Children and Families Act 2014: duties relating to Mediation and Disagreement Resolution services

The Children and Families Act 2014 imposed a new duty on Local Authorities to make arrangements to ensure Disagreement Resolution (DR) is available to parents of children with SEN and young people with SEN. In the new SEND Code of Practice young people are those young people aged 16 and over and who are beyond compulsory aged education.

You can find full details of these requirements in Appendix 1 (section 57 of the C&F Act 2014) and Appendix 2 (relevant extracts from the Send Code of Practice: 025 2015) which can be found on Kelsi

The purpose of this briefing is to:

• Reassure early years providers, schools and post 16 institutions that arrangements to satisfy these statutory duties are now in place and DR is available;
• Clarify the circumstances where parents and young people can make requests for DR and where you will be responsible for the cost of funding these;
• set out the charging structure.

From September 1st 2014 parents of children with SEN and young people with SEN are able to request DR when they have a disagreement with the governing bodies of maintained schools and maintained nursery schools, early years providers, further education institutions or the proprietors of academies (including free schools), about either:

• How these authorities, bodies or proprietors are carrying out their education, health and care duties for children and young people with SEN, whether they have EHC plans or not;  or
• Where there is disagreements between parents or young people and early years providers, schools or post 16 institutions about the special educational provision made for a child or young person, whether they have EHC plans or not.

The Local Authority has made contractual arrangements with Global Mediation services to ensure fully qualified and experienced mediators are available should DR be requested and to ensure we are fully compliant with the duties imposed on us . There is nothing further you need to do unless a parent, carer or young person requests a Disagreement Resolution meeting.

What happens if a parent, carer or young person requests DR?

• If a parent, carer or young person requests DR and you agree to this as a way of supporting the early resolution of any disagreements you will need to confirm your willingness to participate to the provider (Global Mediation). Please alert you LA SEN officer as well;
• You will need to participate to the disagreement resolution within 30 days;
• You will be charged for this service at a cost of £1,000.00 per Disagreement Resolution meeting;
• The provider (Global Mediation) of the Mediation and DR services will make the practical arrangements for this including securing an appropriate venue to host the DR meeting. This is all included in the price. You must ensure you have the authority to agree DR and that your organisation has the resources to pay for it before agreeing to participate.;
• You will be invoiced from the provider within 1 month of the disagreement resolution meeting;
• Use of DR is voluntary and has to be with the agreement of all parties;
• This service, whilst commissioned by the LA is provided by an external, impartial and independent provider;
• Please note that disagreement resolution arrangements cover all children and young people with SEN, not just those who are being assessed for or have an EHC plan.

They can provide a quick and non-adversarial way of resolving disagreements.

The following link will take you to the Global Mediation web page:

Contact details:

Karen Flanagan
Telephone:  03000 415190
Email:  karen.flanagan@kent.gov.uk