Hybrid Meeting – School Inclusion Project Meeting: Tackling Discrimination in Education

Wednesday 24 September 2025, 5.00-6.30 pm

Hybrid, Garden Court Chambers & Online

Ollie Persey

Stephanie Harrison KC

Qasim Alli

Gill Doherty

This hybrid seminar was brought to you by the Garden Court Chambers Public Law Team.

Date:Wednesday 24 September 2025
Time:5.00-6.30 pm
Venue:Garden Court Chambers, 9 Carmelite Street, London, EC4Y 0DR
Areas of Law:Administrative and Public Law, Education Law, Children’s Rights

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This meeting of the School Inclusion Project (SIP) brings together frontline organisations, policy professionals, and legal practitioners to explore how to tackle pressing challenges in education, including:

  • Racialised criminalisation of children in schools
  • Changes to the DofE’s equality monitoring of permanent exclusions
  • Availability of legal aid for school exclusion appeals
  • Upcoming SEND reforms

About SIP

SIP is a forum coordinated by the Garden Court Chambers Education Law Team, in partnership with the Communities Empowerment Network, Coram Children’s Legal Centre, and the Law Centres Network.
Our mission is to tackle systemic discrimination in the education system through policy work and strategic litigation.
Join us to contribute to the discussion and help shape policy and practice on these critical issues.

Speakers

Stephanie Harrison KC, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers (Chair)
Described as a “brilliant advocate”, Stephanie is a leading public law practitioner who has appeared at all court levels. Her multi-disciplinary practice spans the breadth of public law and civil liberties. Stephanie is regularly involved in test case litigation and has been instrumental in winning some of the most important cases within her areas of specialism in recent times. Much of her work is high profile and receives media coverage. She is passionate about upholding and advancing the rights of vulnerable minority groups and children.

Ollie Persey, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Ollie is a public law and human rights barrister. He is ranked in Chambers & Partners and the Legal 500 across his practice areas. Ollie won the Legal Aid Newcomer Award at the Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year (LALY) Awards 2024 and was a finalist for a ‘Junior of the Year’ award at the Legal 500 Awards 2022. He is a member of the Equality & Human Rights Commission’s panel of preferred counsel. Ollie is a trustee of Southwark Law Centre, a director of the Education Law Association and a former co-chair of Young Legal Aid Lawyers. Prior to joining Garden Court, he was a lawyer at Public Law Project, an academic at the LSE and Oxford University and worked for the UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights.

Qasim Alli, Action for Race Equality
Qasim is a Policy and Research Officer at Action for Race Equality (ARE), working on addressing racial disparities in education, employment, and criminal justice. ARE convenes the Race Equity in Education Network, which brings together Black and Asian led organisations working in this space. Before joining ARE and establishing the network, Qasim worked in Access and Widening Participation, improving inequality in Higher Education admissions. His work with schools, sixth form colleges, and universities, showed him how racism structures educational outcomes, and how inadequate curricula and hostile environments restrict young people’s opportunities. Qasim is passionate about challenging educational inequality, and restoring to young people of colour a more honest account of the world; equipping them to recognise and challenge inequality wherever they find it.

Liverpool Law Clinic
University of Liverpool Law Clinic provides free legal advice and assistance to parents of children with special educational needs.

Gillian Doherty, SEND Action
Gillian Doherty is the parent of a young person with Down’s syndrome and co-director of Special Needs Jungle (SNJ), a parent-led organisation focused on SEND news, resources, and advocacy. She is currently co-producing research on the SEND Tribunal and is active in the Save Our Children’s Rights campaign. Gillian represents SNJ on the policy group of the Disabled Children’s Partnership and the planning group of the Special Education Consortium. She serves on the national SEND Strategic Oversight Board and chairs Ups and Downs Southwest, a charity supporting families of children with Down’s syndrome. She is also leading research for the Down’s Syndrome Association on educational experiences. As founder of SEND Action, a UK-wide network for SEND rights, she has used judicial review to challenge policy and has advised on multiple university SEND research projects as an expert by experience.

 

Book Online

To book your place at this hybrid seminar, please use the booking form below. If you have any queries, please contact the Garden Court events team at seminars@gclaw.co.uk.

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