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Legal Eagle

Miscellaneous

Q: Appeals re: student grants

I was accepted for a place at drama school but my local authority refused to give me a discretionary grant. Did I have grounds to appeal against this?

A: The Education Act 1962 imposed on local education authorities a system of mandatory awards in favour of persons ordinarily resident in their areas for 'designated courses', and gave them power to make discretionary grants for certain other courses in favour of persons over school leaving age. As you yourself have acknowledged, the local authority's power in your case is of the 'discretionary' kind in the latter category. It is well known that local education authorities have been cutting back their budgets for discretionary grants of this nature.

Nevertheless, there is a special court procedure called "judicial review" whereunder it is possible for an aggrieved applicant to apply to the court to review and overturn the local authority's decision, although such a procedure would be expensive and of very uncertain outcome.

Further, an application for judicial review is only likely to succeed if you can show that there has been unlawful ferreting by the local authority of its discretionary power or that its power has been abused, such as by bad faith, procedural irregularity, unreasonableness verging on absurdity or a breach of rules of natural justice. Local education authorities are entitled to lay down reasonable criteria for the exercise of their power to make discretionary awards and are, to certain extent, insulated from attack by budgetary constraints and the limited financial resources available to them. You will be faced with the problem of how to obtain evidence of unlawful fettering of discretion or abuse of power. The uncertainties and expense of judicial review are such that your energies may be better devoted to applying elsewhere for the grant or sponsorship which you need.

A possible alternative is for you to lodge a complaint with the local government Ombudsman but he is only likely to intervene if you can show that you have been unfairly treated or discriminated against. His criteria for intervention are likely to be similar to those of the court on judicial review, and his remedial powers are limited, but at least you would save the expense of going to court. If you do go to court, however, the Ombudsman will have no further jurisdiction.

Of course, you are also at liberty to ask the local authority to review its decision, and to consider any new facts relating to the matter which you may want to forward, but there will be no obligation on the local authority to do so.

First published April 1997