Mrs May Dunsmuir is the President of the Health and Education Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal for Scotland (the Health and Education Chamber). Mrs Dunsmuir was appointed as President of the Additional Support Needs Tribunals (ASNTS) on 12 May 2014, and became the President of the Health and Education Chamber on 12 January 2018, at which time the ASNTS transferred into the Chamber. The President, together with 16 legal members and 23 specialist members, are the members who sit in the Health and Education Chamber.
The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service administration team (the administration) is made up of an operations manager and case officers. The team provides administrative support to the President and tribunal members, to ensure that every case is provided with a high level of service and attention. The team are the point of contact for children, young people, parents, education authorities, responsible bodies and anyone with an interest in the Chamber.
The operations manager who is responsible for the management of all administrative matters relating to references and claims and for the case officers is Ms Elaine Forbes. She is also responsible for the administration and management of the website.
The administration are responsible for the case management of every reference or claim. This will include communication with parties on a range of matters, e.g. the dates for case management hearings and full hearings. The administration will copy and collate the necessary papers for cases, arrange hearings and deal with correspondence and questions.
The administration cannot offer advice to a party on their case.
The President has an Executive Assistant, Mrs Lynsey Brown, who is responsible for a range of matters, which include managing the President’s diary and liaison with tribunal membership. If you wish to contact the President, please contact Lynsey Brown in the first instance. She can be contacted here: lbrown2@scotcourtstribunals.gov.uk
Our Structure
The Additional Support Needs Tribunal is a judicial body. It is independent of any other agency, which includes education, health. social work and the Scottish Government. Each individual tribunal, when it sits, is also independent of the President.
Administrative support is provided through staff employed by the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service.
A tribunal will usually include one legal member and two specialist members. The specialist members may have backgrounds in additional support needs, education, social work and health (e.g. speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, child psychiatry). In certain types of cases a legal member can sit alone. Each tribunal is supported by a case officer who will deal with all enquiries in relation to the hearing and the progress of the case. The administration will try to assign the same case officer throughout the life of the reference of claim.
