Judge quashes decision by council to amend EHC plan despite tribunal ruling

A High Court judge has ordered a London borough to provide an autistic seven-year-old boy with the applied behaviour analysis (ABA) programme specified in his Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan.

In March 2018 the First-tier Tribunal ordered Camden Council to include the programme in S’s EHC Plan.

However, in June 2018 the local authority amended S’s EHC Plan and removed the ABA programme.

In S v Camden BC Philip Mott QC, sitting as a Deputy High Court Judge, quashed the decision of Camden to amend the EHC Plan, and ordered Camden to provide S with the programme specified in his EHC Plan as ordered by the First-tier Tribunal.

Claire Darwin of Matrix Chambers acted for S, instructed by Chris Barnett of Sinclairslaw.

Sinclairslaw said: “While the Court reached the right conclusion S has still had to wait a further eight months after the Tribunal’s decision to receive funding for the provision that the Tribunal agreed he needs.

"But there is still no guarantee that this is the end of S’s parents’ battle – the local authority has suggested that it will, again, seek to amend S’s EHC Plan to remove the ABA provision, so that further Court or Tribunal proceedings may be required.”