Exclusion Expand A head teacher or principal can exclude your child (or if you’re a young person, you) from school for disciplinary reasons. There are two lawful types of exclusion: permanent exclusion, or for a fixed-period, which is called a “suspension”. The law and the statutory guidance about exclusions relates to children and young people who are attending: a maintained school, an academy, a pupil referral unit, or a school sixth form, and there are certain steps the setting must follow when excluding your child (or a young person) from these settings. What steps it needs to take depends on the length of the exclusion. If a child or young person attends a: sixth form college further education college non-maintained special school section 41 school, or, an independent school or college, they can be excluded in accordance with the setting’s exclusion policies. You can find out more information about exclusion from these types of setting on our website. You can find out more about exclusions in general on our website too.
Health care Expand Many children and young people have health care needs. If you require support from the health service (including Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)), the starting point is likely to be a referral from your GP or (in some cases) from your child’s school or a young person’s college. You can find out more about how health care support can be part of an education, health and care plan on our website.
Independent schools (excluding academies) Expand These fee-paying schools are not controlled by a local authority or the Secretary of State for Education and are often called ‘private’ schools. They are mostly controlled by charities but there are some private owners. They include prep schools, public schools, and private nurseries. In law, these independent schools are neither special nor mainstream, but all simply “independent”. Some independent schools are section 41 schools. This means parents or young people have a right to request this type of school is named in an EHC plan in the same way they can request a maintained school. You can check to see if a school is an independent setting online.
Institutions in the further education sector Expand Not all post 16 settings need to have regard to the SEND Code of Practice (the Code) or have the same duties under the Children and Families Act (CFA) 2014. The key duties related to special educational needs under the CFA 2014 and the Code only apply to section 41 approved post-16 institutions and institutions within the further education sector. An institution is within the further education sector if it is: a further education college a ‘designated institution’, or a sixth form college. You can check the type of post 16 settings online.
Integrated Care Board (ICB) Expand Integrated care boards (ICBs) replaced clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in the NHS in England in July 2022. There are 42 ICBs in England. An ICB is a statutory body which is responsible for: developing a plan for meeting the health needs of the local population managing the NHS budget, and arranging for health services to be provided in its geographical area. If your child has an EHC plan, in most cases your ICB will be responsible for making sure they receive any health provision set out within it. If you are a young person, the same applies to any health provision in your EHC plan.
Judicial review Expand This is a legal process in which a court will look at how a public body acted or made a decision, and say whether it did so in a lawful, fair and reasonable way. This process is used when there is no other way of resolving the matter. Professional legal help should be obtained when applying for judicial review. The application for it must be made as soon as possible and within three months maximum from the date of the matter being complained of happening. There are two key stages to the process: a formal pre-action letter is sent, explaining the issue and giving the public body time to fix the problem, and a review by the court of how the public body acted or came to a decision, and whether it acted in a lawful, fair and reasonable way. If the public body did not act in a lawful, fair and reasonable way, the court can require it to do (or stop doing something) to address this. You can find out more about judicial review on our website.
Learning difficulty Expand This is a legally defined term. It is part of the first section to the definition of special educational needs (SEN). When we think about who might have a learning difficulty, we also need to think about their age: A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty if they have significantly greater difficulty in learning compared to the majority of others of the same age. A child under compulsory school age has a learning difficulty if they are likely to have significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age when they reach compulsory school age (or it would be likely when they reach compulsory school age, if no special educational provision were made for them). You can find out more about special educational needs on our website.
Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) Expand The LGSCO can investigate complaints about local authorities, adult social care providers and some other public service organisations. It will look into situations where: the processes which should have been followed were not, or were carried out poorly, and injustice was caused as a result. It is independent and free to use. If the LGSCO decides to investigate, it looks at how decisions were made and can recommend how to put things right. You can find out more about the LGSCO, including how to make a complaint to it, on our website.
Local Offer Expand Local authorities (LAs) must publish a Local Offer, setting out up to date information about services for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities. The development and review of the Local Offer should involve children, young people and parents/carers. In setting out what they ‘expect to be available’, LAs should include provision which they believe will actually be available. However, there is no duty on your LA to provide everything in the Local Offer for your child or young person. You can find out more about the Local Offer on our website and in Chapter 4 of the SEND Code of Practice.
Mainstream nursery, school or college Expand A mainstream nursery school or school is one that: is not specially organised to make special educational provision for pupils with special educational needs, and is maintained or is an Academy. A mainstream post-16 institution, like a separate further education or sixth form college, means a post-16 institution that is not a special setting.
Maintained nursery, school or college Expand Maintained nurseries, schools or colleges are controlled and funded by local authorities, and include: mainstream schools (including mainstream community schools, voluntary-aided, trust, foundation, or grammar schools), nursery schools (free-standing or part of a community primary school and not a special school), special schools, and alternative provision (including pupil referral units). You can get information on a nursery, school and college online.
Mediation Expand This is a free way to resolve a dispute without going to court or to the SEND Tribunal. An independent person, called the mediator, helps those taking part (the parties) discuss what the problems are and see how they can be resolved. You can mediate on educational, health and/or social care issues. If agreement is reached, you should make sure what has been agreed (including any timescales) is written down. This is called a mediation agreement and this agreement forms a contract between the parties, so must be followed. You have a right to try mediation whenever: a decision is made which you could appeal to the SEND Tribunal, including if you only disagree with the name or type of setting, or the fact no setting or type has been named in section I of an EHC plan, or an EHC plan is made, amended or replaced. You can find out more about mediation on our website.
Monitoring Officer Expand Each local authority (LA) should have a Monitoring Officer. They are usually a senior person in the organisation. This person is legally responsible for making sure high standards of office are promoted and maintained. Part of the Monitoring Officer’s job is to write a report: if they think the LA has acted (or appears to have acted) illegally, or is at risk of not following the law, and on any maladministration or injustice where the LGSCO has carried out an investigation. You can find details of your LA’s Monitoring Officer if you type the name of your LA and the words “Monitoring Officer” into an internet search engine.
Part-time timetable Expand All children of compulsory school age are legally entitled to a full-time education which is suitable for them, including their age, ability, aptitude and any special educational needs they may have. As a rule, schools cannot put children of compulsory school age on a part-time timetable. Part-time timetables should only be used in very exceptional circumstances where it’s in a pupil’s best interests, such as to meet a pupil’s medical needs and enable them to access as much education as possible. A part-time timetable should be: agreed between you and the school time-limited, and have regular review dates A part-time timetable must not be treated as a long-term solution and should not be used to manage a pupil’s behaviour. The statutory guidance Working together to improve school attendance (applicable form 19 August 2024) makes the above clear (see paragraphs 66-67). Use of a part-time timetable may be discriminatory. This will depend on whether the part-time timetable is a proportionate way of achieving a legitimate aim that the school may have in using it. We have lots of resources on our website for children who have medical needs, special educational needs or a disability. If your child is on a part-time timetable due to their medical needs, please see our page on illness. If your child is on a part-time timetable due to their special educational needs, please see our pages on how school should be helping and EHC needs assessments and plans. For more information on part-time timetables generally, please see our pages on informal exclusions, disability discrimination, and making a complaint about a school.
Parent Expand In education law, the term “parent” includes: people with parental responsibility of a child or young person, as well as people who have care of a child or young person (for example, a grandparent who a child lives with or a foster carer). This is what “parent” means in the law and guidance about special educational needs including the Children and Families Act 2014, The SEND Regulations 2014 and the SEND Code of Practice 2015.
Personal budgets Expand A personal budget is the estimated amount of money that would be needed to cover the cost of making the special educational provision in section F of an education, health and care (EHC) plan. A personal budget is different to a direct payment. The local authority (LA) must consider identifying a personal budget for educational provision if you, as a parent or young person, asks for this when the LA: sends a draft EHC plan following an EHC needs assessment, or reviews an EHC plan. You can find out more about personal budgets on our website.
School anxiety Expand Some school-aged children are too anxious to go to school – very often related to their special educational needs. This is also sometimes known as 'school refusal'. There are lots of steps a parent, carer or young person can take in this situation and you can find more information on these on our website.
Section 41 schools/colleges Expand These settings are not controlled by a local authority (LA) or the Secretary of State for Education. These are English and Welsh independent special schools/colleges which have been approved by the Secretary of State under section 41 of the Children and Families Act 2014. This means that they are settings which a parent or young person can request to be named in an education, health and care (EHC) plan and if so, the LA must name unless one of three limited exceptions apply. You can check the legal status of a school online (English settings). You can also check an online list of section 41 settings (English and Welsh settings).
SEN Support Expand Mainstream nurseries, schools and colleges must support all those with special educational needs (SEN) through SEN Support. This includes: Recording for every child or young person, their SEN, what outcomes it expects the child or young person to achieve, and what provision is being put in place to reach those outcomes. Doing everything that could reasonably be expected of it to meet a child or young person’s SEN (called the "best endeavours" duty). Requesting an EHC needs assessment if it cannot meet a child or young person’s needs. If a child or young person has an EHC plan, doing its best to deliver the special educational provision specified in Section F. If it cannot, the local authority must provide the resources to do so. In addition, for example: Nurseries – must involve parents with decisions around special educational provision. Schools – should meet with parents at least three times a year to discuss the pupil’s SEN and progress record. Colleges – should involve the student and (particularly if aged 16-18) their parents in decisions around the support they receive for their SEN. You can find out more about SEN Support on our website.
SEND Code of Practice (the Code) Expand The Special educational needs and disability code of practice 2015 is important statutory guidance. It tells us lots of the practical steps and things that should be considered when decisions and actions are made and taken in relation to children and young people with special educational needs. If the Code says something must be done, then it is referring to a legal duty that must be complied with. If it says something should be done, then this means the guidance should be followed unless there is a good reason not to. The organisations and bodies who need to consider the SEND Code of Practice are: local authorities (LAs) the governing bodies of schools the governing bodies of institutions in the further education sector the proprietors of academies the management committees of pupil referral units section 41 schools and colleges all early years providers in the maintained, private, voluntary and independent sectors providing free education and childcare places the NHS and Integrated Care Board Youth offending teams and relevant youth accommodation, and the SEND Tribunal
SEND Regulations 2014 Expand The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 sit underneath the Children and Families Act (CFA) 2014. They set out lots of the detail as to how duties in the CFA 2014 should be carried out. For example, they set out how: EHC needs assessments must be carried out an EHC plan is prepared, what it must contain and when it must be finalised by EHC plans must be reviewed and changed EHC plans may be stopped, mediation takes place, and deadlines that apply at the end of SEND Tribunal appeals The SEND Regulations 2014 are law. If they are not being followed, you can contact us for support.
SEND Tribunal Expand This is an independent national tribunal. Its full name is the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability). It decides: appeals against local authority (LA) decisions about the special educational needs of children and young people, (SEN Appeals), and claims of disability discrimination against schools. The SEND Tribunal will look at all the evidence it receives, and make a decision based on the law. There are no fees for making an appeal or a claim, and you may be eligible for legal aid to provide legal help in preparing your case. In SEN Appeals, the SEND Tribunal can make orders relating to special educational needs and (if asked to do so) non-binding health and social care recommendations. The SEND Tribunal can make different orders in disability discrimination claims. You can find out more about the SEND Tribunal on our website.
Social care Expand Social services can provide a wide range of support such as practical assistance in the home, respite care and short breaks, home adaptations, travel and other assistance. To get support from social care, they need to carry out an assessment. You can ask the local authority to assess your child or young person’s social care needs, and any needs you may have as their parent/carer. You can find out more about social care on our website.
