FOUR families, including the Hollow family from Farnham, have asked specialist lawyers at Irwin Mitchell to officially lodge a legal challenge against Surrey County Council’s (SCC) decision to slash more than £20 million from services for disabled children.
The law firm’s public law and human rights team, which has successfully challenged other cuts to local authority budgets across the country, has applied to the High Court to take the council’s decision to reduce its schools and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) budget to judicial review.
The cuts cast doubt over services such as school transport and provisions for children with special educational needs to stay in mainstream schools.
Mum-of-three Alicia Hollow, 44, previously set up an online fundraising page calling on people to back the judicial review into Surrey’s “cruel” decision. Her son Kian, 14, has autistic spectrum disorder, ADHD anxiety and speech and language difficulties for which he receives specialist therapy sessions.
He relies on council-funded transport to take him to school in Roehampton because his mum, who also has a 12-year-old daughter Bella, and son, Edoardo, 20, works full-time as a project management officer.
When the Herald previousy reported the family’s fight in March, Alicia said: “Obviously we would like the council to announce that it intends to look again at its budget. However, if needs be the families are determined to fight this all the way.
“Kian has made good progress since he started going to school in Roehampton. He has his GCSEs coming up in the future and I want him to get the best possible grades he can. The upheaval he will go through if he doesn’t continue to receive the help he needs is going to damage his grades and his life chances.”
Kian is one of five children that Irwin Mitchell has been instructed to act on behalf of – Dominic Ferris, siblings Zoe and Sean Butler, and Kyffin Carpenter.
Anne-Marie Irwin, specialist public law and human rights lawyer at Irwin Mitchell representing the families, said: “The families are understandably upset and angry at the county council’s stance with regards to the proposed cuts which we are concerned will impact vulnerable disabled children across Surrey.
“We consider that the decision is unlawful because the local authority did not undertake a consultation with those families whose lives will be severely affected by the decision to withdraw vital funding. It is also worrying that when the council made the decision it had not identified which special educational needs and disability services it would target to cut funding.
“The families call on the council to reconsider its position and engage with the families to find a solution rather than ignoring their concerns.”
The local authority confirmed there are 7,700 children in Surrey requiring education, health and care plans – an increase of 44 per cent over the last eight years.
A SCC spokesperson said: “We are currently considering our response, but as ever our main focus is making sure children get the support they need.”
Article originally published on Farnham Herald
