HUR, R (on the application of) v Royal Borough of Greenwich

Facts

The claimant, HUR, is a disabled 23-year-old with an Education, Health and Care Plan maintained by the Royal Borough of Greenwich. His needs include autism, ADHD, epilepsy, visual difficulties, right-sided hemiparesis, speech and language delay and an anxiety disorder. In September 2025 he began a three-day-a-week placement at Learning and Enterprise College in Bexley, and his mother sought home-to-college transport by taxi, as had been provided at earlier stages of his education. The defendant declined, offering instead tailored independent travel training. A Stage 1 appeal was rejected on 19 November 2025, and on 28 November 2025 the claimant's mother submitted a Stage 2 appeal, emphasising that crowded buses triggered his anxiety, that he faced hostility because of his habit of staring at people, and that accompanying him placed a heavy strain on her as she was also an unpaid carer for her partner. She relied on a letter from Dr John Carroll, a consultant psychiatrist in learning disability, who considered travel of over an hour on a crowded bus an unrealistic expectation. The panel refused the appeal by letter of 2 February 2026, concluding that independent travel training was the most suitable and proportionate support. The claimant sought judicial review, and permission was adjourned to an oral hearing.