[2024] UKUT 128 (AAC)

the Tribunal plainly was empowered to determine whether a child was or was not in the local authority’s area as part of its jurisdiction under the 2014 Act. That was a necessary and natural corollary of its power to determine appeals against a ceasing decision, as well as “a decision of a local authority not to secure an EHC needs assessment for the child or young person” pursuant to s.51(2)(a) and (f). Those appeals would often (though not always) lie against a decision that the local authority was not responsible for the child because he did not meet the threshold criteria in s.24. S.45(1)provided expressly that an appeal could be brought in the Tribunal against a decision that the local authority was not responsible for a child.

it was the Council which was suggesting, as a matter of law, that the duty it owed towards T ended when he moved out of its area and relocated to Dubai. His parents were simply responding to that contention and submitted that the Council had identified no error of law.