Special Educational Needs and Access to Justice

The Special Education Needs Tribunal, set up in 1994, promised to provide a fair and accessible means of redress for parents seeking to ensure suitable educational arrangements for their children. This work offers an assessment of how successful SENT has been in meeting its objectives. It chronicles the perceived successes, failures and uses of the system, including: the most common circumstances in which appeals are being pursued, and by whom; the appointment of chairs and lay-members; the type of representation being used; a survey of tribunal venues; children's involvement in tribunal hearings; the aftermath of the Tribunal decisions; and the impact on LEAs.