Independent Review Panel

The Department for Education guidance says:

The SEN expert should be a professional with first-hand experience of the assessment and support of SEN, as well as an understanding of the legal requirements on schools in relation to SEN and disability. Examples of suitable individuals might include educational psychologists; specialist SEN teachers; special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs); and behaviour support teachers. Recently retired individuals are not precluded from fulfilling this role, though the local authority/academy trust would need to assure themselves that the individual had a good understanding of current practice and the legal requirements on schools in relation to SEN.

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An SEN Expert can give neutral and impartial advice at the meeting. If an SEN Expert is not available then parents have the right to request that the review is adjourned until such time an SEN expert can attend.

The SEN expert’s role does not include making an assessment of your child's special educational needs, their focus will be on whether the school’s policies which relate to SEN, and how they were applied in relation to the exclusion, were lawful, reasonable and procedurally fair.

Where the school does not recognise your child as having SEN, the SEN expert should advise the panel on whether they believe the school acted in a legal, reasonable and procedurally fair way regarding the identification of any SEN that your child may potentially have, and any impact this may have had to the circumstances of the exclusion.

Whether you decide to request an IRP will rest on the outcome you seek and how strongly you feel about the decision to uphold the permanent exclusion.

You may feel you would prefer to focus on next steps for your child's education and put it all behind you. It's important to do what's right for you and your child, you should not feel pressured by anyone.

Parents that have gone through the IRP process generally say they found it a very fair process, that they felt empowered being able to put their questions to school overseen by an independent panel, and that they were pleased to have taken it to that stage - even where they did not get the outcome they hoped.

You can request an IRP even if you have decided that you do not want your child to be reinstated to the school.

The panel will still consider the exclusion and their findings could be recorded on your child's educational record along with acknowledgement from the governing body.

If you believe your child has been discriminated against under the Equality Act 2010, you can lodge a disability discrimination claim within six months of an exclusion decision and you can do this at the same time as, or instead of, an IRP.

You will need to make your request in writing to the school governing body, explaining your right to request an IRP.

Include in your letter:

• the deadline by which you must submit any application for a review (15 school days from the date of the decision letter).
• the name and address where you can send your application and evidence for a review.
• that your application needs to explain the grounds on which you are requesting a review, and that you should include information about how special educational needs (SEN) are considered to be relevant to the exclusion.
• your right to request the Local Authority/Academy Trust to appoint an SEN expert to attend the review, regardless of whether your child has recognised SEN.
• details of the role of the SEN expert, including that this will be at no cost to you.
• that you may, at your own expense, appoint someone to make written and/or oral representations to the panel and that you may also bring a friend to the review.
• details about your right to lodge a claim for disability discrimination within 6 months of the exclusion.

You can provide additional evidence at a later date if this is not available, but as soon as possible, due to the strict timescales in arranging the review. 

Explain in your application letter that you will be sending further evidence in ahead of the review panel. Late evidence presented on the day should be avoided as could result in an adjournment.

Following your request for an IRP, the local authority or (in the case of an academy) the academy trust must make the arrangements, including providing an SEN expert where you have requested in your application, at their own expense.

They must take reasonable steps to identify a date and venue that all parties are able to attend and start the review within 15 school days of your application being made.

You do not have to attend but it is advisable as you are best placed to tell the IRP why you think the decision to permanently exclude your child was flawed, and put your questions to the school/panel/SEN expert.

We can support you at an independent review panel and we can help capture your child/young person’s views for the meeting.

You will need to consider:-

• any questions or concerns about how the governor meeting was planned or conducted;
• particularly highlight where you believe statutory duties have not been followed;
• where you have requested an SEN expert to attend, the questions you would like to ask them.  Their role does not include making an assessment of your child’s special educational needs. They will look at school policies which relate to SEN, and consider how these were applied in relation to the exclusion.

Prepare and Organise

• Decide if you will go to the IRP and whether you would like a friend/family member/SENDIASS to accompany you for support on the day. Let the governing body/IRP know in advance who will be attending with you).
• You can submit your questions, statement & evidence in advance if attending will be difficult for you.
• Prioritise what you want to highlight to the IRP and start to plan questions you would like to ask.
• Group your questions so you are not jumping about between issues.
• Organise your evidence so you can easily find and refer to points on the day for example, use highlighters, post it notes, file sections or indexing etc.
• Prepare a statement to read out can be a useful way to summaries, and to help you to stick to your key points.  You could ask a friend/family member/SENDIASS to read this out on your behalf.
• Your child could also prepare a statement, particularly where they are not attending.  Help them prepare their views in writing or maybe submit as a short video.
• Reading the evidence & information from school about your child can be very emotional.  Take your time to look through this and more than once can help.  Your emotions will hopefully lessen the more times you read it, and in turn you will be able to fully digest and identify any gaps or questions.
• Refer to letters or reports that evidence your points.

Evidence might include

• school progress reports & support plans such as One Plans/Pupil Passports, meeting notes or written strategies etc.
• home to school record book (where one is in place) or incident reports.
• any relevant meeting notes from professional meetings eg. Team Around the Family.
• reports from an educational specialist, for example an Educational   Psychologist, Specialist Teacher, or the local authority recommendations etc.
• reports/letters from health, for example school or specialist nursing services, pediatrician, speech & language, occupational or sensory therapists, wellbeing or mental health services including clinical psychologist etc.
• Education, Health & Care plan (where one is in place), including Annual Review paperwork.
• Individual Health Care plan (where one is in place).
• general guidance in the public domain, for example as provided by Essex in their local offer, the school’s own website, the Department for Education statutory guidance & related law, the NHS, Council for disabled children (CDC) or from organisations such the National Autistic Society etc.

 When considering the governing body’s decision, the Panel should apply the following tests which need to be satisfied to quash the decision:

• Illegality – Did the head teacher and / or governing body act outside the scope of their legal powers in taking the decision to exclude?
• Irrationality – Did the governing board rely on irrelevant points, fail to take account of all relevant points or make a decision so unreasonable that no governing board acting reasonably in such circumstances could have made it?
• Procedural impropriety – Was the process of exclusion and the governing body’s consideration so unfair or flawed that justice was clearly not done?

The IRP will decide to:

• uphold the exclusion decision;
• recommend that the governing body reconsiders their decision; or
• quash the decision and direct that the governing body considers the exclusion again.

The Clerk will write to you explaining the decision made, the reasons for it and, where the decision is to recommend or direct the Governing body to reconsider reinstatement, they must do so within ten school days and notify you of their reconsidered decision without delay.

There is no further appeal. For schools other than academies, if you believe there were procedural flaws in how the review was conducted, you can contact the Local Government Ombudsman.

An IRP consists of either 3 or 5 members appointed by the local authority being either a lay member, Head Teacher, Governor of a Maintained School, member of a Pupil Referral Unit or Director of the Proprietor of an Academy. None of the members may be directly involved with the relevant excluding school. The Local Authority will also appoint a clerk to the panel who will be able to advise the parties on the relevant law and procedure for review.