AWZ v Hertfordshire County Council

Facts

AWZ is the mother of a boy with a range of disabilities giving rise to special educational needs requiring special educational provision, and the case concerned his Education, Health and Social Care Plan. The dispute with Hertfordshire County Council came before the First-tier Tribunal (Health, Education and Social Care Chamber) in July 2024, which decided the appeal on 21 August 2024 and dealt in particular with speech and language therapy. In explaining how it assessed the evidence, the tribunal recorded that it did not agree to the wording proposed by witness 1 because he had not actually met AWZ's son. AWZ applied for permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal, and on 20 January 2025 Tribunal Judge Southby remitted the case to the First-tier Tribunal under the review power in rule 49(1)(a) of the Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Health, Education and Social Care Chamber) Rules 2008 and section 9(4)(b) of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, so that the tribunal could specify the written evidence available to the panel when it deliberated and consider the issue of speech and language therapy. The same panel made a further decision on 20 June 2025, accepting its mistake about witness 1 but stating, among five reasons for accepting a joint report by witnesses 2 and 3, that witness 2 had assessed the child and administered the SPLINGO Receptive Language Assessment. AWZ appealed again, permission having been given on that and other grounds.