Hampshire County Council v GC & Anor
| Court | Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber) |
| Judge | UPPER TRIBUNAL JUDGE WEST |
| Judgment Date | 24 April 2024 |
| Neutral Citation | [2024] UKUT 128 (AAC) |
| Date | 24 April 2024 |
| Year | 2024 |
IN THE UPPER TRIBUNAL Appeal No. UA-2023-000768-
HS
(ADMINISTRATIVE APPEALS CHAMBER) [2024] UKUT 128 (AAC)
ON APPEAL FROM THE FIRST-TIER TRIBUNAL (HESC)
(SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS & DISABILITY)
Tribunal Ref EH850/21/00192
BEFORE UPPER TRIBUNAL JUDGE WEST
Appellant HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL
and
Respondents (1) GC
(2) GC
APPEAL AGAINST A DECISION OF A TRIBUNAL
ON APPEAL FROM
Tribunal SENDIST
Tribunal Case No: EH850/22/00221
Tribunal Hearing Date: 20/3/2022
ORDER
prohibited for any person to disclose or publish any matter likely to lead members of
the public to identify the child in these proceedings. This order does not apply to (a)
the child’s parents (b) any person to whom the child’s parents, in due exercise of
Hampshire CC v (1) GC (2) GC (SEN UA-2023-000768-HS)
[2024] UKUT 128 (AAC)
their parental responsibility, disclose such a matter or who learns of it through
publication by either parent, where such publication is a due exercise of parental
responsibility (c) any person exercising statutory (including judicial) functions in
relation to the child where knowledge of the matter is reasonably necessary for the
proper exercise of the functions.
DETERMINATION
The decision of the First-tier Tribunal (HESC) (Special Educational Needs & Disability)
(which sat on 20 March 2023) dated 30 March 2023 under file reference EH850/22/00221
does not involve an error on a point of law. The appeal against that decision is dismissed.
This determination is made under section 11 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act
2007.
Representation: Mr Alex Line, counsel, for the Appellant
(instructed by Hampshire County Council)
Mr Tom Gillie, counsel, for the Respondents
(instructed by Clifford Chance)
REASONS
Introduction
1. This case concerns inter alia the following questions:
(1) the effect of military service overseas on a child’s Education, Health and Care Plan
(2) the effect of a breach of regulation 31 of the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
Regulations 2014
local authority was still responsible for the child “in the authority’s area” (b) the test for
2
Hampshire CC v (1) GC (2) GC (SEN UA-2023-000768-HS)
[2024] UKUT 128 (AAC)
determining whether the child is “in the authority’s area” is that of presence or ordinary (or
habitual) residence
(4) whether an Education, Care and Health Plan can be “paused” or “frozen” during the
family’s deployment overseas.
Background
2. The parties to the appeal are Hampshire County Council (“the Council”), which is the
Appellant, and the Respondents, who are the child’s parents (“the parents”). In order to
preserve his anonymity, and meaning no disrespect to him, I shall refer to their son only as
“T”. The appeal was against the decision of the Council dated 19 January 2022 to cease to
maintain the EHCP for T.
The Tribunal’s Decision
3. In its decision of 30 March 2023 (after an oral hearing on 20 March 2023) the Tribunal
found that
“Appeal
1. [The Appellants] appeal under section 51(2)(b) of the Children and
Families Act 2014 against the LA’s decision to cease to maintain an
Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP) for their son, T.
Attendance
2. T’s father attended the hearing, representing himself. He was back
in the UK at the time of the hearing, and so we did not have any
jurisdictional issues in relation to giving evidence. Mrs Jo Wieczorek
represented the LA. There were no other witnesses in attendance for
either party.
Mode of hearing
3. The hearing was held remotely by video, using a Kinly platform. We
considered that all issues could be determined in a remote hearing.
Both parties said that they were content for the appeal to be heard
remotely.
4. We had no difficulty with connecting everyone to the hearing and
we were satisfied that both parties had effectively engaged with the
appeal as a video hearing.
3
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