Watkins Solicitors succeed in judicial challenge to local authority procedures for children with EHCPs

A judicial challenge against Devon County Council brought by Watkins Solicitors on behalf of three children with special education needs has succeeded in the Court of Appeal this week. All three appeal judges agreed that there are important issues that the High Court had wrongly dismissed as 'academic'.

Solicitor Keith Lomax said: "This is about councils keeping to statutory timescales when amending EHC Plans after annual reviews. There were serious delays for the 3 young people we act for in this judicial review. The fact that their EHC Plans were amended before the case was heard in the High Court may be academic but the issue means that these children, and thousands of others, will be highly likely to face delays in their special needs provision year after year unless the court steps in. We hope to have a judgment on this issue by the end of May. Getting provision that young people need, and keeping that up to date, is far from academic."

R (L M & P) v Devon County Council [2021] EWCA Civ 358