admissions code (so that they will be able to get their kids into a school that's accessible for them to get to) they also have solicitors who are willing to take our case to judicial review. Has anyone else gone to judicial review? What has been your experiences?

Did you post this in SN section? I've never been to JR but probably lots of parents there have as many have to go to JR to inforce statements/EHCPs.

No I didn't as my DSS isn't SN it's me that has the disability. There were a few disabled parents who had had the same issue at appeal so I wondered if any of the others went that far with the process.

There is a MN with disabilities section - not just for children.

You should be aware, if you haven't been told this already, that in order to win you will need to show that the LA's decision is Wednesbury unreasonable, which effectively means it is irrational. I wish you luck but my view is that this is a long shot.

I'm a solicitor and regularly deal with JR cases. Your solicitors should explain the process and grounds fully (there are more possibilities than just "Wednesday unreasonable", but that is the most common), but let me know if you have any questions.

Some schools already have an admissions category for exceptional medical and social need.

Medical need refers to the prospective pupil, but social need can include eg mobility issues of principal care giver. Note that I said 'can'. If you live in every Hackney, it is laid out in their admissions arrangements that that is the case.

Other LEAs do not have this provision.

Lobbying your council might be a useful step, for they already have the power to set this as a criterion. Of course schools which are their own admissions authority (VA, academy) would need to be individually lobbied.

Bear in mind that the Admission Code allows schools to have the 'exceptional social/medical need' category, but does not state they must have them. So I share prh47's caution on your chances.

I have attended a number of JRs in the course of my work. Absolutely nothing to do with education and LAs though.

The JR process itself is straightforward enough and I've always found it easy to get my point across.

I can't really see you have good grounds for JR though. As I say, local authority / education isn't my thing at all but JR is usually exclusively to review whether a public body have discharged their duties correctly and followed the procedures that have been laid down. I can't see that the LA haven't followed their own published admissions code even if the outcome does feel very unfair.

We're doing it on the grounds of that the DfES says all admissions codes have to take the equality act into considerations and they haven't in our case. It doesn't state it has to be just about kids - like you said there are councils (and please let me know as I need a list for the solicitors) that do include parents and carers.

We're doing it on the grounds of that the DfES says all admissions codes have to take the equality act into considerations and they haven't in our case. It doesn't state it has to be just about kids - like you said there are councils (and please let me know as I need a list for the solicitors) that do include parents and carers.

Yes I know quite a few who have. The cases, if they are good ones, often settle before court. You could also try contacting the Equality and HR commission.
Here is a link to solicitor firms who specialise in this area or who have specialists:
www.legal500.com/c/london/public-sector/education-individuals