Lea refuses to name a school till I withdraw appeal

[FutureMum]

dd has Asd and a statement. She is in nursery and starting primary in sept. Current statemen is for current setting, I am appealing parts 2, 3 and 4, came with a letter saying mainstream for next academic year which we never wante. After mediation, they said special school and we still want a base and in the process of getting indie reports. Currently a good special school wants her, but lea refuses to confirm this place is for my daughter until after tribunal or if I withdraw. This makes it more likely that she may end up in a crap school. I want yo secure thd good school as her option now in case I lose the tribunal. Is this legal? Thank you.

This is bad behaviour by the LA

For a phase transfer they should name both schools see Code of Practice 8.132 below.

If you give me a few minutes I will see if I can find the date for naming both schools for transition from pre-school to primary

Currently a good special school wants her - if this is a maintained school whether it is maintained by your LA or another LA then you should get it unless it does not meet her needs or is incompatible with the efficient education of others or is an inefficient use of resources.

They do have to consult the governing body of the school and also the neighbouring LA if it is not one of their own. Have a look through Chapter 8 of the code. 8.63 comes to mind, That would be a reasonable excuse for delay, but the rubbish they are coming up with is just an outrage.

BUT as it is clearly an appeal that is a transition appeal, I would just file a request for changes at Tribunal asking for an order that the LA name their chosen school. With indie reports in the offing you will want the experts to visit both schools (if the LA does not agree with your choice) and so you should give those reasons as a reason for needing the order.
You could attach the letter from the LA as long as it is not from mediation which should be kept confidential.

By the way, if the letter were a genuine attempt to settle it would be privileged and you could not disclose it to the Tribunal - have a look and see if it says 'without prejudice' at the top. If it doesn't, I think you can disclose it to the Tribunal. If the LA protest, say that it obviously wasn't a genuine attempt to settle. I think the Tribunal will be outraged by their disregard for the rules.

Good Luck

Oh and if you post under the child tab and in the 'chat about you child' thread you will get far more replies - all the action is over there.

8:132 When a child is moving to a new school, particularly at phase transfer, the statement should be amended to name in Part 4 both the current placement and the new placement, stating an appropriate start date for the latter. This will make sure that parents, children and the receiving school can plan well in advance of transfer, and entitle parents to appeal to the SEN Tribunal in good time if they disagree with the named school. At phase transfers, except from early education settings to the primary phase, the statement must be amended no later than 15th February in the year of transfer. The amended statement should specify the current school attended by the child (if any) and the new school, indicating the date on which the child will move there.

Here is a link to the Request for Changes form hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/HMCTS/GetForm.do?court_forms_id=3044

The chief boxes are what do you want - answer an order to compel the LA to name their preferred school by [a date that fits with your indie experts visits]

And in the reason put something like:-
*The LA have refused to name their chosen school unless we withdraw after Tribunal, or we have withdrawn out appeal (see attached letter).

We want the school named by [date] so that one of more of our expert witnesses who are available only on [dates] can visit both proposed schools in order to compare their ability to meet dc's needs.

The Tribunal will be unable to determine this appeal without evidence from both proposed schools.

An adjournment to allow an extended period of time is not in the interest of justice nor in the interests of child,

Further, the Human Rights Act requires a right to a fair trial which includes equal access to evidence. At present the LA can send their experts to both their proposed school and our propsed school. We are unable to do the same until the LA name their school, which they have unreasonably refused to do.
In the event that the LA name their proposed school after the dates when our experts are available, we put the LA on notice that they may be liable for the experts to view their proposed school after the dates that they are currently available"

You are allowed to put it on a separate sheet as that will never fit in the box on the form!

Hope this helps

Oh and most people will hear about transfer to Primary by 16th April, so if your experts are visiting before then, keep with what I have said above

And also take a look at the evidence deadline - they should name their school so that your experts can visit and assess the schools by the evidence deadline.

If both the evidence deadline and the experts visit are both after 16 April than ask for the order to specify the school by 5pm on 16 April. Otherwise I think you have very good grounds to go early.

PM if you need more help

Good Luck

Hello senvet, thank you, I have already emailed endist and I am waiting to hear. It wasn't by letter, it was an email, there wasn't any wording making it confidential. I wasn't going to send experts to school due to extra costs. One expert has already carried out the assessment, the other not yet.
I should clarify that they have said which school has a place at the moment nearest us, they just refuse to confirm a place for dd till post tribunal grrr

They are just wrong. Are you OK to draft the Request for Changes Form? (I won't be offended if you don't follow this idea) All I mean is it is a weird form. I though I was amending it by typing in the boxes but then the flipping thing wouldn't save the changes, so I ended up printing it out and filling it in by hand.

When is the Evidence deadline and the Tribunal?

Also, for a potential tribunal of LA all-takers special against your choice of suits-dc special, the extra cost of one of more experts visiting both schools is money really well spent so if any relatives want to give you a few years' worth of early xmas and birthday presents I would jump at it.

You can still threaten them with costs as you would incur the costs if you won the lottery or if Heir Hunters knocked at your door.

When I read the post above I realised I had missed the word 'costs; in this para:-
In the event that the LA name their proposed school after the dates when our experts are available, we put the LA on notice that they may be liable for the experts costs to view their proposed school after the dates that they are currently available"

Good Luck