Payments to SEN Solicitors June update

The weekend twitter storm regarding controversial solicitors Baker Small prompted me to see if North Yorkshire  had made any more payments to them in the past few months. And lo! Two more totalling £11,500 have been made this financial year:


Payments are detailed on the Open Data page of the council's website.

Total to date
05/15                                                                                              £8000
05/15                                                                                              £3500(link)
25/03/15 Other Hired and Contract Services                                 £8000.00 (link)
20/10/14 Other Hired and Contract Services                                 £3500.00 (link)
15/4/14   SEN Legal Advice- Other Hired and Contract Services      £1600.00 (link)
20/3/14   Other Hired and Contract Services                                 £3500.00 (link)
20/3/14   Other Hired and Contract Services                                 £3500.00 
1/8/13     Other Hired and Contract Services                                 £7000.00 (link)
8/5/13     Other Hired and Contract Services                                 £10000.00 (link) (Corrected figure 13.07.13)
6/2/13     Other Hired and Contract Services                                 £ 7000.00 (link)
21/9/11   Other Hired and Contract Services                                 £ 8000.00 (link)
29/3/11   Other courses - course fees                                           £   850.00 (link)
Total                                                                                          £64450 (ex VAT)


Legal representation
The council contracts with a firm of solicitors that provides legal advice to local authorities on SEN appeals and tribunals. The solicitors represent the council at Special Educational Needs Tribunals for appeals that are for out of area placements or 'complex' appeals (ie placements that will potentially cost the council money because it cannot provide appropriate education within the authority).

It has calculated savings can be made to the council's SEN budget by adopting this approach, believing representation will increase its chance of winning some of these appeals (see here).  It has given a number of other reasons for using legal representation but these have all been refuted by the Ministry of Justice (see this post).

The Tribunal system is supposedly informal and parents are advised by the Tribunal itself that they do not need representation. This can lead to situations whereby the local authority is legally represented out of the public purse and parents are not. There is no public funding available for parents to be legally represented at Tribunal.

Use the search term Baker Small when searching the open data links.