ANONYMISED DECISION OF THE TRIBUNAL
Reference: d/04/2007
Gender: Male
Age:
Type of Reference: Content of CSP
Both parties were legally represented throughout the Hearing of the Reference.
During a pre-hearing conference call between the Convenor and the legal representatives in May 2007, both parties indicated that there had been significant agreement in respect of the information to be included in the co-ordinated support plan. Parties anticipated further discussions and agreement before today’s Hearing.
Both Parties on the morning of the Hearing requested a delayed commencement of the Hearing to allow further negotiations/discussions to take place. The Convenor agreed to this request. After their further private discussions, Parties indicated to the Case Officer that they had reached an agreement in respect of the wording of the final co-ordinated support plan.
The Convenor therefore invited the Appellant’s legal representative to consider withdrawing the reference in view of the joint agreement now reached and Rule 11 of The Additional Support Needs Tribunals for Scotland (Practice and Procedure) Rules 2006 (hereinafter referred to as “the Rules”). The Appellant did not sign the necessary Notice to Withdraw the Reference requesting that the Tribunal consider a Preliminary/Incidental issue arising from the reference before any substantive hearing of the Reference.
The Tribunal noted from the legal representative of the Appellant that both Parties now agreed the wording of the amended information to be contained within the co-ordinated support plan. The Appellant however required the Respondent to make the now jointly-agreed amended information to be contained within the co-ordinated support plan within 14 days.
After hearing the legal representative of the Respondent, the Tribunal noted that they were in full agreement if the said amended information and also agreed with the said 14-day period sought by the Appellant. Therefore both parties were now in complete agreement with the final wording of the co-ordinated support plan and the time frame for making the jointly agreed amendments.
[It is also noted that the Parental Comments were intimated by the Appellant’s legal representative today. This was noted by the Respondent and would be incorporated by the Education Authority into the now jointly agreed co-ordinated support plan and thus prevent any further delay].
The Tribunal noted that neither Party wished to lead any evidence in view of the agreement now reached between them.
The Tribunal considered the Overriding Objective in Rule 3 of the Rules namely to ‘enable the Tribunal with the assistance of the parties to deal with the reference fairly and justly.’ In this case, where there was now complete agreement between the parties, the Tribunal sought to be both informal and flexible in our proceedings, and to manage the reference in accordance with the aforesaid Overriding Objective.
The Tribunal therefore require the Education Authority to make the agreed amendments of the information [now jointly agreed between the parties] to the co-ordinated support plan within 14 days [a period now jointly agreed between the parties], all in terms of section 19 (4) (b) of The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004 (hereinafter referred to as “the Act”).
