At the end of this year, the Supreme Court will hear yet another education case:  G v Governors of X School (CA decision at [2010] ELR 235), which concerns the procedural rights of teachers being disciplined by a governing body where the outcome may affect their ability to carry on teaching.   Never before has our highest Court had such a proportion of its workload coming from the world of education: see blogs below on A v Essex, and  Re JR 17, not to mention the two JFS matters ([2010] UKSC 1 and 15).

One step below, the Court of Appeal is to hear an appeal from the decision of Cranston J in O v East Riding of Yorkshire CC [2010] E.L.R. 318, which is an important case dealing with the interface of special needs provision and social services provision.  The judge held that the local authority had correctly ceased to regard a child as being “looked after” under the Children Act 1989 when he was placed in full-time residential education under his SSEN.  This was because, on the facts, the school provided all his welfare needs, and he no longer needed respite care or accommodation, so that the authority was not providing his accommodation in the exercise of its social services function.

Peter Oldham QC