Special educational needs (SEN) Expand Special educational needs (known as SEN) are those needs or challenges that affect a child or young person’s ability to learn. There might be lots of ways those needs can affect learning. SEN is a legally defined term. Meeting the definition of having SEN, or where there is evidence a child or young person may have SEN, opens up legal rights and protections under SEN law. When looking at whether a child or young person has (or may have) SEN, we need to ask two questions. If both are answered “yes”, then the child or young person is defined in law as having SEN. Does the child or young person have at least one of the following: a learning difficulty, and/or a disability and: this disability makes it difficult for them to use the facilities normally provided for others of the same age in mainstream school or college, or for those under compulsory school age, such an effect is likely when they reach that age, or would be likely if no special educational provision is made for them? If no, they do not have SEN. If yes, next we ask: Does that learning difficulty or disability require special educational provision to be put in place? If no, they do not have SEN. If yes, they do have SEN. You can find out more about SEN on our website.
Special educational provision Expand This is a legally defined term and is the second part of the definition of special educational needs. Special educational provision is: for those aged 2 or more years old: any educational or training provision that is in addition to, or different from, that generally available for other children or young people of the same age (for example, one-to-one support) for children under two years old: any educational provision, and for all children and young people: any health care or social care provision which educates or trains the child or young person (for example, speech and language therapy, or other provision made by health or social care which teaches a child or young person how to do something). Case law has confirmed that provision may be educational without educating a child itself. The dictionary definition of ‘educational’ is ‘of, pertaining to, or concerned with education’. For example, a hearing loop in the classroom would be educational provision for a hearing-impaired child, though the loop itself does not educate the pupil – the teacher does. You can find out more about special educational provision and case law on our website.
Statutory walking distance Expand Some children are eligible for transport to their school because they live beyond the statutory walking distance to their school. The statutory walking distance is: two miles for children under eight, and three miles for those eight and over. These distances are each way. We have more information on this and transport on our website (including about how different distances can apply when a child is eligible for transport because they are from a low income family).
Transport Expand Local authorities must arrange home to school transport for those children and young people who meet the criteria for it. This criteria depends on their age and you can find out more on home to school transport on our website.
Ward Councillor Expand Each local authority is separated out into different areas (known as wards). Each ward has elected Ward Councillors. They help resolve local issues, by representing the interests of everyone in the ward and being a voice for the community in the council. You can find details of your Ward Councillor online.
Young person Expand The Children and Families Act (CFA) 2014 sets out many of the legal protections and rights for children and young people with SEN. Under the CFA you are a young person if you are: over compulsory school age, and under 25. Compulsory school age ends on the last Friday in June which falls in the academic year in which you turn (or turned) 16 – usually at the end of Year 11. For example, if you were born on 23 September 2007, compulsory school age will end on 28 June 2024. However, as a young person, you are expected to remain in education or training until you are 18. Once compulsory school age ends, the rights and protections in the CFA 2014 belong to you and can be enforced by you, rather than your parents (who can support you if you like). You can find out more about the rights of young people, and how you can be supported, on our website.
My son has an EHC plan and is in a school year group below other children his age. Will the local authority expect him to move to secondary school with children his age or can he stay in his current year group and start secondary school a year later? Expand Case law has confirmed that being educated in a different year group to children of the same age can be special educational provision. This means: The special educational needs which mean that your child needs to be educated in a different year group should be described in section B of his EHC plan. Placement outside his normal year group should be set out in section F of his EHC plan. While it is, your local authority (LA) has to make sure it continues. This is because it has a duty to make sure your son receives the special educational provision in his EHC plan. If sections B and F of your son’s EHC plan include this, your LA should not try to remove it if there isn’t any evidence which shows he doesn’t need to be in the year below anymore. If sections B and F of your son’s EHC plan do not include this, ask your LA to update his plan so that they do. You could ask your LA to do this during the annual review of your son’s EHC plan. When a child with an EHC plan will be moving from primary to secondary school in the next 12 months, the LA must review and change their plan to include the name and type of the secondary school they will go to (or just the type if a particular school cannot be identified). The process your LA must follow is set out in law and includes your rights to ask for changes to his plan and for the secondary school you would like him to go to. Schools are registered to teach pupils in certain age ranges. You can find out a school’s age range online. You should check this for your son’s current school and the secondary school you would like him to go to. If your son will no longer be within the primary school’s age range, the school can apply to the Department for Education to either extend its registered age group or get individual permission to teach your son. If it looks like this might be necessary, we suggest you talk to the school about this as soon as possible.
Can provision be extended in a school setting for those aged 19 and over? Expand Where a local authority (LA) decides that a young person would be best served by remaining in a school setting after they have turned 19 years of age, it can apply for a relaxation of the normal rules via the Education and Skills Funding Agency. Approval must be given by the Secretary of State to allow a young person aged 19 or over to remain at a school. The government states that this may be necessary in “exceptional circumstances”. However, we have been advised previously that the process can be relatively straightforward and LAs may want to consider whether such application is necessary in light of individual students’ circumstances. Remember that considerations for children and young people with SEND include whether they may need more time to complete their studies.
If a child/young person with SEND missed education due to Covid, what provision will school/college make to help them catch up? Expand This is going to be something to discuss with the school. We expect most settings will have reviewed their students following their return to school to try to identify gaps in learning and barriers to learning arising from their prolonged periods of absence.
What is the National Tutoring Programme and how can my child access this? Expand This is a programme available to state (that means maintained and Academy) schools. Your child’s school is the first point of contact for any information about how they are using this programme and what support your child might receive through it. The academic year 2023/24 is the fourth and final year of the National Tutoring Programme. For children/young people with SEND, if it becomes clear that they will require educational provision which goes beyond what the setting can provide from within its current resources (or through the additional funding the school has been provided with) then it may be necessary to use the Children and Families Act 2014 process to secure additional support. This could include for example, requesting an EHC needs assessment if your child is currently receiving SEN Support, or by seeking changes to an EHC plan which no longer meets need.
I am a young person due to move from secondary school to post-16, but the LA hasn’t issued the amended EHC plan or started the review. What does the LA need to do? Expand Local authorities (LAs) have a legal duty to review and amend an EHC plan when a child or young person transfers from one phase of education to another. For a transfer from secondary school to post-16, the annual review must be completed by 31 March and, where necessary, the EHC plan updated in the year of transfer. The process your LA must follow is: Information must be gathered from you as well as from professionals about the EHC plan, and then circulated two weeks before the annual review meeting. You must receive at least two weeks’ notice of the review meeting. An annual review meeting must take place to discuss the EHC plan. After the meeting a report of what happened must be written and sent to everyone who went to the meeting or provided information to be discussed. Within four weeks of the meeting, your LA must tell you of its decision to maintain, amend or cease the EHC plan. At phase transfer it will need to be amended to name the new placement (or type). The LA must send you details of the changes it plans to make to the EHC plan at the same time. You can use our template letter to make comments on the proposed amendments. You will be able to request the post-16 institution you want to attend. Your LA must agree to your request unless it’s entirely independent/private or one of the exceptions set out in the law applies. Your LA must then finalise the EHC plan within eight weeks of the date it sent you the amendments. In order for the EHC plan to be amended and finalised by 31 March, discussions about transfer need to begin once school re-opens after the Christmas break, in the year of the transfer, to allow plenty of time for the review and amendment process to happen. As you are already a young person, it sounds like the LA didn’t do this in time. You can use our template letter to request the review meeting be held without delay. If the LA has not amended your EHC plan to name your post-16 placement by the time you should start, it must still make sure you receive all the special educational provision in your EHC plan. If your LA does not name the place you want in the final EHC plan, you can appeal to the SEND Tribunal. If you appeal, make it clear that the appeal involves your phase transfer placement so the SEND Tribunal prioritises it.
My local authority says my child’s annual review will be delayed as they are short-staffed and there is a long backlog. Is this allowed? Expand No. Local authorities (LAs) are legally obliged to complete annual reviews within 12 months starting with the date when the EHC plan was first issued, or 12 months from the conclusion of the last annual review. There are no valid legal reasons for delay. LAs are expected to organise themselves so that they can meet legal deadlines, and staff shortages are not an excuse. You can use our template letter to take action. If you feel there is an urgent need to amend the provision or placement in your child’s EHC plan, or your EHC plan if you are a young person, you could ask for an early review. LAs are also required to conduct and conclude annual reviews before a phase transfer by the applicable statutory deadlines. We have another template letter that you can use if your LA is late carrying out your child’s phase transfer review.
Wales Expand IPSEA does not advise on the law that applies in Wales so please use the links below for some useful resources for those living in Wales. There is a different legal framework for SEN in Wales. You can find out more here New ALN System - Snap Cymru. Under this system Individual Development Plans (IDP) are gradually replacing the current SEN Statement, Individual Education Plan and Learning and Skills Plan. If you move from Wales to England with a statement or IDP there is no duty on your new English LA to assume responsibility for the provision. This means you will need to request an EHC needs assessment, and you will not be able to do that until you have moved. For more information please see: https://contact.org.uk/help-for-families/information-advice-services/education-learning-wales/ https://cerebra.org.uk/tag/wales/ https://cerebra.org.uk/download/education-in-wales-a-guide-for-parents/ The Nodi No-nonsense Guide to Additional Learning Needs Law in Wales (published November 2024, search online for any updated version). The Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS) has a helpline (0808 800 0082) and online chat which is able to provide free advice and information about the Equality Act 2010 and the Human Rights Act 1998. EASS can advise you on identifying the correct protected characteristic (the thing that means you/your child can’t be discriminated against), the sector and the prohibited conduct which applies to your circumstances, or its online information may help you to do this. If you feel you need support in resolving an issue, EASS may be able to contact the organisation who has treated you/your child unfairly on your behalf. EASS provides assistance and advice across England, Scotland and Wales, in different languages – including Welsh, and in some cases with specific accessibility support for people with learning difficulties and hearing impairments. EASS also has some helpful resources, including education specific template letters. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is an independent statutory body with the responsibility to encourage equality and diversity, eliminate unlawful discrimination, and protect and promote the human rights of everyone in Britain. It enforces equality legislation on protected characteristics, such as disability. The EHRC has produced guidance for schools in Wales which is designed to support schools in Wales to comply with the Public Sector Equality Duty. The EHRC also has Technical guidance on further and higher education.
We're appealing against the school named in our child’s EHC plan and we’ve been told our child must attend the school that’s named in the plan in the meantime. Is that correct? Expand No, this is wrong. When a child or a young person has an EHC plan naming a setting (other than a private, fee paying school), then the setting has a legal duty to admit them (section 43 CFA 2014). Sometimes local authorities (LAs) believe this duty means that the child or young person must be added to the school roll as soon as the school is named in a plan. Regulation 8(1) of the The School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 states that “The proprietor of a school must ensure that the name of each pupil at the school is entered in the school’s admission register on the pupil’s starting day, before or at the beginning of the first school session on that day”. Regulation 3 defines ‘starting day’ as the first day the pupil attends, or the day it is agreed they will start to attend. The regulations say it’s the "person with control of the pupil's attendance" who has to agree the day that they will start attending the school. In most cases this is their parent or the pupil themselves if they will be over compulsory school age by the time they start attending the school, not the LA. Therefore your child must only be added to the new school roll on the date they begin to attend or the date that you have agreed they will start to attend. If you have been told your child must attend the named school but do not agree with the naming of that school, you should make this clear and that your child’s name must not be added to the admission register as you do not agree to it. Please note: If at any point the LA says it will send you an Attendance Order, or you receive one, you can check if you qualify for legal aid and speak with a criminal solicitor who is familiar with education cases, and ask them if to find out if you would qualify for can apply for criminal legal aid. You could also contact Citizens Advice. We suggest you take advice on how education may be provided to your child while your disagreement with the LA about which school should be named in their EHC plan is resolved and who would be responsible for this. If your child is of compulsory school age, depending on your specific circumstances, it could be your responsibility to secure their education during this time.
