Childhood injury can have a significant and lasting impact on education, development, independence, and future functioning. In litigation, however, these effects are not always immediately visible. Difficulties with attention, learning, literacy, metacognition, self-regulation, school attendance, anxiety, and transitions may emerge gradually, fluctuate over time, or be misunderstood within the wider educational context.

For solicitors handling personal injury, clinical negligence, non-accidental injury, and abuse claims involving children and young people, educational evidence can be critical to causation, prognosis, and quantum. The key issue is often not simply whether a child has returned to school, but whether they are functioning at the level expected, whether appropriate support is in place, and how any injury-related deficits may affect long-term attainment, employability, independence, and care needs.

The session will consider what can go wrong when educational difficulties are missed or attributed to pre-existing vulnerabilities, how school records and assessment findings should be interpreted, and how expert evidence can assist with breach, causation, condition and prognosis, future support, and valuation.

This session will help you to:

• Understand how childhood injury may affect learning, school functioning, emotional regulation, attendance, and educational progress
• Identify hidden or delayed deficits that may not be obvious from early recovery or routine school reports
• Strengthen causation arguments by linking injury-related changes to educational, cognitive, and functional evidence
• Improve analysis of school records, assessment findings, support plans, and pre-incident educational history
• Appreciate how educational psychology evidence can inform prognosis, future support needs, independence, and quantum
• Identify where cases may unravel due to assumptions about attainment, pre-existing vulnerability, or inadequate educational evidence