Summary:
Child A, who is severely autistic, has epilepsy and is incontinent, was out of school for 18/19 months pending assessment and awaiting a suitable placement. However, despite the delays, the court held that there had been no breach of his human rights. Lord Justice Sedley acknowledged that it had taken then County Council longer than it should have done to find A a school but concluded that they had not be excessively dilatory: 'it took the system a considerable time to adjust and cope.... But that is a long way from the system either breaking down or abandoning the child.' Hence, A had not been denied the right to education. The Judges also concluded that A had not been subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment treatment as this requires some deliberate act or omission (including the withholding of treatment) by the County Council which they concluded was not the case. Even though A had been at home for a considerable period of time between schools, there was no act or omission by the County Council which meant that they had not respected A’s family or private life. Finally, the Court of Appeal found no evidence whatsoever that A had been discriminated against on the grounds of his disabilities.
The judgement can be found at:
http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2008/364.html
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