Can I ask for my child to attend school part-time? Expand If your child’s school has told you that your child cannot attend full-time, see out information on informal exclusions. Children without EHC plans Home educated children without EHC plans can receive part of their education at a school if the school agrees. Such arrangements are sometimes known as ‘flexi-schooling’. This is a phrase used in guidance on home education. Schools are under no obligation to agree to such arrangements, but some are happy to do so. When a compulsory school age child is flexi-schooled, the parents must still make sure that the child receives a suitable full-time education. When considering whether the child is receiving a suitable full-time education, the LA must take into account the education they receive at school. Children with EHC plans If the LA thinks it would be inappropriate for a child or young person with an EHC plan to receive some part of their special educational provision in school/college, then they can receive that particular special education provision elsewhere. This means the child or young person would receive part of their education at school/college and part of it as ‘education otherwise’ (‘EOTIS’, sometimes known as 'EOTAS'). These arrangements should be described in section F of their EHC plan and the school/college named in section I. There is no need for the school to consent to this part-time attendance arrangement because it is special educational provision that the child or young person requires, which is different to a child or young person being educated at home because their parent has chosen to do so.
I home educate my child. Can I make a request for an EHC needs assessment? Expand Yes. Requests for an EHC needs assessment can be made by a child’s parent, by the young person themselves or, if they attend a school or post 16 setting, by a representative from the setting. Children and young people do not need to attend school or a post 16 setting in order to qualify or be eligible for a request to be made. This means that all parents of children are entitled to make a request for an EHC needs assessment, whether their child attends school or not. A parent who home educates their child should send their written request for an EHC needs assessment to their home local authority (“LA”) and can use our template letter, changed to reflect the child’s situation, to help them with this. A young person could use this letter to ask for an EHC needs assessment too. The LA must carry out an EHC needs assessment for a child or young person if they have or may have special education needs, and it may be necessary for special educational provision to be made for them via an EHC plan. This is the only legal test, it applies to all children and young people and does not vary depending on registration with a school.
I think my 10 year old child may require an EOTIS package. What factors will the local authority consider when deciding if special educational provision in a school is inappropriate? Expand A local authority (“LA”) can agree to a parent’s request for an education otherwise than in a school (EOTIS), sometimes known as EOTAS, if the LA thinks that it would be inappropriate for the special educational provision your child requires to be made in any school. Whether or not it will be appropriate for your child’s special educational provision to be made in a school will depend all of your child’s circumstances. These will naturally vary from child to child, but might include things like: your child’s background and medical history, the particular educational needs of your child, the facilities that can be provided by a school, the facilities that could be provided other than in a school, the comparative cost of the possible alternatives the child’s reactions to educational provisions, either at school or elsewhere, your wishes as their parent (these should be considered but the LA can still disagree), and any other particular circumstances that apply to your child.
There are no schools near where we live which can appropriately deliver my child’s special educational provision but there is a school at the other end of the country which could. Does that mean I can’t ask for education otherwise/EOTIS? Expand No. When a local authority (“LA”) makes a decision about EOTIS, sometimes known as EOTAS, it should apply a degree of common sense about it. When deciding if it would be inappropriate for the special educational provision to be made in a school, the LA has to think about if school would ‘not be suitable’ or ‘proper’, taking all the circumstances into account. A school very far away is unlikely to be somewhere a child could reasonably attend or ‘proper’.
It won’t be appropriate for my child’s special educational provision to be made in the school my local authority has said it wants to send her to. Can I ask for education otherwise/EOTIS? Expand If making the provision would be inappropriate at the local authority’s (“LA”) choice of school, could it be appropriate at other schools? If so, and your child could reasonably attend another school, the LA does not have to agree to education otherwise than in a school (EOTIS), sometimes known as EOTAS. Whether it’s inappropriate for your child’s special educational provision to be made in any school depends on your child’s specific special educational needs, or maybe the nature of the provision itself. If it would not be appropriate for your child’s provision to be delivered in any school (not just the LA’s choice), the LA can provide EOTIS for your child.
My LA has said my son’s special educational provision can be made in school if lots of adjustments are made and his therapy program is changed. By making it possible for school to make his provision, does this mean provision in school is appropriate? Expand With adjustments and changes to your son’s therapy program it may be possible for his needs to be met in school, but that does not necessarily mean it is appropriate. There should be evidence to back up any changes to his therapy programme too, it’s a good idea to speak to his therapist to check that all of his needs will still be met if the suggested changes were made. Even if they would be, the question is not whether it is possible but whether it would be inappropriate for the special educational provision to be made in school. This will depend on your child’s needs and provision. For example, if you son needs occupational therapy in a particular environment and equipment but there are no schools which would have a suitable room for the therapy sessions to be held in, then it might be inappropriate for this particular special educational provision to be made in school, and might have to be delivered elsewhere. Sometimes it will be inappropriate for some but not all of a child’s special educational provision to be made in school. Please see 'Can I ask for my child to attend school part-time?' for more information.
I want to go to college after I finish school but I am worried I will lose all the support school have put in place for me. Is this the case? Expand No. If you have special educational needs you might need some extra help in college and your college should do everything it can to find out what you want to achieve and how it can support you to achieve that. Your school should share the information it has about the support it gives you with the college – ideally in the spring term before you move on. It is similar to the support schools have to provide but there is also focus on helping you prepare for the future. The college should work with you, your current school and your parents, to decide what support you need and how to provide it. Your college should have someone who makes sure pupils get the support they need, and you could arrange to speak with them about what support the college offers. You could also look at its SEN policies online. You can find out more about how college can support you here. If you have an EHC plan, the local authority must review and update it so it includes where you learn when you finish school. There are rules about how this must happen. See here for more information.
My college has said it has given me all the support it can but I need more. What can I do? Expand You can ask for your local authority (LA) to carry out an EHC needs assessment. This is a detailed assessment of your educational, health and care needs and how to support you. You can use our template letter to help you with this, or your college can ask for you. The person at college whose job it is to make sure pupils get help and support (sometimes called a SENCO) can help you with this request. Your parent or carer can also help you make the request. Your college should be doing everything it can to make sure you get the support you need, including thinking about making a request for an EHC needs assessment. After the EHC needs assessment, it may be possible to get extra help beyond what college can offer through something called an EHC plan. You can find out more about EHC plans here.
My sixth form has said I need an EHC plan. What is this? Expand This is a plan which lists the education, health care and social care needs you have. It is a legal document which you can rely on and enforce. It must say what: special educational needs you have, help you require to meet these challenges, setting (or type of setting) you will attend (unless education otherwise than at/in a school applies). The first step will be for you, or someone at your sixth form, to request an EHC needs assessment. Your parent or carer can help you too. You can find out more about EHC needs assessments here. You can find out more about EHC plans here.
My sixth form asked for an EHC needs assessment for me but my local authority has said no. What can I do? Expand You can ask the local authority (LA) to meet with you and someone called a mediator to talk about why the LA said no. This is called mediation. If the LA changes its mind or agrees to something else (providing more support, for example), then this should be written down in a mediation agreement. The LA must then do what it said it would do by the deadlines set out in here. If you do not want to meet with the LA like this, you can get a mediation certificate and then ask a judge to look at all the facts and decide if the LA should have said yes to the request. This is called an appeal. If the judge thinks the LA should have said yes, then the judge can order the LA to do the EHC needs assessment. That means the LA has to do it. On the LA’s letter refusing the EHC needs assessment request, there should be information about mediation and how to appeal its decision. You need to think about mediation before you can appeal to the SEND Tribunal. You can find out more about mediation here. You can find out more about how to appeal here and here. You can find out more about getting support with your appeal here.
Can I have an EHC plan after I finish college? Expand Yes. EHC plans are available for those up to the age of 25 who need one as long as you are not taking a higher education course (this will be a study programme or apprenticeship at Level 4 or above). The first step in getting an EHC plan is having an EHC needs assessment carried out. This is an investigation into your educational, health and care needs and how to support you. You can adapt our template letter to request an EHC needs assessment yourself, or your school or college could request one for you. Your parent or carer can help you too. After the EHC needs assessment the local authority (LA) will decide if you need an EHC plan. The LA must provide you with an EHC plan if you won’t get the help you need (known as your special educational provision) without one. If you’re over 18 and already have an EHC plan but have left education and don’t want any further learning then your EHC plan can be ended but the LA will need to review the plan first. You can find out more about EHC plans here.
Can my EHC plan keep going when I’m 25? Expand There isn’t an automatic right to keep your EHC plan when you are 25. But your local authority (LA) has the power to keep your EHC plan going until the end of the academic year in which you turn 25. Guidance, which the LA must follow unless it has a good reason not to, says support should generally stop at the end of the academic year so young people can complete their study (paragraph 9.207 SEND Code of Practice). This means: If you go to college, the LA could keep your EHC plan going until the 31st July after you turn 25. If you are an apprentice, the LA could keep your EHC plan going until your apprenticeship training finishes or the day before your 26th birthday if you’ll turn 26 before it finishes. (If you moved onto a level 4 or above apprenticeship your EHC plan wouldn’t be able to cover this though). If your education or training isn’t at college and isn’t an apprenticeship, the LA could keep your EHC plan going until your course ends or the day before your 26th birthday if you’ll turn 26 before it ends.
Where can I carry on learning or training? Expand You can receive special educational provision in lots of different ways. This could be through: school sixth forms (both mainstream and special schools) sixth form colleges further education colleges 16-19 Academies special post-16 institutions vocational learning and training providers in the private or voluntary sector. There are study programmes you might want to follow which include: A-levels, GCSEs, BTECs, T-Levels and other vocational or stepping-stone qualifications. You could also go on to gain work experience through an apprenticeship, traineeship or supported internship. Remember, the Children and Families Act 2014 doesn’t cover any learning that is higher education (which means study programmes or apprenticeships at Level 4 or above).
I want to appeal sections B and F of my child’s EHC plan. Do I need to go to mediation first? Expand No, not if you do not want to. You have the right to mediation whenever you can appeal a decision in the SEND Tribunal, even if you only want to appeal section I (placement), but you don’t have to attend mediation. What you do need to do if you want to appeal sections B and F is contact the mediation adviser within 2 months of the decision letter/ letter enclosing the final EHC plan and speak to them about mediation. They will give you some information about mediation and you can decide if it is right for you. If not, that is fine. Simply tell the adviser and they must send to you a mediation certificate within 3 working days. You will need this certificate to make your appeal so keep hold of it. Your appeal form with the certificate needs to be submitted to the SEND Tribunal within 2 months from the date on your LA’s decision letter/ letter enclosing the final EHC plan or one month from the date on the mediation certificate, whichever is later. If you decide to give it a go, your LA will arrange for it and after the mediation you receive a mediation certificate. If you still need to appeal (because full agreement has not been reached), you can use this certificate to submit your appeal.
I am 17 years old and I want to appeal the contents of my EHC plan. My parents are helping me with my appeal. Should the appeal be in my name? Expand Yes, the appeal will be in your name. This is because, although you are not yet an adult, you have rights as a young person under the Children and Families Act 2014 including bringing an appeal in the SEND Tribunal. Your parents can help if you like. Simply tell your LA you are happy for paperwork and documents to be sent to your parents, if that is what you want. You can also ask the SEND Tribunal to send all appeal paperwork to your parents if you like, by ticking the ‘advocate’ box on page 9 of your SEND35 appeal form. So your LA and the SEND Tribunal knows who will be supporting you, you can provide your parents’ names as your advocates in: section 7 of your SEND35 appeal form or section 2 of the online SEND35 appeal form (depending which one you choose to use), and section 10 of your case review form. The only time an appeal will not be in the young person’s name is if they ‘lack capacity’ to make the decisions necessary to bring an appeal. If this is the case, then: if they have a ‘representative’ (usually a deputy appointed by the Court of Protection) then that representative will bring the appeal, or where no such representative has been appointed, the right of appeal is exercised by an ‘alternative person’, which would normally be the young person’s parent.
