Education Authority Loses Landmark Case

Education authority loses landmark case

Beth Tandy, a chronically ill pupil, will have her right to full home tuition reinstated A teenager with the chronic fatigue illness ME has won a legal test case against her local education authority.

Law lords unanimously supported her claim that an authority's lack of funds was not sufficient grounds for a reduction in services for her special educational needs.

This raises the prospect of further legal claims from pupils and parents across the country who have lost educational facilities for children with special needs, with local authorities no longer being able to use budget cuts as a grounds for a reduction in their statutory services.

Unable to attend school since 1992 because of the illness, Beth Tandy, a 16-year-old pupil from Lewes, East Sussex, took her education authority to court when her weekly home tuition was cut from five hours to three, a decision that followed an overall reduction in East Sussex County Council's education spending.

An initial ruling found in favour of her claim that the education authority's financial difficulties could not affect her individual right to a "suitable education", but in August 1997 the Appeal Court overturned the ruling and supported the council's right to make cuts in response to its own scarcity of resources.

Now the law lords have supported Ms Tandy's claim, obliging the local authority to provide a level of home tuition determined by need rather than expense.

In reaching the decision, Lord Browne-Wilkinson said: "To permit a local authority to avoid performing a statutory duty on the grounds that it prefers to spend the money in other ways, is to downgrade a statutory duty to a discretionary power.

"If Parliament wishes to reduce public expenditure on meeting the needs of sick children, then it is up to Parliament so to provide".

Welcoming the decision, Beth Tandy's solicitor, William Garnett said: "A consequence of this decision is that Parliament, having imposed duties on local authorities, will now have to provide them with the appropriate funding to meet those duties. It means that statutory duties cannot be watered down because of shortage of financial resources."