Christopher McFarland
Christopher is a Director within the Education and Public Law departments at Sinclairslaw. Starting with the firm as a trainee in 2013, Christopher has risen internally through the ranks to lead the Education Team in our Cardiff Office. He is the firm Legal Aid Supervisor for Education.
Professional Expertise:
Christopher specialises in all areas of Education and Public law. He has extensive experience with Special Educational Needs (SEN), Additional Learning Needs (ALN), Discrimination and Higher Education cases. Christopher has significant experience in pursuing complex judicial review cases at the High Court and was recently a key member of the firm’s team which brought landmark success in the case of R (Gardner) v Secretary of State for Health and ors [2022] EWHC 967 (Admin).
As the Legal Aid supervisor for Education, Christopher oversees all of the firm’s Legal Aid cases alongside a busy and diverse private practise.
Special Educational Needs (SEN):
Christopher has nearly a decade of experience in supporting children, young people, parents and families with their SEN cases. Whether it is a Tribunal appeal, an admission appeal or an exclusion; Christopher’s calm experience and detailed knowledge of the law of SEN will help you navigate the complex evidence and arguments of your case.
Additional Learning Needs (ALN):
In Wales, Christopher has been a part of key discussions surrounding the creation and implementation of the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018. Since its implementation, he has guided parents and professionals in better understanding the new legislation and the new system for pupils with ALN in Wales.
Christopher also has extensive experience in supporting young people in Wales in appealing decisions surrounding their Learning and Skills Assessments or Plans (LSA or LSP).
Upper Tribunal:
Christopher also has experience in successfully appealing matters to the Upper Tribunal in circumstances where the First-Tier Tribunal has erred in law. His most recent success was in the case of AB v Newport CC [2022] UKUT 190 (AAC)
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/62e7c08bd3bf7f75b89e189c/UA-2021-001315-HSWc.pdf
Discrimination:
Christopher has extensive experience in bringing discrimination cases against schools, colleges and Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) where they have failed to adhere to their duties under the Equality Act 2010.
Notable cases:
MH: Christopher represented a medical student with Dyslexia who had not received appropriate adjustments to one of his examinations. A bright and able student, the student had been prejudiced in this particular examination and had been removed from his course following his mark. After Christopher successfully negotiated his return to the course with appropriate adjustments, the student proceeded to pass his degree with strong grades and is now a practising doctor.
XX: Christopher represented a family whose child had been given a fixed term exclusion for failing to wear a mask during the pandemic. The child had ADHD and struggled to cope with the sensory experience of wearing a mask in lessons. The school had failed to follow government guidance on mask wearing for disabled pupils and had failed to make reasonable adjustments for the child. After a claim was issued to the SEN Tribunal, Christopher was able to negotiate the child’s return with appropriate adjustments in place, together with an apology from the school and a change of schoolwide policy.
Higher Education:
Christopher has extensive experience in supporting clients with all elements of HEI and University cases, to include:
Student finance and fee queries;
Admission Appeals
Academic Appeals
Complaints
Fitness to Practise Cases:
Christopher receives a number of referrals from other firms in the UK and has experience in pursuing cases through internal University procedures, the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) and to the Civil or High Courts thereafter.
Judicial Review:
Christopher has a broad public law practise, taking forward a number of complex cases. Christopher has particular experience in pursuing novel or unusual cases and his cases have been featured in local and national media.
Notable cases:
R (Gardner) v DHSC [2022] EWHC 967 (Admin): Christopher was a senior member of the team which brought about this landmark judgment against the then Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Matt Hancock) for implementing an unlawful policy regarding the discharge of patients to care homes during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. We represented two bereaved families of older men who had lost their lives from COVID-19 in a care home.
AC v OIA: Christopher led a case on behalf of a former medical student who sought to return to her course following a period of family difficulties. The OIA refused to hear her complaint due a misinterpretation of its duties under the Higher Education act 2004 https://www.oiahe.org.uk/media/1870/ac-hc-judgment.pdf
R (Lloyd) v Cardiff County Council: Christopher led a case for a client with electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EMH) who had seen his package of care removed without notice from the Council. The High Court ruled that the Council’s decision had been based on a flawed reading of inapplicable guidance and found in the Claimant’s favour.