I am a young person living with my parents. Will I be eligible for legal aid to help me with my contents appeal? Expand Eligible people can obtain funding for ‘Legal Help’ for appeals to the SEND Tribunal from the Legal Aid Agency. Legal Help covers the preparation of the case (from submitting the appeal form through to preparation for the hearing) but does not cover representation at the hearing (except in exceptional circumstances). In some cases, a young person may qualify for legal aid in their own right. However, generally, if they live with their parents, as you do, the finances of the young person and parents will be ‘aggregated’ (so both are taken into account). You should always check to see if you are eligible for legal aid. Please see our page on where you can get help with your appeal for more on this. If you are eligible for legal aid, a solicitor will be able to draft and submit your appeal form for you and you may be able to obtain funding to cover the costs of obtaining private reports as evidence to support your case.
I want to appeal sections B (needs), F (provision) and I (placement) of my child’s EHC plan but I have not yet found a particular school that I want to ask to be named. What should I do? Expand In any case where the appeal concerns section I, you should include relevant information about the school or institution you want to be named with the appeal. This should include the Ofsted report, any prospectus, any reports or assessments about your child which the school or other institution has produced, and details of the costs of the placement. If you want your appeal to include section I (placement) but have not found a school you want to ask the SEND Tribunal to name, then describe the type of setting you would prefer in section I on your appeal form. You can say you are currently researching options or waiting for responses from settings. The SEND Tribunal, when it registers your case, will probably direct you to provide details of the specific institution that you wish the SEND Tribunal to name by a particular date. If you find a specific setting you would like named which matches the type of setting you described on the appeal form, you don’t need to amend your grounds of appeal. You should: tell the LA and SEND Tribunal of this via email, and enclose the offer of a place if it’s a wholly independent school, and check the directions in case the SEND Tribunal imposed a deadline for doing so and for what other information about the school you are required to submit. If you find a particular setting which is a different type to that described on the appeal form, for example in the description box you indicated you wanted mainstream and are now seeking a special school, a Request for Changes form (SEND7) asking to amend the grounds of appeal will be required.
I have lots of information I want to give on my paper appeal form about why I am appealing. Can I use a separate sheet to set these out and send this in with the appeal form? Expand Yes. That is a good idea. You need to answer the questions on the appeal form to provide detailed reasons for appealing. It is often easier to put these questions and the responses on a separate sheet (that you submit with the form) and write ‘See separate sheet headed Reasons for Appeal’ in the boxes on the form. If the appeal includes sections B and F of an EHC plan (the special educational needs of your child and the provision to meet those needs), this must be made clear and the detail of the amendments requested given. The SEND Tribunal may refuse to register an appeal if no grounds for the appeal to be made are properly identified on the appeal form.
My child is about to move from primary to secondary school. Should I tell the SEND Tribunal about this? Expand Yes. Whenever an appeal is about a child or young person’s transfer to a new phase of education, it is essential that you say this very clearly on the appeal form and in the email when the appeal form is submitted (if you are using the paper version). The SEND Tribunal is prioritising phase transfer appeals which include section I and has some reserved hearing date slots for these types of appeals. Even if the appeal involves sections B and/or F as well as I, you should tell the SEND Tribunal this is a phase transfer appeal.
I made an appeal about section I (placement) but now I want to widen my appeal to include sections B (needs) and F (provision). How can I do this? Expand If you want to amend your ground of appeal, you need to submit a Request for Changes form. This form is called a SEND 7. Before you send this form to the SEND Tribunal though, you must seek the LA’s response and this should be included on the form. You do not need its agreement, but you must give your LA a chance to respond. You should give your LA at least 5 working days to respond. If the request is urgent, and you are still waiting for a response from the LA, you should make clear on the form that you have asked the LA for its views and include a copy of your email to the LA if possible. The SEND Tribunal has said that due to the very high volume of Requests for Changes forms it receives, unless the matter is urgent, requests will be held on file and dealt with about 3-4 weeks before the hearing, so do not be surprised if you do not hear back quickly.
Should my child’s annual review still take place whilst I am appealing the contents of the EHC plan? Expand Yes. In the case of appeals about the contents of EHC plans, it is possible that an annual review will take place before the appeal is concluded. This is because an annual review must take place within 12 months of the last review, or of the date the EHC plan was first issued, and this is not affected by an ongoing appeal. The annual review could be an opportunity to try and resolve some of the issues in dispute. If your LA issues a new amended EHC plan after the annual review, this new plan is valid and enforceable and replaces the plan that has been appealed. If there are still parts of the EHC plan that you are unhappy with, in most types of appeal, you should ask the SEND Tribunal if the new plan can be treated as a working document in the current appeal, rather than registering a new appeal. The SEND Tribunal may decide that you should submit a new appeal and ask for the appeals to be consolidated (joined together), so be careful not to miss your deadline for obtaining a mediation certificate and appealing. However, the SEND Tribunal has told us that if the newly amended EHC plan has been issued following a phase transfer review, it will not allow the new EHC plan to be treated as the working document in an ongoing appeal. Instead, you should: obtain a mediation certificate and submit a new appeal flag on your appeal for that this is a “phase transfer appeal”, and ask for the appeal to be prioritised because of this Please see our information on working documents for more information.
After I made my appeal, my LA agreed to make the changes I was asking for in sections B and F. What do I need to do? Expand This depends on when the LA agreed to make the changes you are asking for. Within 30 working days of the appeal being sent to it, the LA is required to provide a response to the grounds of appeal. Agreeing to your changes before the response deadline If your LA decides not to oppose the appeal before it submits a response, it must tell the SEND Tribunal. Check with your LA that it has done this. Once the LA has told the SEND Tribunal, the appeal is to be treated as if it was determined in your favour. This means the SEND Tribunal is not required to make an order. Your LA must issue the amended EHC plan within five weeks of the notification by the LA to the SEND Tribunal that it is not opposing the appeal. This deadline is set out in The SEND Regulations 2014, regulation 45. If your LA does not comply with this deadline, this is equivalent to being in breach of an order of the SEND Tribunal. We have a template letter that you can use if this happens. You should not ask the SEND Tribunal to withdraw your contents appeal in this situation unless the parties have negotiated an agreed format for the amended EHC plan and the LA has issued an amended final EHC plan in the agreed form. Once you receive this and have checked it to make sure it contains everything you were expecting, then you can inform the SEND Tribunal that you want to withdraw your appeal. Your other option is to ask the SEND Tribunal to order the LA to change the EHC plan in the way the parties have agreed within a set time frame, by making a consent order (please see below and on our pages for more information on consent orders) Agreeing to your changes after the response deadline Once the response has been submitted, the parties will need the SEND Tribunal’s permission to end the appeal process. Both parties should agree what actions will be taken and request a consent order from the SEND Tribunal using the consent order proforma (SEND46). Permission is not guaranteed. The SEND Tribunal may refuse to allow the appeal to be ended, for example if the proposal by the parties fails to deal with all the issues in dispute, or it is very close to the hearing. In an appeal about the contents of an EHC plan and/or the name of the school in the EHC plan, if you decided not to pursue all of the changes that you originally wanted, or have accepted a different school or institution can be named, when requesting the consent order you should make clear you are happy with the outcome. If all the changes you were looking for have been agreed by your LA, you should make this clear. The consent order proforma does not refer to deadlines for your LA to take the agreed action. However, your LA must proceed as if the matter had been heard and determined in your favour, applying the deadlines set out in regulation 44 of The SEND Regulations 2014. If different deadlines have been agreed, they should be clearly defined and added to the form. IPSEA has a template letter that can be used if the LA fails to comply. The final agreed proposed consent order proforma will need to be signed by both parties then submitted to the SEND Tribunal explaining that the parties have reached agreement and request a consent order concluding the appeal on those terms. In an appeal involving the contents of an EHC plan, the final version of the working document will need to be sent with the request for a consent order. If you have decided not to pursue some of your proposed amendments then these should be removed or returned to the original text in this final version. All agreed amendments should be underlined as per the working document key.
My LA has sent me the first version of the working document but it only includes sections B, F and I of my child’s EHC plan. Can I ask that the other sections are included? It also does not contain any of the changes I am asking for in the appeal. Expand Some LAs create working documents only containing sections B, F and I, because the SEND Tribunal’s powers are limited to those parts (except for in the case of extended appeals where the SEND Tribunal can make recommendations about health and social care). This is unhelpful however, as you may be hoping to negotiate changes to sections A and/or E. In addition, it means the SEND Tribunal doesn't have the outcomes directly before it when considering the special educational needs and provision. Case law has also said there are clear risks of a SEND Tribunal having insufficient regard to a child or young person’s aspirations and the outcomes which they and those supporting them consider appropriate if it does not have sections A and E before it to provide context for what it has to decide. You should ask your LA to issue the whole EHC plan and in a form which can be edited. If the LA delays in doing this, first send a reminder to the LA and tell them about the case law linked above if necessary, before considering making a request to the SEND Tribunal to direct that the LA does so. The SEND Tribunal expects LAs to reflect the amendments a parent or young person has requested in their appeal form in the first version of the working document, but this rarely happens and generally the LA sends an unamended, editable version of the EHC plan which is under appeal, as has happened here. You should make sure all the amendments you are looking for are made on the working document, using the key set out in the SEND Tribunal’s Working document guidance (colour should not be used), and sent back to the LA. Please note, the final working document in your appeal sent to the SEND Tribunal must be no more than 25 A4 pages. If your final working document is longer than that, you need to ask for permission for the page limit to be exceeded. If you don’t, the SEND Tribunal may decide not to consider the final working document. You can find out more on this and how to ask for this permission on our website.
My child is in primary school and has a draft EHC plan. It’s appropriate for their special educational provision to be given in a school, but we haven’t been able to find the right one yet and nor has our local authority. What can we do? Expand Make sure you know what the law says about naming schools in EHC plans, in case the local authority (LA) has misunderstood it and so you know what your options are. For example, the LA might be able to name a school you would like your child to go to, even though the school has said it couldn’t take them. Your LA has to send you the final EHC plan within 20 weeks of you or your child's school asking for the EHC needs assessment. If there isn’t a school the LA can name in your child’s EHC plan by then, the LA can say what type of school it thinks will be appropriate for your child to go to: For example, section I of their final EHC plan could say “mainstream primary school” or “special primary school” rather than the name of a specific school. Whilst the LA can finalise the EHC plan in this way, it should continue to try to find a specific school. The LA must make sure your child gets a suitable, full time education and all of the special educational provision in section F of their final EHC plan too. Once an appropriate school is found, the LA must add its name to section I of the EHC plan. There’s a legal process the LA must follow when it changes an EHC plan. It must send you the changes it wants to make and give you at least 15 days to reply to: tell the LA any changes you want to see in the EHC plan, ask for a specific school/setting you want your child to go to (or say you agree with the one the LA has found), and ask for a meeting with the LA if you want one. If the LA says it uses a different process, you can tell it this is the legal one that it has to follow because of regulation 28 of The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014.
