Judicial Review - help

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Hi lovely mumsnet mums, Ok I need to take my sons LEA to task, they haven't amended my sons Statement for the last two years as requested on the AR1 - so can i take this to Judicial Review ? and if so how do i go about it ? thanks for your help

You need a solicitor as they have to write a pre action letter which is basically a warning letter . The LA then probably back down and comply. If they don't and it needs to go to a judge then the legal work is put into yours child's name and you use legal aid.

The cost of my letter was about £200 and that was enough. I used a really good firm of solicitors and can give you their details if you need them. They were really helpful.

thanks BJK - I might come back to you to find out who you used, it looks like we will be going to tribunal as well - son out of school due to illness, school can't provide what he needs, and are stalling to do a risk assessment to prove this.

Sounds very similar to my experience which I have now come out of the other side of yesterday. Re the illness - make sure it is all documented. When it came to my tribunal, it was the first thing they asked about

When you say they haven't amended your sons statement as requested by the AR1, what do you mean? Not sure what an AR1 is?

The AR process is usually as follows: AR meeting with school and agencies, recommendations made to LA, LA either accept or reject recommendations. There is no legal obligation on the LA to amend the statement in accordance with the recommendations. If they don't, then your remedy is appeal to SENDIST and not judicial review. You have 2 months to do this.

Have you lodged an appeal?

A judicial review happens when a public body has failed to meet a legal obligation or undertaken a procedurally unfairly. But although the LA may be quite wrong in refusing the amendment, the law says if you have another remedy, eg. an appeal to SENDIST, you must use that.

the LA have done neither - reject or accept - do i have to wait for their reply ? it was more than 2 months ago .....

The AR1 was the form the school used as the AR meeting report

There is no obligation on the LA to amend the statement in line with school's recommendations. LAs know this and will often force you to appeal to Tribunal to achieve these recommendations.

The AR meeting is a part of the process. The AR decision only occurs when the LA have issued an amended statement or written to confirm that they won't be amending the statement. It is at that point you have two months to appeal to Tribunal.

An AR must take place within 12 months of the last AR and this means 12 months of the last decision made following the AR. The law and SEN COP are not very clear on this but the consensus seems to be that this is the case.

If the LA has not made a decision within 12 months of their last AR decision, you should write and remind them of their duty to do so.

i have and so have school - requests have been ignored - so can i go to SENDIST if they have ignored 2 years of requested amendments ? Cos i think what they are doing is ignoring the amendments - if they don't reply i have no come back to go to SENDIST ?

If they haven't amended the statement, they are clearly ignoring the amendments but they don't have to accept them. There is no legal obligation on them to do so.

You can go to SENDIST if they confirm they are not prepared to accept your amendments. You need to write and ask them to confirm when they intend to make a decision. Give them 14 days to respond in writing. Tell them you will be appealing to SENDIST if they refuse

Thanks Inappropriatelyemployed - your advice is much appreciated.

Good luck!