Bullying & the Law in Scotland - A new guide for parents in Scotland from Govan Law Centre

Govan Law Centre’s Education Law Unit has today published a guide for parents on bullying and the law. RespectMe’s report on Bullying in Scotland (2014) revealed that 30% of pupils were bullied in the last school year, and for many families it is an ongoing and debilitating problem.

Bullying at school is one of the main reasons the Education Law Unit is contacted for advice, and the guide will be distributed free of charge in PDF format so that it is accessible to all.

Iain Nisbet, partner at Govan Law Centre and Head of the Education Law Unit said: “Our aim in producing this guide is to set out as clearly and simply as possible, what the law says about bullying in all its guises.  Bullying at school, whether it is a physical assault or abuse via social media platforms, needs to be dealt with". 

"By informing parents and others about the rights and responsibilities in this area, we hope to empower parents and families to make the right decisions and to work with the right agencies to help address the bullying and to protect the child in question from further harm.”

GLC's Bullying & the Law Guide is available as a free PDF download here.

Bullying & the Law in Scotland - A new guide for parents in Scotland from Govan Law Centre

GLC research reveals systemic failure of councils to meet education duties for 'looked after' children in Scotland

Research conducted by Govan Law Centre has revealed widespread failure by Scotland’s local authorities to meet their education law duties for looked after children.

 

In terms of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004, every looked after child with additional support needs must be assessed for a Co-ordinated Support Plan (CSP). There is a legal presumption that looked after children do have additional support needs (unless the reverse is proved).

 

Figures from freedom of information requests sent to all 32 local authorities in Scotland show that:

 

• Of 12,533 looked after children with additional support needs, only 6,374 have actually been assessed for a CSP, leaving almost half – 5,799 unassessed

 

• Of the 6374 who have been assessed, only 368 have been deemed as requiring a CSP. This is only 2.9% of looked after children with additional support needs – a drop from 5.1% in 2013

 

• Despite having a right of appeal, none of the 6,374 cases local authorities claim to have assessed have been appealed, calling into question both the robustness of the process and whether local authorities are respecting the rights of children in their care.

 

• The number of looked after children after assessment deemed as requiring a co-ordinated support plan varies greatly, from 46.7% of those assessed in Highland to only 0.7% in East Ayrshire.

 

Iain Nisbet, Head of Education Law at Govan Law Centre said:

 

“These duties have been in force for nearly 5 years and local authorities are still failing to live up to their legal duties towards looked after children. In fact, we suspect that many of those the authorities claim to have assessed have not been given their full legal rights, illustrated best by the total absence of any appeals.  The system is failing thousands of children right across Scotland, leaving them to the poorer educational outcomes and life chances we know looked after children face.”

“The reason these duties were introduced by the Scottish Parliament is that often looked after children do not have effective parental advocates to stand up for their rights. Govan Law Centre pointed out these failings to Ministers, who have oversight and powers of direction over Councils, in 2013 and we are doing so again now to highlight that little has changed in the intervening years.  Our figures show that too few authorities are respecting the rights of looked after children, and it is now time for the Scottish Ministers to do so instead.  We are calling for an urgent meeting with the Cabinet Secretary and for swift and robust action to tackle the repeated failures of Scottish Councils.”

GLC research reveals systemic failure of councils to meet education duties for 'looked after' children in Scotland

Iain Nisbet appointed Convener to School Closure Review Panel in Scotland

The appointment of Govan Law Centre's Iain Nisbet as the first Convener of the School Closure Review Panel in Scotland has been confirmed.  Until now, school closure proposals that have been called in under the Schools (Consultation) (Scotland) Act 2010 have been determined by the Scottish Ministers.  

Amendments made by the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014 will change that process so that  school closure proposals that are called in by Scottish Ministers will be referred to the Convener of the School Closure Review Panels.  The Convener will be required to constitute a School Closure Review Panel to determine each individual case.

Mr Nisbet - is the Head of Education Law at Govan Law Centre, where he advises and provides training for parents, schools and education authorities on all aspects of education law.  He is the Chair of the advisory group on Additional Support for Learning, and a former Non-Executive Director with Education Scotland.  He was until recently, a member of the Parent Council of his local school.

This appointment will be for five years and will run from January 12, 2015 to January 11, 2020. This appointment is regulated by the Commissioner for Ethical Standards in Public Life in Scotland.

