SEN transport for 19 to 25 year olds: do councils have more responsibility than they think?
Any law firm representing a local authority at SEN tribunal who might feel inclined to gloat over yet another recent win against parents in the field of SEN law might want to think twice. Not only because the SEN system should not be about 'winning' and 'losing' (see the storm of condemnation that Baker Small attracted following its recent inappropriate tweet), but also because of the Care Act.
At first sight the case of Staffordshire County Council v JM [2016] seems like a potential money saver for local authorities and very depressing for young adults with Special Educational Needs, their parents and advocates. The parents of H, a 21 year old young woman with an EHC Plan, had won their appeal at the First Tier Tribunal (SENDIST) who had required the council to provide transport to and from the educational placement named in the plan. However, the council appealed to the Upper Tribunal and the Upper Tribunal’s judgement makes quite devastating reading from the parent’s point of view.
Firstly, it was held that SEN tribunals can’t find transport (for those of any age) to be either a special educational need (on the basis of the wording of the statute which specifies that these must ‘arise from a learning difficulty’) or special educational provision (since extensive previous case law had established that a journey cannot be part of educational provision).
Now this isn’t too much of a problem for young people of compulsory school age since there is an extensive separate transport duty under Schedule 35 of the Education Act 1996. Despite the ‘raising of the school leaving age’, those of sixth form age form yet another category of their own which I will not address here.
However, for adult learners (those beyond sixth form age) the situation is entirely different from that of both the younger two groups. The Education Act duty regarding transport for this group is to be found in s.508F Education Act 1996 (as amended by Children and Families Act 2014). But, as the upper tribunal pointed out in its second blow for parents, this is outside the jurisdiction of SENDIST anyway so cannot be challenged through the tribunal system and remedy in respect of issues around transport can only be sought through judicial review.
To further compound the depression of parents, the upper tribunal nevertheless went on to consider whether a council was compelled by the s.508F duty to provide transport for those with EHC Plans in this age group. They concluded that it does not create a free standing rule that transport for those with exceptional needs must be included in an EHC Plan. They also pointed out that the duty itself is very weak in terms of specific duties owed to an individual. This is because it is a general duty. It doesn’t say “if they consider it necessary in the particular case” , it says that councils must make such arrangements for transport “as they consider necessary” “to facilitate the attendance of adults receiving education” …
So far so depressing for parents, and, potentially, money saving for councils. However, this is the point at which all those concerned with Education Law would do well to stand back and consider adult social care law.
We can only speculate as to the detailed facts underlying this case (as the full judgement does not contain any details of H’s needs). However, under the Care Act, it seems very likely that a young person in this position would meet at least two eligibility criteria: of being “unable” (remembering the broad definition of “unable”) to achieve the outcomes of “accessing and engaging in work, training, education or volunteering” and “making use of necessary facilities or services in the local community including public transport, and recreational facilities or services”. These would be having a consequential significant impact on the young person’s wellbeing, at the very least in terms of “participation in work, education, training or recreation” (s.1 Wellbeing definition). Therefore, councils with young people aged 19 to 25 with EHC Plans should be assessing their social care needs under s.9 Care Act and considering carefully whether they need to provide transport under s.18 Care Act in order to meet a young person’s eligible social care needs. This would seem to offer a more fruitful option for resolving what would otherwise be a startling and problematic gap in the legal framework around meeting the needs of those of this age group accessing educational placements named in EHC Plans.