My child’s annual review meeting is coming up. Does everyone invited to it have to attend? Expand No. The person who is going to hold the review meeting must invite certain people, but they cannot compel or insist that they attend. The people who must be invited to attend are: you as the parent the provider of relevant early years education or the head/principal of the school, post-16 institution or other institution your child attends an officer of the LA who exercises education functions in relation to children and young people with SEN a health care professional (identified by the ICB), and an officer of the LA who exercises social care functions in relation to children and young people with SEN. Other people could also be invited but these are the ones that must be invited. However, annual reviews must take into account your views, wishes and feelings. This is a legal requirement under regulation 19 of The SEND Regulations 2014. So, if you think it is important that a particular person attends the meeting, you should say so and why. LAs and other public bodies have a duty to act reasonably, so explain why it is important for a particular person to attend, and they will have to consider this in deciding whether to attend or not. For example, if you want your LA SEND officer to attend, say so and why. They will have to take into account your views and wishes and these reasons to be acting reasonably. In addition, the Code says that “As part of the review, the local authority and the school, further education college or section 41 approved institution attended by the child or young person must co-operate to ensure a review meeting takes place. This includes attending the review when requested to do so.” (para 9.173). Remember that people can attend review meetings remotely, which may help a professional who would like to attend but will struggle to do so ‘in person’. You can ask for the meeting to be held remotely to accommodate this, or if the meeting is to be ‘in person’, ask for that person to be allowed to attend remotely.
School has told me when my child’s annual review meeting is going to take place, but I cannot make that date. What can I do? Expand Firstly, speak to school. See if the review meeting can be arranged for a different date and offer to school dates when you are available. That said, it may be, due to your child’s needs or circumstances, that it is really important the annual review meeting takes place when planned, even if you cannot attend. The meeting can still go ahead without you there. If this is the case, then you should make sure you provide school with as much information as possible when you are contacted for information. You should make clear what progress you think your child is making, and what changes you might like to see to the EHC plan (and why). Once the meeting has taken place, you will receive a copy of the report from school detailing the discussions from the meeting and any difference in opinions. If you disagree with anything in that report, send an email to school and the LA quickly letting them know your views. If the LA makes a decision following the annual review meeting which you disagree with, you can appeal it, and will have the right to mediation.
I would really like my child’s youth worker to attend his annual review meeting. Can they? Expand Yes. The following people must be invited to the review meeting and information from these people must be obtained: you as the parent a representative of the school or other institution attended an LA SEN officer a health service representative, and an LA social care representative Other people can also be invited. This can include professionals working with your child, youth offending teams and job coaches for example. You should make sure your child’s youth worker has received a request for information and an invitation to attend. If they haven’t, ask school to send this to them. If they can’t attend then they should still be able to provide information and advice to be circulated for the meeting. The Code is clear that “The school (or, for children and young people attending another institution, the local authority) must seek advice and information about the child or young person prior to the meeting from all parties invited, and send any advice and information gathered to all those invited at least two weeks before the meeting” (para 9.176).
My daughter’s school has said it cannot hold the annual review meeting, it is too short staffed. What should happen? Expand Your child’s school should have been told by the LA at least two weeks before the start of term which children with EHC plans will require an annual review meeting (para 9.172, the Code). This means that school should have known when your child’s review was coming up and planned for it. If the school has not planned for the review, or is unable to carry out the review meeting for some reason, the meeting must still go ahead. It is the LA’s responsibility to make sure that the annual review process is carried out in accordance with the law. So, if school cannot arrange the meeting or attend it for some reason, the LA will need to step in. You can remind your LA about this and its duty under regulation 20(1) of The SEND Regulations 2014.
The annual review meeting for my child’s EHC plan has taken place and we want it to be changed. However, our local authority has said it only amends plans if significant changes are needed or if it is a phase transfer review. Is this right? Expand No. EHC plans by law must specify and set out a range of things including: your child’s special educational needs (SEN) in Section B the special educational provision needed to meet those SEN in Section F, and the outcomes expected as a result of that provision in Section E. An EHC plan which does not properly set these matters out will not be lawfully drafted. The law is clear that: EHC plans need to be specific and clear, the necessary level of detail in an EHC plan will depend on all the individual facts in a case, so local authorities (LAs) cannot use blanket policies saying they only amend plans in limited or certain situations where detail can be provided it should be and even if there is a need for flexibility (due to a child’s SEN), the duty to be specific remains, so LAs should not refuse to include detail where it is available EHC plans are free-standing legal documents setting out the LA’s duties. Parents and young people have the right to rely on what the plan says, so it needs to be clear, and the LA must specify in Section F special educational provision for each and every SEN in Section B, so LAs must make sure that Section F is complete as well as being properly specified. The Code at paragraph 9.193 says that “EHC plans are not expected to be amended on a very frequent basis.” But this does not fully reflect the LA’s duty to specify (in other words, to be specific and clear). If an EHC plan does not properly specify the matters it is legally required to do so, then the EHC plan will not be lawfully drafted. The Code is also guidance, and where there is a difference between the law and guidance, then it is the law that must be followed. If when concluding the annual review your LA decides not to change the EHC plan, you can take action. You can request mediation as a legal right. This means you can require your LA to send a decision-maker to mediation and discuss its decision with you and an impartial mediator, as well as the changes you want made to the plan and why. You can ask for mediation about the contents of: Sections B, F and/or I (SEN, special educational provision and/or placement), and/ or Sections C and/ or G (health care needs and/ or provision), and/ or Sections D and/ or H (social care needs and/ or provision). If mediation doesn’t work or you don’t want to try it, you can appeal the LA’s decision not to change the EHC plan in the SEND Tribunal. You will be able to say what changes you want made to the plan, and why. The SEND Tribunal can consider making: an order for amendments to Sections B, F and/ or I recommendations for Sections C, D, G, and/ or H, and an order for any other changes the SEND Tribunal thinks are needed as a result of amendments to these sections (such as to Section E, to ensure the outcomes are in line with changes to Section F). The SEND Tribunal will be concerned only with the law, including the duty to specify. It will not take into account an LA’s policy or practice of only amending plans at specific times or only if a particular number or threshold of changes are needed. If the SEND Tribunal orders the LA to make changes to an EHC plan, even if it is only one change, the LA must comply and issue an amended EHC plan.
My child is in Year 5. The deadline for the next annual review of my child’s EHC plan is 15 April. When my child starts year 6, what effect will the phase transfer review have on the deadline for when the next review needs to be completed by? Expand When your child is in Year 5, the annual review will need to be completed by 15 April as usual. When your child starts Year 6, your LA should start the phase transfer review process in the autumn term to make sure that it leaves enough time to carry out and complete the review before the phase transfer deadline of 15 February. As an example, if the phase transfer review meeting is held on 1 November, your LA must tell you its decision about the plan within 4 weeks of that meeting (29 November at the latest). Your LA must tell you if it is going to maintain the EHC plan without any changes, change the EHC plan (and what changes the LA is proposing), or cease (stop) the EHC plan. If the deadline for the LA to tell you this decision by is 29 November and the LA sends to you its decision on 25 November, then the review is concluded on that November 25th date. This has the effect of re-setting the clock for annual reviews. The next annual review for your child’s EHC plan in Year 7 must be completed by 25 November, not 29 November or 15 April. The dates for reviews to be completed by for your child would look like this: Year 5 – by 15 April 2024 Year 6 – by 29 November 2024 Year 7 – within 12 months of 25 November 2024 Year 8 – within 12 months of the date the Year 7 annual review was concluded. Remember too, if your LA is going to amend your child’s EHC plan in a phase transfer review it must: send to you its proposed amendments at the same time it tells you its decision to amend the EHC plan give you at least 15 calendar days to comment on the draft plan, ask for a particular school or other institution is named and request a meeting with the LA, and send to you the final EHC plan within 8 weeks of its decision letter (this date must always be by the longstop date of 15 February). In this example, if the LA decided to amend the EHC plan, it must send a final version of it within 8 weeks of its decision letter of 25 November (and not by 15 February).
Chief Executive Expand Madeleine Cassidy, Chief Executive Madeleine joined IPSEA as Chief Executive in November 2024. She is a very experienced charity leader of both small and national charities, having worked in the fields of family services and disability for over 20 years at senior management level. Originating from Dublin, Madeleine's background lies in consumer marketing and social research, and she holds a post-graduate diploma in Marketing and a Masters in Voluntary Sector Management from Bayes Business School, City University of London. Alongside her work with IPSEA, Madeleine has three children, and is a keen swimmer, painter and photographer.
Advice Services Expand Julia Day, Head of Services Julia is our Advice Services Manager and oversees the running of our advice services delivered to parents and carers through a team of volunteers and staff. Julia has over 15 years experience in the charity sector including volunteer management and delivering information services. Julia has two boys at secondary school, both with special education needs. Julia has been a member of her local choir for over 11 years, and makes the most of the stress-busting communal singing and opportunities to perform to friends and family. Anna Lowson, Volunteer Engagement Coordinator Anna works in the advice services team as the volunteer engagement coordinator. She is the first point of contact for volunteers and provides support at all stages of the volunteer role. Before joining IPSEA she was an Early Years teacher. She is mum to three teenagers – the eldest of whom is Autistic. She enjoys peaceful early morning runs, making soup, reading detective and crime novels and being walked by her French Bulldog, Alvin. Charmaine Greenan, Tribunal Support Service Coordinator Charmaine works in the advice services team as the Tribunal Casework Coordinator. She matches up families with volunteers to support them through the tribunal process. She has three children, two of whom are disabled. She enjoys yoga, swimming, reading and walking with her two dogs, Scrappy and Dora. Helen Bishton, Helplines Coordinator Helen works in the advice services team as a Helplines Coordinator. She coordinates the Call In Service. She also trains volunteers, gives advice through other services and is a TSS volunteer. Helen is a retired teacher and senior manager in special schools. In her spare time she enjoys hiking, dancing, sewing, crochet, singing in a choir, theatre and spending time with her three grown up children, family and friends. Shelia Hickerton, Tribunal Support Service Coordinator Sheila works in partnership with Charmaine Greenan as Tribunal Support Service Coordinator. She also volunteers for IPSEA. She has many years experience within SEND from a variety of perspectives including Specialist Family Worker/EHCP Coordinator in a complex needs school, SENDIASS Young Person Advocate and LA SEND Officer roles within several councils. Sheila has 3 adult daughters and 7 grandchildren. One of her grandsons has a diagnosis of autism. He attends an autism resourced provision within a mainstream primary school. Alex Boorer, Helplines Adviser Alex recently joined the team in December 2024 as a Helplines Advisor providing support to parents. Alex was recently a volunteer for Citizens Advice and prior to that worked in professional services for many years before taking a career break to look after her two children, both of whom have SEND. Outside of work and supporting her children, Alex enjoys exercising and ice bathing. Peter Mitchell, Helplines Adviser Peter works in the advice services team as a Helplines Adviser supporting and giving legal advice to parents on all the helplines. Peter holds a post-graduate diploma in Bar Practice from King’s College London and sits as a lay member of Independent Education Admission Appeals Panels in Wales. He also works as a Senior Lecturer in Early Modern English Literature teaching and researching literary texts and history of medicine, on which he has written and edited books and articles. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. When not working, Peter enjoys gardening, art, music, theatre, and walking with his wife in the hills and woods of South Wales. Mitra Babic, Helplines Adviser Mitra works for IPSEA as a Helplines Adviser supporting parents over the phone and by email. Mitra started her career in law and most recently worked in a SEND consultancy business. Mitra has 2 children at school, and a busy family life. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, listening to music and podcasts. Ramandeep Kaur, Community Project Lead Ramandeep's previous work has been with charities on research projects exploring cultural competency and health inequalities. She has presented at conferences and brings her lived experience of being a mum to a young person with a learning disability. Outside of work, she enjoys listening to classical Indian music and history podcasts.