Iain Nisbet appointed Convener to School Closure Review Panel in Scotland

GLC publish free schools 'Placing Request Appeal Toolkit' for parents and young people in Scotland

Govan Law Centre's Education Law Unit has published a 'Placing Request Appeal Toolkit' as a free self-help guide for parents and young people in Scotland who are not happy with a decision from their local council in relation to a school placing request.

The GLC self-help toolkit provides a step-by-step guide on how to challenge a council's decision, how to make an appeal to a local authority Education Appeal Committee, how the procedure operates, and explains the different types of arguments, providing an illustrative appeal letter, and where to go for additional legal help.

Please note GLC does not have the resources to undertake mainstream placing request appeals, as its Educational Law Unit is focused on cases involving children and young people with additional support needs. The guide was written by GLC's education law solicitors Iain Nisbet and Sarah-Jane Kissock. 

GLC publish free schools 'Placing Request Appeal Toolkit' for parents and young people in Scotland

New national advocacy service launched in Scotland for children and parents

A new national advocacy service, Let’s Talk ASN, to be run by Govan Law Centre (GLC) and charity Kindred, will be launched tomorrow (1 April 2014) to replace the existing Take Note service. As reported in TES, the centre expects a “significant increase” in referrals regarding ASN issues, the most serious of which can mean that children end up missing school for several months.

Calls to GLC's own education law helpline have risen from 638 in 2011-12 to 1,159 after only 11 months of this financial year – and the vast majority have been related to ASN issues. The final figure is expected to reach up to 1,400 calls.

GLC's Iain Nisbet, head of education law at the centre, said that calls frequently came from parents or disability groups concerned that a service had been withdrawn after funding had disappeared or a staff member had been redeployed.

Calls covered the “full spectrum” of needs, he explained, and might mean that a child with a sensory impairment could not follow a teacher’s instructions, or that a student with complex medical needs would no longer have someone to assist with taking medicine. In one case he knew of, a child who required oxygen to be administered lost specialist support and subsequently missed two months of lessons, returning later only on a part-time basis.

“A child can end up missing months of school or there may be a requirement for the parent to come in and effectively do the job, which is not possible in every case,” Mr Nisbet said. Another common issue was insufficient support as disabled teenagers moved into adulthood, with some councils neglecting their duty to plan for that transition. “We get a lot of calls from people in May or June saying ‘My child’s leaving school in a month and we don’t know what they’re going on to’,” he said.

The new service’s recruits include Glasgow’s former head of special educational needs, Margaret Orr. It is now seeking volunteer advocates, including teachers, to deal with demand. But Mr Nisbet stressed that there were “plenty of examples of good practice” around ASN education in Scotland. “Certainly, we’re not saying that the system is universally bad,” he said.

Dave Hayhurst from Tain, in Highland, went to Govan Law Centre when he and his wife were unable to get their severely disabled son, Alfie-Ray, into what they believed was the best school for him. Alfie-Ray, 6, has autism, sensory processing disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and is almost entirely non-verbal. His parents were told just before Christmas that no space was available at the school, but in late February a place materialised after the centre intervened.

“We would fight to the death for our son, but other parents, like single parents, don’t have the time or the energy to get into a battle – I feel very sorry for them,” Mr Hayhurst said.

New national advocacy service launched in Scotland for children and parents

Disabled schoolboy wins right to guitar lessons

As The Herald reports today, many youngsters with disabilities in Scotland are expected to benefit following the ruling in a Govan Law Centre discrimination case against South Lanarkshire Council. 

A pupil at a primary School in East Kilbride, had a guitar bought for him by his parents so he could take part in the sessions, and they asked the local authority to provide him with additional support, including for assistance in using the toilet and other personal care and moving and holding his guitar.

Thomas, who has several chronic conditions that have a significant effect on his ability to carry out normal daily activities, required help to adjust his guitar, take it in and out of its case, and turn the sheet music. However, he could hold and play the instrument and use large-print music sheets.

South Lanarkshire refused the request for asssitance, claiming sufficient support was in place. An additional support needs tribunal ruled it should not have denied the pupil the chance to participate.

The case, the first of its kind in Scotland, has been welcomed by human rights campaigners for establishing that inclusion should not "end with the school bell" and that extra-curricular activities are covered by equalities laws. The Equality Act requires schools to make reasonable adjustments to avoid substantial disadvantage to any disabled pupil.

