Legal aid for representation in school exclusion hearing granted by Legal Aid Agency for first time

Counsel from Garden Court Chambers acted for the claimant in the High Court case of R (CWJ) v Director of Legal Aid Casework & Lord Chancellor [2025] EWHC 306 (Admin), which the set said established for the first time that the right to a fair hearing under Article 6 ECHR could be engaged in an Independent Review Panel (IRP) hearing.

The Lord Chancellor also amended his guidance in response to the litigation, to lift a categorical ban on ECF being granted.

Garden Court Chambers noted that once excluded from school, many children are sent to Pupil Referral Units (PRUs), where a child’s education prospects are “diminished”.

It added that children from Black Caribbean and other ethnic backgrounds, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children, children with special educational needs and disabilities, and children in poverty are all disproportionately excluded from school.

A key priority of the ‘School Inclusion Project’, a forum coordinated by Garden Court Chambers in partnership with the Communities Empowerment Network, Coram Children’s Legal Centre (CCLC) and the Law Centres Network, has been obtaining legal aid for school exclusion hearings.

Garden Court Chambers said: “Garden Court counsel (instructed by Coram Children's Legal Centre and others) have repeatedly acted ‘at risk’ of ECF not being granted in IRP hearings. The Legal Aid Agency has been slow to determine these applications, in part relying on the recent cyber-attack. Now, for the first time, legal aid has been granted for representation in an IRP hearing.”

The chambers added: “It remains a priority for SIP to continue pushing for access to justice in IRP hearings, however, this is a significant step forward. SIP will be arranging training to support legal aid providers to apply for this funding now it has been established that it is possible.”