Kingston Council has distanced itself from a controversial law firm whose director described a victory over a family seeking educational support for a disabled child as “a great win”, despite originally saying it has “no plans to terminate its working relationship”.
The council was forced to clarify its relationship with Baker Small, a law firm specialising in fighting support claims for children with special educational needs, after numerous questions from residents on Twitter last week.
The law firm was criticised after its director Mark Small posted on Twitter that a legal victory was “a great win” that sent “parents into a storm”.
Kingston Council originally tweeted it had “no plans to terminate its working relationship” with the firm, before revising its statement to say it would be “reviewing its contract”.
The following day the council released another statement saying it had only used the law firm a few years prior for training for placing disabled children in schools and that there was never a contract in place.
Posting on Twitter, the council said: “Kingston has never commissioned Baker Small to work on any legal cases – and we have no plans to do so in the future.
“We do not have a contract with them and there are no future plans to work with them. We apologise for any confusion about our working relationship with the firm and hope this provides clarity.”
According to the Guardian newspaper, at least eight councils across the country terminated or proposed to terminate relationships with the law firm after Mr Small’s tweet went viral.
Posting from the company’s official Twitter feed, Mr Small had hailed a tribunal win and said “funny thing is parents think they’ve won”.
Following outrage from parents, he later posted a picture of a kitten laughing.
- Got a story? Call the newsdesk on 020 8722 6315 or send an email to jonathan.mitchell@london.newsquest.co.uk
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