Sabrina’s story – Inverclyde.
When Sabrina was given Circles Network’s phone number by her child’s social worker, she was in need of support with a complaint she’d lodged with the local authority’s education services as it had become very complicated. It was March 2021.
An advocate met with Sabrina and her partner in the comfort of their own home and explained the role of an advocate and why they were visiting. The advocate also discussed confidentiality to ensure the couple were fully aware that their privacy would always be protected. The advocate would only ever act with their agreement.
“I’m so pleased to hear this,” Sabrina told us, “we really need help with finding accurate information.”
Sabrina explained the history of her situation, and that the couple had moved to Scotland from a European country in 2018 with their son. Her son was two years old at the time and has some complex additional support needs. Sabrina wanted her advocate to represent her at the additional support needs tribunal in Scotland to lodge a discrimination complaint against the local authority’s educational services.
The advocate helped Sabrina to read over the guidelines explaining how to present supporting evidence. Once the application was submitted to the additional support needs tribunal, a case management conference call was held within 21 days. Sabrina’s advocate supported her at this case conference and both parties were willing to seek mediation to see if a common agreement could be reached. The discrimination case was placed at sist, this is when a court suspends proceedings for a time, to allow for mediation.
The additional support needs tribunal service arranged various appointments for Sabrina to meet with educational services and legal services from the local authority through an organisation called Resolve Mediation.
Following several months of discussions, no formal agreements could be established between all parties. The additional support needs tribunal service was informed of Resolve Mediation’s decision not to continue, as no common ground could be established.
In August 2021, a preliminary additional support needs case conference was held to discuss Resolve Mediation’s findings and further recommendations. A further period of sist was agreed until November 2021, as Sabrina had lodged another ongoing complaint with the tribunal against the education services for the placing request.
In November 2021, the advocate supported Sabrina to submit a ten page document with evidence detailing how the education services had failed her son since 2018. On the opposing side, legal services for the local authority had submitted a 14 page document outlining their position. The legal convenor at the additional support needs tribunal requested a further period of sist to read over these documents. In February 2022 an out of court agreement was reached between Sabrina and the local authority’s legal services, and Sabrina signed a withdrawal agreement.
The advocate’s assistance enabled Sabrina to understand how to provide the correct information to the tribunal, as well as her legal position, and provided Sabrina with support during the online case conferences.
“I’m immensely grateful” Sabrina shared when asked about how she felt following the advocate’s help with finding solutions during this difficult and challenging situation.