Fundraising and Communications Expand Victoria Lewis, Fundraising Manager Victoria leads IPSEA’s fundraising strategy and activities, with a focus on building relationships and ensuring a sustainable funding pipeline. She has over ten years’ experience in developing fundraising initiatives and strategic partnerships at local and national charities, with expertise in securing major funding for diverse projects, services and causes. Victoria lives in north Cornwall, and in her spare time she loves painting, learning to surf and exploring the coast path with her wire-haired dachshund, Figgy. Charlotte de-Vilder, Campaigns Manager Charlotte is the Campaigns Manager at IPSEA, responsible for leading the organisation’s public engagement to protect and promote the rights of children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). With eight years of experience of Corporate Communications teams, Charlotte has worked on high-profile campaigns across the finance, media and entertainment sectors. As a passionate advocate for SEND rights, Charlotte has also undertaken a voluntary advisory role within a SEND charity. Outside of work, Charlotte can often be found playing in the woods with her two children, or in a yoga class. Holly Johnson, Communications and Fundraising Officer Holly is responsible for helping to develop the IPSEA brand and communicating the services that IPSEA offer, as well as supporting vital donation and fundraising efforts across the country. When Holly is not working, she enjoys travelling and has a true love for the outdoors. Sarah Abbiss, Trusts and Philanthropy Officer Sarah is responsible for building and managing relationships with Trusts and Foundations and helping to strengthen and diversify IPSEA's income streams. Sarah has worked in the charity sector for eighteen years raising funds for children and young people, domestic abuse services, and the arts. When Saran isn't working, she's on family adventures with her children, spending time with friends, walking her furry bestie, or reading.
HR and Finance Expand Carla Bush, HR Manager Carla is the HR Manager at IPSEA. After 23 years in corporate HR, she stepped away from the corporate world in December 2023 to spend more time with her daughter, who is autistic and has ADHD, and to work in a primary school supporting children with special educational needs. Carla now leads the development of HR systems at IPSEA and supports the organisation with all colleague-related matters. Outside of work, she is a fair-weather gardener and enjoys spending time with her family and her two dogs, Suki and Mochi. Sarah Sleigh, Finance Manager Sarah is a Chartered Accountant and manages IPSEA's finance team. Having completed her training in the public sector audit team at PwC, Sarah has continued to work in and around public services so brings over 10 years experience of working in finance in a heavily regulated environment. The finance team work across the organisation providing financial support and ensuring strong financial governance is embedded within IPSEAs processes. Nicola Stevenson, Finance Administrator Nicola is our Finance Administrator. She is responsible for day to day finance administration activities. She has a focus on invoicing, notably for our training courses, and banking. Nicola supports Sarah in IPSEA’s financial management and reporting requirements. Nicola is currently working towards her AAT Level 2 certificate in Accounting. When not at work, Nicola is busy looking after her family.
Legal and Training Expand Wendy Rainbow, Legal Team Manager Wendy is a solicitor and manages IPSEA’s legal team. The legal team trains IPSEA's volunteers as well as supervising and assisting them with legal queries, case work support and tribunal advice. The team also delivers training to parent and carer groups and other organisations helping their members understand their legal rights under the SEND statutory framework, as well as bespoke training courses for other professionals in the SEND field advising them on their legal obligations to children and young people. Working with IPSEA's policy manager, the legal team seeks to influence national policy and legal developments in SEND law as well as effecting change within individual local authorities. Alex Stafford, Senior Solicitor Alex is a solicitor in IPSEA's legal team. She is responsible for delivering training to new volunteers and ongoing training to existing volunteers. She delivers IPSEA's programme of external training to parents, schools, SEN specialists and local authorities. As well as training, Alex also provides legal support to the IPSEA volunteers and monitors and supervises their case work and helpline advice as well as supporting the provision of legal updates. Alex creates legally based written resources and is part of the team undertaking national and local policy work. Alex enjoys running, hiking and attempting yoga. Kate Cox, Senior Solicitor As a member of the legal team, Kate provides legal support to volunteers and supervises their helpline and Tribunal Support Service work. She also writes monthly updates for the volunteers, ensuring they are kept up to date with legal and policy changes. She helps maintain IPSEA’s legal resources and briefings, and provides training to parents and carers as well as professionals. Kate also supports the policy team in their work. In her spare time, Kate loves to have her nose in a new book, getting outside and exercising, and playing with her two sons. Lisa Coaten, Legal Team Member As a member of the legal team, Lisa works with volunteers training them, providing legal support and supervising their work on the helplines and Tribunal Support Service. She also delivers training to parents, carers and professionals, and helps the team to keep IPSEA’s legal resources up to date. Outside of work, Lisa enjoys going to the theatre, planning family holidays and is currently studying for her Masters. Maria Bloom, Legal Team Member Maria has worked for organisations providing legally based advice and information about special educational needs since 1997. As part of IPSEA's legal team Maria works with IPSEA's volunteers delivering training to them whether they are new or existing. She also provides them with legal support and is responsible for monitoring and supervising their work and assisting them by providing legal updates. Maria also delivers IPSEA's programme of external training to parents, SEN experts, schools and local authorities as well as creating legally based written resources. Maria is Vice Chair of Governors at a local authority maintained Primary school where, not surprisingly, she takes the lead on SEN issues. Liz Devlin, Legal Team Member Liz is a member of IPSEA’s Legal Team. She provides legal support to new and existing volunteers and supervises and monitors the advice provided on IPSEA’s helplines. She also delivers SEND Law training to parents, carers and professionals across the country. As part of IPSEA’s Policy Team, Liz gets involved in both local and national policy work and contributes to creating content which is shared on our social media platforms. Liz’s role includes reviewing and updating the IPSEA website to ensure information is kept current and she enjoys creating new website resources for parents and young people to use, such as template letters Outside of work, Liz advocates and cares for her son, who is Autistic and has special educational needs. Liz enjoys spinning, walking, cycling and spending quality time with family. Lauren Crowson, Solicitor Apprentice As a member of the legal team, Lauren provides legal advice, casework support, and representation to parents, young people and carers on IPSEA’s helplines and before the First Tier Tribunal. Lauren researches and updates content for IPSEA’s website, e-learning and training legal resources. Lauren recently graduated with a first class law degree. She is currently studying with BPP University in preparation for the SQE. Outside of work, Lauren enjoys spending time with her young children, family outings, skiing holidays and reading. Megan Day, Solicitor Apprentice Megan is one of two solicitor apprentices in the legal team at IPSEA. Her role involves providing legal advice and casework support to parents, carers and young people on the IPSEA helplines and before the First Tier Tribunal. Megan is a recent graduate from the University of Hull after completing her Law degree and a Master's degree in Criminal Justice and Crime Control. She is currently studying with BPP in preparation for her Solicitor’s Qualifying Exam. When not working Megan enjoys holidaying abroad, reading thriller novels, live music and spending time with friends and family. Laurie Ali Moxham, Training and Policy Officer Laurie is a training coordinator for IPSEA, ensuring anyone who wants to sign up for a training day finds what they’re looking for and has a great experience. With a background in educational policy and campaigning, they also assist the Policy Team in research and administration. Their interest in policy and the law started while studying art history, where they specialised in art as a means of protest. Laurie has experience working with children with SEND and lives with a physical disability. In their spare time, they enjoy computer gaming, playing DnD and reading historical fiction. Catherine Thomasson, Training Team Supervisor Catherine is a Learning & Development professional with 12 years of experience designing and delivering impactful training programs for a Health & Social Care charity. At IPSEA, she works closely with Laurie to coordinate both face-to-face and online training, supporting the organization’s mission to provide high-quality SEND Law education. With a focus on enhancing the learner experience, Catherine combines her expertise in training management with a strategic approach to drive meaningful outcomes. Outside of work, she enjoys running, pilates, yoga, and is an active member of a local book club
Policy Expand Catriona Moore, Policy Manager Catriona is responsible for IPSEA’s work in bringing about change by influencing the development of SEND policy nationally. Her background is in public policy and communications, and she has worked for a number of charities and public sector organisations, as well as in Parliament. In the past she has served as an elected councillor in a London borough, a special school governor and a charity trustee. She has personal experience of having a disabled child. In her spare time, she enjoys walking, reading, going to the theatre and being by the sea.
My final evidence deadline is soon but I am still waiting for an assessment to take place. Can I submit the report as evidence even if this is after the deadline? Does the SEND Tribunal accept late evidence? Expand The evidence deadline has some flexibility. If arrangements have been made for a particular assessment beyond that deadline, then you can ask the SEND Tribunal to extend this deadline using the Request for Change form (Form SEND 7) (having sought the LA’s view first). This may result in a postponement of the hearing. However, if your hearing date is some time away and extending the deadline should not impact it, when you ask for the deadline to be extended (please see below), you should explain this and ask for the hearing date to remain the same. You need to let the SEND Tribunal know. The SEND Tribunal will not be happy with a parent or young person who does not tell them about a report which is due after the evidence deadline, particularly when they have known about the delay for some time. Full disclosure should be made to the SEND Tribunal when an assessment is to be carried out, including the date the report is due and any delays encountered. It is possible to apply for late evidence to be submitted after this deadline, including bringing late evidence on the day. However, it will be up to the SEND Tribunal as to whether or not this should be accepted. In deciding whether to accept your report as late evidence, the SEND Tribunal will consider: why the evidence was submitted late and whether it could have been submitted earlier, so say why it is being submitted late whether the evidence is relevant, so explain why it is relevant whether the evidence is in dispute, whether it could be offered orally, or other factors, so address these and all relevant factors, and whether it is fair and just to exclude the evidence, so explain why it would not be fair and just to exclude the evidence. If you need to submit evidence after the final evidence deadline, you should use the Request for Change form (Form SEND 7) (having sought the LA’s view first) to ask the SEND Tribunal to accept it. The additional evidence should be submitted alongside the Request for Change form, rather than waiting for a response from the SEND Tribunal, so send it at the same time as your form. For guidance on what to cover in your request see our information on late evidence. If the SEND Tribunal refuses permission the additional evidence will simply be disregarded.
My local authority has said it is going to amend my child’s EHC plan following the annual review. I don’t agree with the local authority’s proposed changes. When can I appeal? Expand If you are not happy with the changes your local authority (LA) is making, you can appeal your child’s EHC plan once it is issued. You cannot appeal before this point (for example when your LA writes to tell you it has decided to amend the plan). If your LA is late to issue the final amended EHC plan, you can take action. You will need to make sure your appeal is sent to the SEND Tribunal within 2 months of the date on the LA’s letter enclosing the final EHC plan or one month from the date on the mediation certificate, whichever is later. Please see our pages on how to submit an appeal and contents appeals for more information.
My local authority’s decision letter is dated 1 October and my mediation certificate is dated 29 November. Are there any special rules about when appeals must be submitted over the Christmas period? Are there other times when the deadline changes? Expand Yes there are. Generally speaking appeals need to be submitted within 2 months of the date on the decision letter or one month from the date on the mediation certificate, whichever is later. Christmas holidays In your case your decision letter is 1 October, so the 2 months’ timescale expires on 1 December. Your mediation certificate is dated 29 November and the one month expires on 29 December. This is the later of the two dates. Therefore your appeal needs to be submitted over the Christmas period. There are special rules for this. If the two months/one month deadline ends on or between 25 December to 1 January, as in your case, you have until the next working day in January to appeal. Therefore, you have until the next working day in January to submit your appeal form. Summer holidays The only other time the deadline for appeals to be made changes slightly is if the two months/one month deadline ends in August, then you have until the first working day in September to get your appeal form to the SEND Tribunal. Please note that these changes to the deadline apply to SEN appeals in the SEND Tribunal. They do not apply to claims about disability discrimination in the SEND Tribunal.
I am appealing my child’s EHC plan. Do I check to see if I am eligible for legal aid in my name as the parent, or if my child is eligible for legal aid in their name? Expand Eligible people can obtain funding for ‘Legal Help’ for appeals to the SEND Tribunal from the Legal Aid Agency. Legal Help covers the preparation of the case (from submitting the appeal form through to preparation for the hearing) but does not cover representation at the hearing (unless in exceptional circumstances). You will want to check to see if you are eligible for this support in your name. This is because where the case concerns a child and the parents have the right of appeal, the means of the parents will be assessed. You can check your eligibility online: https://www.gov.uk/check-legal-aid and you should do this even if you think you might not be eligible, just in case you are. If you are eligible for Legal Help, a solicitor can draft and submit your appeal form for you. Even if you have already submitted the appeal form, you should see if you can get Legal Help to assist with the preparation of the evidence for the appeal. Legal Help can also cover the cost of obtaining private reports as evidence to support your case.