In finding South Lanarkshire had unlawfully discriminated, the tribunal considered guidance issued by the Equality and Human Rights Commission on making reasonable adjustments for disabled pupils. They found it had not met the duty to make reasonable adjustments and that Thomas was "substantially disadvantaged" from engaging in the club, adding: "His health and safety is compromised as a result. His additional support needs are not met.'

Iain Nisbet, Head of GLC's Education Law Unit, which represented the pupil, said: "We are very pleased to have this early confirmation that a school's duties extend to after-school activities and that Thomas will now be able to take part in the guitar club. This ruling could not be more clear: the duty of inclusion for disabled pupils does not end when the bell rings at the end of the school day."

Thomas's mother, Catherine Pettigrew said, "Thomas has always been able to participate in mainstream education and school-related activities, just the same as other children, so he was very distressed when he couldn't participate in the guitar club – he felt that he was being left behind, that he was being excluded, which is very difficult for a 10-year-old. All he wanted to do was learn to play the guitar. It is important that Thomas can now learn to do something he loves, just like his friends, and also that other parents know that this type of support is available to them."

Disabled schoolboy wins right to guitar lessons

New code will help parents of children with additional support needs

The Herald reports that parents of children who need extra help in school are now in a better position to demand it, but many councils don’t fully understand the duties imposed on them by a new Government code, according to legal experts. Last month the Scottish Government published a code of practice on supporting children’s learning, which clarifies laws passed in 2005 and updated last year.

Iain Nisbet, of Glasgow’s Govan Law Centre, says the guidance will give parents new rights to take councils to tribunals or courts if their children’s needs are not met. “The code of practice will have a subtle but significant impact,” he said. “We already have duties incumbent on schools, but this gives it a standing in law that previous policies didn’t have.”

The code makes it clear that parents of children with learning disabilities, for instance, can expect schools to help plan what happens when their child leaves school, no less than a year before it happens.

“Transitions to post-school places are supposed to begin not more than 12 months before the child is due to leave school. Such transitions are a really big problem and are still not being done very well,” Mr Nisbet said. “If there is no plan in place, parents will be entitled to ask – why not? And they will have a new right to challenge transitions that aren’t done well.”

The code also clarifies the duty of local authorities to consider the additional needs of children in care, and the right of parents of any child to ask for an assessment of any special needs they may have.  The full story is available in The Herald here.

New code will help parents of children with additional support needs

GLC's Iain Nisbet to address Belfast conference on education law

GLC's Education Law Unit Director, Iain Nisbet, solicitor and partner, will address a legal conference on educational additional support needs in Belfast this week (Thursday 26 August 2010).

The conference is being organised by the Special Educational Needs Advice Centre (SENAC) in Northern Ireland, in conjunction with the Queen’s University Centre for Human Rights.

Iain's presentation will include an examination of the Scottish experience of the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004.  Other conference contributors include Brian Lamb OBE, Philippa Stobbs and Frances Ross-Watt.  Further details of the Belfast conference are available online here.

GLC's Iain Nisbet to address Belfast conference on education law

HMIe to investigate school support unit in Portree

An additional support needs unit at a school on Skye is to be investigated by HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) following complaints from parents, handled by Govan Law Centre.

Allegations include claims that one pupil was forced to do excessive levels of physical exercise, contrary to medical advice.

Parents of three children attending the unit at Portree High School contacted Govan Law Centre, which notified the Scottish Government through a statutory complaints mechanism. The Scottish Government has asked HMIE to visit the school to investigate the claims.

GLC's Iain Nisbet felt the nature of the complaints was such that they should be referred to the Scottish Government.

He welcomed the action taken by ministers. "The legislation allows Scottish ministers to investigate and intervene in cases where there has been any breach of education law,".

"Because we had been approached by a number of parents from the same school, we felt it was appropriate to alert the Scottish Government to these ongoing concerns.

"I am very pleased to see the prompt and effective response of the government and will await the report by HMIE with interest."

A government spokesman said: "Ministers have asked HMIE to visit the Portree High School special needs unit following concerns raised through the Govan Law Centre.

"HMIE will report back to the Scottish government by the end of November when consideration will be given to whether any further action, if required, should be taken."

HMIe to investigate school support unit in Portree