October 2, 2025
Phelps v Hillingdon LBC [2000] UKHL 47
Several linked appeals considered whether local education authorities and their staff could be liable in negligence for failures in identifying and addressing children’s special educational needs. The House of Lords recognised duties of care, allowed most appeals, and treated educational under-provision as actionable damage, including economic loss. Facts Phelps Pamela Phelps, born in 1973, was dyslexic from birth. Despite serious and persistent reading difficulties, Hillingdon’s schools and psychological services failed to diagnose dyslexia. In 1985 an educational psychologist, Miss Melling, assessed Pamela but concluded she was “seriously underfunctioning in reading and spelling” and attributed her problems primarily to emotional factors.
