Free Webinar – Community Care (Adults & Children) and Education Law: A Year in Review

Speakers from Garden Court Chambers’ Community Care and Education Law Teams will bring attendees up to speed on key case law and legal developments over the last 12 months across:

• Adults’ Health and Social Care
• Children’s Health and Social Care
• Special Educational Needs and School Exclusions

Adults’ Health and Social Care
Bethan Harris and Isaac Ricca-Richardson will present on key developments spanning the Care Act 2014, asylum support, continuing healthcare and Section 117 aftercare.

Children’s Health and Social Care
Nicola Braganza KC and Ollie Persey will present on key developments spanning support for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and disabled children under the Children Act 1989 and the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970.

Special Educational Needs and School Exclusions
Abby Buttle and Alex Temple will present on key developments spanning the duty to secure special educational provision, the application of the protection duty in school exclusions and key recent case law from the Upper Tribunal.

Speakers
Nicola Braganza KC, Garden Court Chambers (Chair)
Nicola is recognised as a leading barrister specialising in Equality and Discrimination Law, Public Law and Human Rights. Her broad practice spans the areas of Education, Community Care, Immigration Detention, Immigration and Asylum, and Employment (Discrimination) claims. Nicola has considerable experience in bringing complex and large-scale challenges against the state, including civil claims for damages on behalf of individuals and in group litigation. She has particular expertise in representing highly vulnerable adults and children, including victims of trafficking and modern slavery. She is ranked in Chambers & Partners and the Legal 500 directories in Civil Liberties and Human Rights, Immigration, Employment and Education.

Bethan Harris, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Bethan Harris is an experienced barrister specialising in community care law, social housing, Court of Protection and related areas of public law. Bethan was shortlisted for Court of Protection and Community Care Law Barrister of the Year at the Legal 500 Bar Awards 2023. Bethan’s work in community care includes assessments and service delivery issues such as direct payments; personal budgets, and eligibility criteria; accommodation issues; delivery of services to people who lack mental capacity; charging; children in need; carers’ assessments; Equality Act issues, disability adaptations, safeguarding and human rights duties of public bodies to vulnerable adults.

Ollie Persey, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Ollie has a broad public law practice focusing on the rights of children, asylum seekers, migrants and disabled people. He is ranked in Chambers & Partners and the Legal 500 across his core practice areas. His community care practice spans age assessments, asylum support, welfare benefits, and health and social care. He is a member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s panel of preferred counsel and won a Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year (‘LALY’) Award in 2024. Ollie writes and teaches alongside practice; he is the consultant editor of Halsbury’s Laws on Judicial Review and a visiting lecturer at Oxford University. He co-convenes Garden Court’s Education Law and Community Care Teams.

Isaac Ricca-Richardson, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Isaac practices in judicial review, immigration & asylum, human rights & civil liberties, education, and community care. He is equally comfortable in first-instance tribunals fighting for individual clients and acting in complex interdisciplinary matters in the senior courts. Isaac is regularly instructed in challenges to age assessments on behalf of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and in matters involving the entitlement of children and adults to support under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999, Children Act 1989 and Care Act 2014.

Alex Temple, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Alex is a barrister specialising in public law, discrimination and human rights. He has extensive experience in education, community care, policing and criminal records. Alex often advises children and vulnerable adults in cases arising from schools, colleges, exam boards, universities, integrated care boards and local and central government. He has written papers on the impact of criminal exploitation on children facing school exclusion, the effect of alternative provision on a child’s educational potential, and the potentially discriminatory effect of school disciplinary measures. Alex acts regularly in claims for judicial review, EHCP appeals and money claims.

Abby Buttle, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Abby is building a broad human rights, public law and civil liberties practice, specialising in immigration, education and community care. Abby has successfully represented parents and children before the First-Tier Tribunal (SEND) in EHCP appeals and throughout the school exclusion process. She has also worked on constitutional cases concerning the right to education during her time as the Oxford Human Rights Hub Fellow at the Legal Resources Centre in South Africa.

Reserve your online ticket
Please fill in the form below to reserve your online ticket. Joining details will be sent to all registered attendees on the day of the event. If you have not received the link by 3pm on Wednesday 15th January 2025, please check your junk inbox. If it is still not there, email webinars@gclaw.co.uk for assistance.