ABSTRACT
This chapter explains how exclusion appeals panels fit into the overall pattern of redress of grievance in the field of education. The aim is to provide a broader context to the exclusion appeal system, enabling comparison to be made between it and other mechanisms for resolving education disputes. A further objective is to explain the alternative or further avenues of redress that are available to parents and children who challenge exclusion decisions, particularly the possibility of applying for judicial review and of complaining to the Secretary of State or the Commission for Local Administration (CLA) (the local government ombudsmen). These avenues are increasingly being utilized in exclusion cases; many ‘parents…see appeals as only one part of a longer process’ (ACC/AMA 1992:14). The chapter will include an overview of developments in relation to judicial review and the CLA’s jurisdiction in the field of school exclusion, and particularly cases concerned with the procedures adopted in the exercise of the power of exclusion and in reviewing an exclusion decision. Judicial decisions of particular relevance to operation of exclusion appeal panels will be discussed further in later chapters.