Professional Regulation and Fitness to Practise:
Christopher has extensive experience representing students and professionals with regulatory and fitness to practise cases. Christopher has represented clients dealing with regulatory issues under the GMC, GDC, HCPC and BPTC. Christopher has represented clients before University Fitness to Practise panels and before the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service (HCPTS).
Practice Areas
Panels
- Consulting Editorial Board
- Contributing Author
Qualifications
- LL.M
- LL.B
Education
- Glasgow University
- Aberystwyth University
8 Contributions by Christopher McFarland
PRACTICE NOTES
Children’s rights in schools: statutory, human rights and common law framework; names, meals, uniforms, photographs and data protection, and work experience
The main rights that a child has in school are:
the right to education
the right to receive care and protection comparable to that a reasonable parent would provide
The former is set out in statute, while the latter stems from common law.
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989
The UK government aims to honour the UNCRC 1989, although individuals cannot enforce it directly. It seeks to afford children various rights, including:
the right to have their views respected
the right to an adequate standard of living
the right to education
The Human Rights Act 1998
In education law, the Human Rights Act 1998 most notably protects:
the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion
the right to education
the right to a fair trial
Strictly speaking, the right to education is a guarantee against being denied access to education...
Local Government
PRACTICE NOTES
England and Wales: Legal Framework for Home‑to‑School Transport, Post‑16 Travel and Out‑of‑School Trips—Duties, Charging, Case Law and Risk Management
Home-to-school transport (early years) in England
Local authorities in England can offer home-to-setting transport for children in early years provision outside schools and may lawfully make a charge for providing it.
Home-to-school transport (compulsory school age) in England
Travel arrangements for eligible children
Unless, and until, an approved school travel scheme is in force—something that will not now occur; see below—a local authority in England must put in place whatever travel it considers necessary to ensure every eligible child of compulsory school age can reach their relevant educational establishment and return home. This does not have to be a door-to-door service, as confirmed in R (M&W) v Hounslow.
For an eligible child, the travel provided must be free of charge and must not require participants to incur extra costs. The DfE has issued guidance, including a model appeal process recommended for use by LAs to help resolve disagreements about pupils’ eligibility for home-to-school transport. LAs are reminded to adhere to their published policy or risk censure from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman...
Local Government
PRACTICE NOTES
England: Land transfer and leasing on conversion of community, voluntary aided/controlled and foundation schools to academies—125-year leases, trustees’ interests and public funding protections
FORTHCOMING CHANGE:
The Charities Act 2022 (CA 2022) obtained Royal Assent on 24 February 2022, and, as outlined in Charities Act 2022: implementation plan document, its measures are scheduled to commence in three specified and defined tranches across three phases, on 31 October 2022, on 14 June 2023 and in early 2024, respectively. For an overview of the CA 2022 provisions already brought into effect to date, see Charities Act 2022: information about the changes being introduced. The CA 2022 delivers the majority of the proposals from the Law Commission’s 2017 report, ‘Technical Issues in Charity Law’. For a synopsis (as at 9 April 2021) of the recommendations that have been accepted, see News Analysis: Government response to Law Commission report ‘Technical Issues in Charity Law’. This Practice Note is relevant solely to England, as such; there are no academies in Wales at all. Academy schools are established under the Academies Act 2010 (AcA 2010) legislation. An academy school is owned and operated by a corporate entity—typically a company limited by guarantee—known as an academy trust or a multi-academy trust (MAT), i.e. a trust that manages more than one academy...
Local Government
PRACTICE NOTES
Ownership by School Type, School Sites Act 1841 Reverter, and Community Use and Disposal of School Land and Premises (England and Wales)
This Practice Note outlines that who owns school land and buildings is chiefly determined by the school’s category, and examines ownership across community schools, voluntary schools, foundation schools, academies and free schools. It highlights renewed attention to the School Sites Act 1841 (SSA 1841), under which landowners were encouraged to gift plots for local schools on the understanding that, if a school later closed, the site would revert to the original donor. It also addresses provisions allowing schools to serve community uses such as elections.
