Cambridgeshire appoints LGSS Law to SEN legal advice contract

Cambridgeshire County Council has appointed LGSS Law to deliver specialist legal support in connection with the special educational needs provision including tribunal representation.

The appointment, which followed a competitive procurement, will commence in December and extend to 2020.

There are approximately 3,300 Cambridgeshire children and young people with a Statement of Special Educational Needs/Education, Health and Care Plans.

The local authority has received up to 90 appeals per year, with this number increasing consistently over the past five years.

In addition to providing legal advice and SEN tribunal support, LGSS Law will also deliver training.

LGSS Director Quentin Baker said: “We’re absolutely delighted to have been selected by LGSS’s Special Educational Needs and Disability Services in providing our legal advice assistance. We have a talented team with many years of experience in this highly specialist area and we seek to encourage resolution without resort to tribunal where that is appropriate so as to avoid adversarial and combative proceedings in this sensitive area of work.

“Our team have developed expertise in this field and we will be exploring the potential to offer the service to other local authorities.”

In June this year Cambridgeshire was the first local authority to say it would not instruct Baker Small on new cases, after the law firm's managing director boasted on Twitter of a "great win" over parents of a child with special educational needs.