Paragraph 3 Constitution of review panels

England and Wales

(1)

A review must be conducted by a review panel constituted in accordance with this paragraph.

(2)

A review panel must consist of 3 or 5 members appointed by the arranging authority from the following groups—

(a)

persons who are eligible to be lay members;

(b)

Head Teachers, or persons who have held that position during the last 5 years; and

(c)

persons who are or have been—

(i)

a governor of a maintained school;

(ii)

a member of a pupil referral unit management committee;

(iii)

a director of the proprietor of an Academy,

provided they have served in that capacity for at least 12 consecutive months within the last 5 years and have not been a teacher or a Head Teacher in any school during the last 5 years.

(3)

Members must be appointed to a review panel as follows—

(a)

for a panel of 3 members, one from each of the 3 categories in sub-paragraph (2);

(b)

for a panel of 5 members—

(i)

a person who is eligible to be a lay member;

(ii)

2 persons falling within sub-paragraph (2)(b); and

(iii)

2 persons falling within sub-paragraph (2)(c).

(4)

A person is eligible to be a lay member if the person has never worked in a school in a paid capacity (disregarding any service as a governor or as a paid volunteer).

(5)

The following persons are disqualified from membership of the review panel for the purpose of that review—

(a)

any member (or director) of the arranging authority or, if different, the responsible body;

(b)

the Head Teacher of the relevant school (or any person who has held that position within the last 5 years);

(c)

any person employed by the responsible body or the arranging authority (if different), other than the Head Teacher of a school other than the relevant school;

(d)

any person who has, or at any time has had, any connection with—

(i)

the responsible body, the arranging authority (if different), the relevant school or the relevant person; or

(ii)

the excluded pupil or the incident leading to the exclusion,

of a kind which might reasonably be taken to raise doubts about that person's impartiality.

(6)

Review panel members must satisfy the training requirements of paragraph 5.

(7)

Subject to sub-paragraph (8), a person is not to be appointed as the SEN expert for the purpose of a review if that person would be disqualified under sub-paragraph (5)(d) from appointment as a member of a review panel.

(8)

The following employees of an arranging authority are not, by reason only of that employment, disqualified under sub-paragraph (5)(d)—

(a)

a Head Teacher; or

(b)

any employee appointed as a SEN expert for the purpose of the review.

(9)

Where at any time after a review panel has begun a review any member of the panel becomes unable to continue as a member, the panel may continue with the review so long as the number of the remaining members is not less than 3 and the requirements of sub-paragraph (3)(a) are satisfied.

(10)

A review panel must be chaired by the person appointed as a lay member.

(11)

After a review panel has begun a review a panel member may not be substituted or replaced with a different panel member for any reason.

(12)

Where a review panel has begun a review and for any reason it ceases to be constituted in accordance with this paragraph, the review must cease and a new review panel must be constituted to conduct the review afresh.

(13)

Review panel members and, if appointed, the SEN expert, must declare any known potential conflict of interest, whether pursuant to sub-paragraph (5)(d) or otherwise, to the arranging authority before the review begins.