My child lives with me and has no contact with my ex-partner. Will the appeal paperwork go to my ex-partner as well? What can I do if this not appropriate? Expand If you share parental responsibility for your child with another person, you should supply the names and addresses of those persons on your appeal form where it asks you to. This is only “if possible”. If you have a reason for not wishing to include this information, then you should say so and why. Alternatively, you can provide the name and contact details for your ex-partner if it is possible but still explain why they should not receive details of the appeal. This form will be copied to the local authority and distributed as part of the documents for the hearing (known as the ‘bundle’). This is also the case if you were to share care of the child with another person and consider they should not receive details of the appeal.
I am a foster carer caring for a child with an EHC plan. The EHC plan does not contain all the support they need. Can I appeal the EHC plan? Expand Yes. In education law, the term “parent” includes: people with parental responsibility of a child or young person, as well as people who have care of a child or young person (for example, a grandparent who a child lives with or a foster carer). This is what “parent” means in the law and guidance about special educational needs including the Children and Families Act 2014, The SEND Regulations 2014 and the SEND Code of Practice 2015. Therefore you are considered a “parent” and have rights in section 51 of the Children and Families Act 2014 to make an appeal as such. Please also note the rules for legal aid are different for foster carers and you are likely to be eligible. Please see our information for foster carers on our website to find out more.
The deadline for my appeal to be made has passed. Am I too late to try to appeal? Expand An SEN appeal has to be received by the SEND Tribunal within two months from the date on the decision letter/ letter enclosing the final EHC plan or one month from the date on the mediation certificate, whichever is the later. If you missed the deadline, the SEND Tribunal may still allow you to submit it late. The SEND Tribunal has the discretion to extend these time limits if the letter that the LA sent to you informing you of its decision did not tell you everything it was required to, such as: your right of appeal to the SEND Tribunal the time limit within which the appeal must be made the availability of dispute resolution arrangements, and/or the fact that use of such arrangements does not prejudice the right to appeal Double-check whether the decision letter you received contains all the necessary information. You can check this on our pages. If the appeal is out of time, the form should be submitted as soon as possible explaining why it is late. If that was because the LA’s decision letter did not contain all the necessary information, make that clear. You will want to explain what special circumstances apply and why it would be fair and just to allow an extension of the deadline. A SEND Tribunal judge will then consider the appeal form and may allow an extension if there are special circumstances, and it is fair and just to do so.
When does the SEND Tribunal send a copy of my appeal to my local authority? When does it have to respond? Expand The SEND Tribunal will start processing your appeal by registering it. If the appeal is not registered because key information and/or documents are missing, it will be sent back to you with a list of what is required and a reminder that an extension of the deadline for making the appeal may be required. You will receive a registration letter, as will your local authority (LA). The registration letter contains very important information called “Case Directions” and should be read very carefully. While sending the registration letter, the SEND Tribunal will also send a copy of your appeal to your LA. Within 30 working days of the appeal being sent to it, the LA must respond to the grounds of appeal. Your LA must send its response to you and the SEND Tribunal at the same time.
My local authority has responded to my appeal but the response does not contain everything it was required to provide. What can I do? Expand Your local authority (LA) must make sure its response addresses the points and provide all the information that was listed at the end of the registration letter and Case Directions. If your LA does not include in the response everything that the SEND Tribunal directed, you should submit a Request for Changes form (Form SEND 7) (having sought the LA’s view first) to ask the SEND Tribunal to direct the LA to provide the missing information. You can find out more information about Request for Changes forms on our website.
I have an appeal underway but we are moving to a different area. What will that mean for my appeal? Expand If you are moving to live in another local authority (LA) mid-way through a SEND Tribunal appeal you must inform the SEND Tribunal immediately. The SEND Tribunal will then contact the new LA to tell them about the appeal and the new LA may be substituted (replaced or exchanged) as a party to the appeal as if the new LA had made the decision. In an appeal about the contents of an EHC plan: the SEND Tribunal will usually suspend (pause) the appeal to allow the new LA to follow the transfer of an EHC plan process which involves reviewing the plan and may include a re-assessment. The new LA will have between three and twelve months to complete a review of the EHC plan. Therefore, moving LAs mid-way through a contents appeal could cause significant delay to the appeal's conclusion. If you are still unhappy with the plan following this transfer process, the SEND Tribunal should reinstate (restart) the appeal and at that point substitute or replace the new LA as the other party. The old LA will take no further part in the appeal. You could ask the SEND Tribunal to consider substituting or replacing the new LA as party to the appeal without first reviewing the plan, especially if the matter is urgent. You will want to state any reasons why delay would prejudice your child and would not be in the interests of fairness. There will be a new timetable for supplying evidence. If the appeal is about the previous LA’s refusal to assess or refusal to issue an EHC plan the new LA will be substituted as a party to the appeal immediately, unless there are good reasons why it should not take over the appeal. There will be a new timetable for supplying evidence, however.
I have a privately instructed report from an educational psychologist I want to submit as part of my evidence. Will the SEND Tribunal give more weight to my report compared to my local authority’s commissioned report? Expand Sometimes parents and young people decide that an additional expert report is required to support their case during an appeal. These can be funded via Legal Help if the parent or young person is eligible or paid for privately. Private reports won’t be given any less or more weight than an NHS or LA-commissioned report just because they are private. The SEND Tribunal is concerned only with whether the report-writer has the relevant expertise to make the recommendations in the report. The SEND Tribunal has guidance for expert witnesses’ reports: SEND Tribunal: if you're asked to be a witness - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). It also has certain requirements for expert reports, in terms of length, format, and age. You can find out more on this on our evidence and bundle page. In addition, the barristers’ chambers, 3 Paper Buildings, have produced Top ten tips for getting the most from SEN expert witnesses which may be helpful to consider if experts are commissioned. Please see: Top-ten-tips-for-getting-the-most-from-SEN-expert-witnesses-Matthew-Wyard.docx.pdf (3pb.co.uk).
I am not eligible for Legal Help to help pay for reports and cannot afford to pay for private reports in my appeal. How else can I access information and the evidence that I need to support my appeal? Expand Asking your local authority You can ask your local authority (LA) to provide details of the help that it expects schools to provide using our template letter 17. This is explained in more detail in the refusal to assess appeals pack and the refusal to issue EHC plan appeals pack, as this information is particularly helpful in these types of appeals. Asking the SEND Tribunal for a direction or order The SEND Tribunal has certain powers to require someone to provide you with information. It can: · Permit or require a party or another person to provide documents, information or submissions to the SEND Tribunal or a party to the proceedings. This could include information from a school, from a therapist, or from social care or health care for example. · Order any person to answer any question or produce any document in that person’s possession or control which relates to any issue in the appeal. Again, this is not simply limited to the LA. It could include a wide range of people. You can ask the SEND Tribunal to direct that the LA arranges a specific assessment to provide further evidence (using the Request for Changes form) although some SEND Tribunal registrars and judges (but not all) take the view that the SEND Tribunal does not have the power to order an LA to carry out a new assessment. For this reason, we suggest you phrase the request as a request for information on a specific issue rather than an assessment. A request for an assessment is more likely to be successful where the appeal follows an EHC needs assessment which was not conducted properly; for example, where the LA failed to obtain evidence from an educational psychologist. This could be helpful where there is no up-to-date evidence about the child or young person, despite a clear need for such evidence, and the parents or young person are unable to obtain private reports. Be aware too that LAs should submit both evidence which is unhelpful to their case as well as evidence which supports its case. This has been confirmed by case law. The role of an education authority as a public body at such a hearing is to assist the SEND Tribunal by making all relevant information available. Its role is not to provide only so much information as to assist its own case. At the hearing, the LA should place all of its cards on the table, including those which might assist your case. So, if the LA has information which is helpful to you, it must still submit it. Asking school/ college for information Parents of pupils at maintained schools (mainstream or special) and non-maintained special schools have a right to a copy of their child’s educational record. If you believe your child’s school record includes some key evidence, you can ask the school for a copy of this. You can use our template letter 18 to help you. If your appeal is about your LA’s refusal to assess or refusal to issue an EHC plan, you can ask for detailed information about the school’s or college’s SEN budget and provision and the number of children/young people it covers can be requested. You can use our template letter 19 to help you. The SEN Information Report (which maintained schools, maintained nursery schools and Academies must produce and publish on their website) must set out the type and extent of special educational provision that they can provide. You could also obtain information through the Data Protection Act 2018 or the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
I am not sure which witnesses I need to ask to attend my hearing. Are there any rules or guidance about witnesses attending a SEND Tribunal appeal? Expand You will need to think carefully about who you would like as witness(es). Generally, a witness will only be helpful if they have knowledge of your child in a relevant professional context. If you are asking for speech and language therapy provision to be included in section F for example, a speech and language therapist who says your child needs the provision you are seeking who is currently working with them may be a very helpful witness. If your appeal involves section I (placement) it is very helpful (if not essential) to have a witness from your choice of school, especially if it is an independent school. Although there is no legal bar on the number of witnesses, SEND Tribunal practice is to limit the number of witnesses in an SEN appeal to three. If you want more witnesses than that, then an application will need to be made for the additional witnesses with reasons. Use the Request for Change form (SEND7) to make this request and see information about how to do this on our key forms page. If you have someone who would be helpful to attend as a witness and they are willing to attend but feel constrained unless they are ordered to attend (for example, a teacher who wants to support the family but has been told by their employer they cannot attend) then you can apply to the SEND Tribunal for a witness summons. This application for a witness summons should be made using the Request for Change form, or form SEND30: Request for a Witness Summons. It should be requested well in advance of the hearing (unless the SEND Tribunal directs otherwise, a summons must give the witness at least 14 days’ notice of the hearing). The name and address of the witness will need to be given, but this can be their workplace address. It will be necessary to say why this person’s evidence is important and why they might not attend voluntarily. If granted, the summons will be sent to you and it is your responsibility to serve it on the witness (as in make sure they get it). All witnesses can claim travel expenses and a fixed amount for loss of earnings from the SEND Tribunal. Witnesses will normally stay for the whole hearing. If a witness can only attend part of a hearing, the SEND Tribunal may accommodate this. The sooner a party requests the SEND Tribunal do so the better. Judicial guidance explains that witnesses will not be allowed to attend the hearing unless they have previously provided a written report or witness statement as written evidence. Make sure any witnesses you decide to ask to attend refer to the SEND Tribunal’s guidance ‘if you're asked to be a witness’ when writing their statement/report and that their report or statement includes everything requested. There are also certain requirements for witness statements and professional reports, in terms of length, format, and age. You can find out more on this on our evidence and bundle page.
If the SEND Tribunal orders a school be named in an EHC plan, can that setting refuse to admit my child? Expand For most types of schools or institutions, if they are named in an EHC plan they have a legal duty to admit your child or young person under section 43 Children and Families Act 2014. This duty applies to: a maintained school or nursery (mainstream or special) an Academy (mainstream or special) an institution in the Further Education sector a non-maintained special school, and a section 41 school. Even if the setting disagrees about being named in an EHC plan (including if it is pursuing a challenge against the LA through the courts or via the Secretary of State) unless and until the EHC plan is amended, the duty to admit applies (see, for example, N v Governors of a School [2014] EWHC 1238 (Admin)). Any setting that refuses to admit a child or young person whose EHC plan names that setting, will be acting unlawfully and could be challenged by judicial review. The only time a setting does not have a legal duty to admit your child or young person is if the school is an independent one. The SEND Tribunal cannot order an independent setting to be named without an offer of a place from the school.
