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Upholding of SEND tribunal appeals against council decisions

The latest figures from the Administrative Justice Council’s (AJC) working group on SEND show that 96% of all appeals made by families against council decisions around their child’s support have been upheld. This comes as the number of actions taken over the last decade have tripled. Issues raised are around EHCP assessments and placement decision making. The report highlights a number of factors:

  • Confusion among councils around their statutory duty to carry out assessments,
  • Breakdown of talks during the mediation process, with councils often sending people without the necessary power to make decisions to those meetings and
  • Ineffective handling of complaints 

The AJC has called on councils to listen to feedback from families through the complaints process and to ensure young people’s views are the “golden thread throughout decision making”. Another recommendation made is for the Department for Education to commission research into barriers councils face in making SEND decisions and whether there is a link between appeal rates and areas of disadvantage. The AJC would also like to see a “collaborative” working group involving the DfE and the Ministry of Justice set up to develop a research agenda to improve council decision making around SEND.

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