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Chapter 1: Background And Objectives
1.1 Background
Education Appeals Committees ( EACs) are established by local education authorities to hear appeals from parents (or in some cases pupils) concerning actions taken by a local authority towards a pupil.
There are two types of appeal:
1) Appeals against a local authority's decision to refuse a placing request, which is a request for a pupil to attend a school outwith their catchment area; and
2) Appeals against a decision made by the local authority to exclude a pupil from school.
There are significantly more appeals against placing requests than exclusions. For example in 2002/03 across Scotland as a whole, EACs heard 1,130 appeals against placing request decisions but only 91 against exclusion decisions.
The local authorities that received the highest numbers of appeals in 2002/03 included Glasgow City Council, City of Edinburgh Council, West Lothian Council, East Renfrewshire Council and South Lanarkshire Council.
In June 2000, the Scottish Committee of the Council of Tribunals published a report which suggested that EACs may not be seen to be independent. This report made a number of recommendations, and the majority of councils are believed to have enacted these. The SCCT also recommended that the Scottish Executive should conduct a review of the constitution and workings of EACs.
In 2003, as part of the review process, the Scottish Executive wrote to all local authorities to find out their views on the consultation process and received feedback from 26 of the 32 local authorities.
Having obtained the views of the local authorities, and having the report of the SCCT, the Scottish Executive identified a need to obtain the perspectives of individuals who had direct experience as users of the EACs, namely those who had used the appeals procedures.
George Street Research was commissioned in September 2004 to undertake research among parents with direct experience as users of the EACS. This report provides the findings from that research.
1.2 Objectives
The main aim of this research was to obtain the parents' views and experiences of Educational Appeals Committees and in particular to establish whether or not they perceive the appeals system to be fair and independent.
In particular, the project aimed to obtain views on:
- Whether the process of appealing was easily understood and parents could keep track of what was happening at each stage
- Any advice or information received from the education authority
- Whether they were given or sought any advice and if so, from whom?
- Whether they had a pre-hearing meeting with the education authority; if so, was it helpful or not; if not, why not?
- The venue where the appeal was held
- How the appeal was conducted
- If they were represented or supported at the hearing
- If they felt they were on an equal footing with the education authority
- The independence and fairness of the EAC panel
- Whether any additional needs (disabilities, translation, etc.) were provided for
- Whether it was easy to understand what the panel's decision was
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