GNY v Hammersmith and Fulham Council

Facts

GNY, born in 2004, is a young person for the purposes of the Children and Families Act 2014 who has a number of physical and mental disabilities arising from various medical conditions and who needs significant support to achieve her potential for independent living. She has been supported throughout by her mother, HNY. Hammersmith and Fulham Council issued an Education, Health and Care Plan for GNY in 2022, and GNY appealed to the First-tier Tribunal (Health, Education and Social Care Chamber). The questions for that tribunal were the nature of GNY's needs, the educational provision she required, and whether she should attend a college or be supported otherwise than in college. There had been other proceedings concerning GNY in the County Court and the Court of Protection, summarised by the Council's counsel but bearing on nothing the Upper Tribunal had to decide. The First-tier Tribunal, a panel of Judge Katherine Southby with specialist members Ann Rhodes and Saima Butt, heard the appeal in October 2023 and gave its decision in November 2023, rejecting parts of HNY's evidence and accepting only part of the evidence of Dr J, a consultant psychiatrist. GNY sought permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal, which Judge Jacobs granted, much of the intervening period having been taken up with HNY's application for permission to obtain a transcript of the First-tier Tribunal hearing.