Ownership of school land and premises
In broad terms, the ownership of school sites and playgrounds, school buildings and playing fields is largely dictated by the type of school.
Community schools
At ‘community’ schools, the land and premises are owned by the local authority for the area in which the school sits (that is, the county council, borough council or unitary authority). The same position applies to maintained nursery schools and community special schools. The local authority holds the legal freehold interest in the relevant land and premises...
Local Government
PRACTICE NOTES
School Admission Appeals in England and Wales—Law, Two-Stage and Infant Class Size Processes, Panel Composition, Adjudicator/Welsh Ministers Objections, Ombudsman Complaints and Judicial Review
This Practice Note summarises school admission appeals and the legal framework in England and Wales. It outlines the two-stage process and the infant class size route, who may sit on panels, how hearings are arranged and run, and the further remedies available if an appeal is unsuccessful.
Legislative framework for school admissions and appeals England
In England, the framework for admission appeals comprises:
the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 (SSFA 1998)
the School Admissions (Admission Arrangements and Co-ordination of Admission Arrangements) (England) Regulations 2012, SI 2012/8
the School Admissions (Appeals Arrangements) (England) Regulations 2012, SI 2012/9
statutory guidance, ‘School admissions appeals code 2022’ (appeals code) (issued under SSFA 1998, s 84), which uses ‘must’/‘must not’ where duties are mandatory
statutory guidance, ‘School admissions code 2021’ (admission code) (issued under SSFA 1998, s 84), which uses ‘must’/‘must not’ where duties are mandatory
non-statutory guidance on handling admission requests for summer born children...
Local Government
PRACTICE NOTES
School Attendance Law in England: Compulsory Age, Education Otherwise than at School, Registers, Offences, Enforcement, and Truancy Sweeps under the Education Act 1996 and 2024 Pupil Registration Regulations
‘Working together to improve school attendance’ is statutory guidance from the government that explains the considerations to which all schools, trusts, governing bodies and local authorities must have regard when striving to secure consistently high attendance across England. It clarifies that this guidance should be read alongside other documents, notably the statutory ‘Keeping children safe in education’...
Compulsory school age
Children who are of compulsory school age must receive an education, which does not have to take place in a school setting. When judging whether a child’s attendance is adequate, the first question is whether the child has reached compulsory school age.
when they reach five years old, if that birthday falls on a prescribed day; and
otherwise, from the beginning of the next prescribed day after their fifth birthday
The prescribed days for the commencement of compulsory school age are 31 August, 31 December and 31 March each year...
Local Government
PRACTICE NOTES
UK devolution: legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament and Senedd Cymru
Devolution settlements in the UK
Within the UK’s devolution arrangements, devolved governments can only legislate in fields where they hold competence. The accompanying table sets out the extent of legislative competence for both the Scottish Parliament and the Senedd Cymru. For further reading, consult Practice Notes: An introduction to devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland; Structure and operation of the Scottish Parliament; and Structure and operation of Senedd Cymru...
Public Law
PRACTICE NOTES
Welsh SEN and ALN law: EA 1996 and ALNET(W)A 2018 frameworks, duty to decide, IDPs, statements, assessment, tribunal appeals and transitional arrangements
This Practice Note provides a brief overview of the law of special educational needs (SEN) in Wales.
It summarises the framework under the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 concerning additional learning needs (ALN), together with the transitional arrangements brought about by this reform. For coverage of SEN in England, see Practice Note: Special educational needs in England under the Children and Families Act 2014.
ALNET(W)A 2018, partially in force (with certain provisions in force from 1 September 2025), applies to the following pupils:
children with newly recognised ALN;
children who are detained;
children in Nursery Years 1 or 2, or Years 1, 3, 5, 7 or 10, already receiving additional learning provision (ALP) through school action or school action plus;
children attending a maintained school or Pupil Referral Unit who are looked after, or who are registered at more than one setting;
children who are looked after but are not looked after children who are in the area of a local authority in England.
For all other pupils within the current SEN framework under Part IV of the Education Act 1996 (EA...
Local Government
If you expected to see yourself on this page, click here.
