Swansea City and County Council v Ms DE (SEN): [2026] UKUT 398 (AAC)
Upper Tribunal Administrative Appeals Chamber decision of Lady Poole and Judge Hickinbottom on 19 October 2026.
Read the full decision in .
Judicial Summary
This case concerns a child aged fourteen with diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder and hypermobility. After placements at two different schools had failed, in the sense that the child stopped attending, the Council put in place an individual development plan which met the child’s identified additional learning needs by additional learning provision involving the transition of the child back into a mainstream school.
The child’s parent, the respondent, brought an appeal to the Education Tribunal for Wales in relation to the contents of the individual development plan. The tribunal allowed the appeal. The local authority then appealed the tribunal’s decision. The main ground of appeal was that the only expert evidence before the tribunal (from an educational psychologist) was to the effect that it was not inappropriate for the additional learning provision for the child to be made in school; a transition to mainstream school was possible. The Council argued that there was no proper basis lawfully to reject that evidence. In particular, the Council relied on the failure of the tribunal to give the expert witness a proper opportunity to answer their concerns about her evidence, and the absence of adequate reasons for rejecting it.
The Upper Tribunal concludes that the tribunal materially erred in law in the way in which they dealt with the expert evidence. In particular, they failed to give the expert a proper opportunity to respond to their concerns; and they also failed to give proper reasons for rejecting that evidence.
Permission to appeal is therefore granted, the appeal allowed, the decision of the tribunal set aside, and the matter remitted to the tribunal for reconsideration.