Can the SEND Tribunal order a school to be named even if the school hasn’t agreed to being named? Expand This depends on the type of setting. The SEND Tribunal has no power to name a wholly independent school against its wishes because there is no duty in the Children and Families Act 2014 on such schools to admit a child or young person where they are named in section I of an EHC plan. If you want to ask for an independent setting to be named in an EHC plan, you will need the setting to have offered a place and you will need to send this consent or offer of a place with your appeal form. If you are asking for: a maintained school or nursery (mainstream or special) an Academy (mainstream or special) an institution in the Further Education sector a non-maintained special school, or a section 41 school, then proof of consent to be named or an offer of a place is not required, but you will have to tell the school that you are asking the SEND Tribunal to name it, and submit that notification letter or email to the SEND Tribunal with your appeal paperwork.
My local authority has named a school I don’t agree with and I want to appeal section I of my child’s EHC plan. What does a local authority have to consider when naming a school in an EHC plan? Expand You have the conditional right to ask that: a maintained school or nursery (mainstream or special) an Academy (mainstream or special) an institution in the Further Education sector a non-maintained special school, or a section 41 school, is named in your child’s EHC plan. Your local authority (LA) can only refuse this request if there is a lawful reason to do so. These reasons are: the setting is unsuitable for the age, aptitude, ability or special educational needs of your child, or your child’s attendance there would be incompatible with the: efficient education of others, or efficient use of resources. You can learn more about these reasons on our choosing a school/ college pages, and find these reasons in section 39(4) of the Children and Families Act 2014. In an appeal, if the LA says it has not, and will not, name the setting you requested for one of these reasons, you should use evidence to show the LA and SEND Tribunal why the reason does not apply. If your LA decides that one of these reasons applies, then it must name an appropriate setting and type, or simply an appropriate type of setting, in the EHC plan. This is a legal requirement found in section 39(5) of the Children and Families Act 2014. Therefore if you wish to appeal the naming of the LA’s choice of school, you will want to show with evidence why that setting or the type is not appropriate for your child. When challenging the LA's choice of school, your arguments should not focus on whether attendance at the LA's choice would be an inefficient use of resources or education of others for example because the above reasons do not apply to the LA's choice. You will want to demonstrate why that setting is not appropriate, for example by highlighting evidence from its prospectus and SEN information report that show that it would not be an appropriate setting, and why. This means, in this type of appeal you may be making two arguments: that your choice of setting should be named in the EHC plan because no lawful reason for refusing it applies and the LA's choice of setting is inappropriate anyway. If the school or college you would like named is wholly independent (in other words, its not one of the types in listed above), please see our information on asking for an independent nursery school or college. For more information on appeals about the school or other setting named in an EHC plan, see our downloadable fact sheet.
I want to appeal section I (placement) of my child’s EHC plan but I have not yet found a particular school that I want to ask be named. What should I do? Expand In any case where the appeal concerns section I, you should include relevant information about the school or institution you want to be named with the appeal. This should include the Ofsted report, any prospectus, any reports or assessments about your child which the school or other institution has produced, and details of the costs of the placement. If you want your appeal to include section I (placement) but have not found a school you want to ask the SEND Tribunal to name, then describe the type of setting you would prefer in section I on your appeal form, such as ‘mainstream’ or ‘special’. You can say you are currently researching options or waiting for responses from settings. The SEND Tribunal, when it registers your case, will probably direct you to provide details of the specific institution that you wish the SEND Tribunal to name by a particular date. If you find a specific setting you would like named which matches the type of setting you described on the appeal form, you don’t need to amend your grounds of appeal. You should: tell the LA and SEND Tribunal of this via email, and enclose the offer of a place if it’s a wholly independent school, and check the directions in case the SEND Tribunal imposed a deadline for doing so and for what other information about the school you are required to submit. If you find a particular setting which is a different type to that described on the appeal form, for example in the description box you indicated you wanted mainstream and are now seeking a special school, a Request for Changes form (SEND7) asking to amend the grounds of appeal will be required.
What happens if my child cannot attend school and I am threatened with an Attendance Order? Expand If you are being threatened with an Attendance Order because of your child’s absences from school, you should write to the relevant person or department (which is likely to be the Educational Welfare Service) to explain that your child has a medical condition and this medical condition is preventing them from attending school. You can suggest to them that serving an Attendance Order in these circumstances would be premature and inappropriate, and what is needed is co-ordinated action by support agencies to identify and make provision for all of your child’s needs. Hopefully, once everyone involved realises that your child’s non-attendance is to do with their medical needs rather than deliberate truancy, the threat will be withdrawn. If your local authority (LA) continues with the threat of serving an Attendance Order, or actually serves it, you can speak to with a criminal solicitor who is familiar with education cases. You should ask them if you would qualify for criminal legal aid. You could also contact Citizens Advice.
My 9 year old child has a long term medical condition which means they can’t manage full-time attendance at school. The school records them as absent due to illness and says they can’t agree to an indefinite part-time timetable. Is this true? Expand Education can be provided partly at school and partly elsewhere The statutory guidance Working together to improve school attendance (applicable from 19 August 2024) confirms that part-time timetables must be temporary and have a proposed end date (paragraphs 66 and 67). However, as explained at paragraph 65 of this guidance, in some circumstances a pupil’s education may be provided partially at school and partially somewhere else. Schools have to tell local authorities (LAs) about sickness absences As your child is of compulsory school age, has been recorded as absent due to illness and there are reasonable grounds to believe they will have to miss 15 school days or more in the school year, the school has a legal duty tell your LA this as soon as possible. This is called making a sickness return and the school must do this (regulation 13(9) of The School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 and paragraph 58 of Working together to improve school attendance). The 15 days don’t have to be consecutive (in one block), for example it could be made up of one day off per week. LAs have to make sure children get full-time education Your LA has a legal duty to secure suitable, full-time alternative education for children of compulsory school age who would not otherwise receive it due to illness, exclusion or another reason (section 19 of the Education Act 1996). The statutory guidance called 'Arranging education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs' says (on page 7) as soon as it is clear that a child will be away from school for 15 days or more (consecutive or not) because of their health needs, the LA should arrange suitable alternative provision. When an LA arranges alternative education, it should begin as soon as it is possible, and at the latest by the sixth day of the child’s absence from school. Where an absence is planned, LAs must make suitable, timely arrangements in advance to allow provision to begin from day one, unless exceptional circumstances apply. The statutory guidance 'Arranging education for children who cannot attend school because of health needs' confirms (on page 9) that this applies whether a child is on the roll of a school or not and whatever type of school they attend. This means that once your child’s school makes a sickness return informing the LA that your child will miss at least 15 school days over the school year, the LA’s duty to provide alternative education to supplement their school attendance will apply. This does not mean the LA will provide a full day’s education; it could provide a few hours of one-to-one tuition. The guidance says where possible, children with health needs should receive education which is equivalent to the education they would receive in a mainstream school and that one-to-one face-to-face provision could be fewer hours than the usual school day as the education may be more intensive (pages 9 and 10). If you’re not sure if the school has made the sickness return, ask it for a copy of it (it may help to share this webpage with the school). You can contact the LA directly to request alternative education too and we have a template letter which may help. An EHC plan can provide more or different support Where a child is not able to access school, this indicates that more or different support is needed than they are currently receiving. If it is not foreseeable that your child will be able to attend school full-time and they do not have an EHC plan you can make a request for an EHC needs assessment, in order to ensure that their special educational needs are properly identified and the required special educational provision can be put in place. This may be to enable them to attend school full-time with that support, or to demonstrate that receiving all of their educational provision at any school would be inappropriate, in which case the education that they would receive out of school (known as education otherwise or EOTIS) would be set out in an EHC plan. An EHC plan is a legal document that parents can enforce if there are any issues with their child receiving the special educational provision set out within it. If your child already has an EHC plan, your LA has a legal duty to secure all of the special educational provision in it. Your LA must be closely involved in any decision about placement in alternative education, and any alternative education arrangements should be made to ensure that this provision continues to be delivered (page 13 of Alternative Provision government guidance). If your child is not receiving the provision in it, please see our information on enforcing it. Even if they are, it may be appropriate to ask the LA to make changes to the EHC plan to better support your child’s needs and enable them to attend school full-time or have some of their education via EOTIS. The LA’s duty to secure alternative education under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 applies to compulsory school age children regardless of whether or not they have an EHC plan. Getting or changing an EHC plan takes time and the duty under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 is a safety net to prevent a child who would otherwise miss education from doing so in the meantime.
My child’s school says it can’t authorise her absence due to illness because I haven’t been able to provide a letter from a Consultant. Can it do this? Expand There’s no rule that evidence from a consultant must be provided for absence due to illness to be authorised. In fact, in most cases medical evidence isn’t required. The statutory guidance Working together to improve school attendance (applicable from 19 August 2024) says that schools are not expected to routinely request that parents provide medical evidence to support illness absences. In the majority of cases a parent’s notification that their child is too ill to attend school will be that evidence and can be accepted without question or concern. Only where the school has genuine and reasonable doubt about the authenticity of the illness should medical evidence be requested to support the absence (paragraph 365). This guidance goes on to say that where medical evidence is deemed necessary, schools should not be rigid about the form of evidence requested and should speak to the family about what evidence is available. Schools should be mindful that requesting additional medical evidence unnecessarily places pressure on health professionals, their staff and their appointment system, particularly if the illness is one that does not require treatment by a health professional. Where a parent cannot provide evidence in the form requested but can provide other evidence, schools should take this into account. Where a parent cannot provide any written evidence the school should have a conversation with the parent and pupil, if appropriate, which may in itself serve as the necessary evidence to record the absence (paragraph 366). It may help to refer your child’s school to this guidance and to point out that because it is “statutory” the school must have regard to it.
Cease to maintain EHC plans Expand AB v East Sussex County Council [2024] UKUT 87 (AAC): The SEND Tribunal’s decision to uphold a local authority’s (LA) cease to maintain decision was unlawful. The Upper Tribunal (UT) confirmed that: the first step is to identify and consider the special educational provision required before moving on to considering whether it is no longer required, or what the appropriate setting may be an LA (or the SEND Tribunal in its shoes) should ask itself whether a child or young person would meet the test for preparing and maintaining an EHC plan in the first instance. If the answer is ‘yes’, an EHC plan would necessary under section 37(1) CFA 2014, it will be difficult for the LA or SEND Tribunal to reach a conclusion that it is no longer necessary for an EHC plan to be maintained considering whether outcomes have been achieved must not be treated as a ‘tick box’ exercise. The LA/ SEND Tribunal must properly have regard to whether the education or training outcomes specified in the plan have been achieved the LA/ SEND Tribunal must not focus simply on the academic learning element of education but must consider the broader view of education and training set out in section 2 and 15ZA(8) of the Education Act 1996 and section 21 of the CFA 2014, and if SEND Regulation 30 is relevant (due to the young person being 18 or over, not attending their placement and not receiving education or training) and the wishes of the young person have not been obtained, then in an appeal the SEND Tribunal should be proactive in seeking that input from the young person. B & M v Cheshire East Council [2018] UKUT 232 (AAC): A local authority (LA) argued that it was allowed to cease to maintain an EHC plan because the young person had achieved the outcomes in the plan. The Upper Tribunal (UT) considered that this was not, in itself, enough to cease to maintain an EHC plan, and that LAs should carefully consider whether they have sufficient up to date information about a young person before deciding to cease to maintain an EHC plan. The UT also gave guidance on regulation 30(1) of The SEND Regulations 2014, which sets out circumstances in which an LA may not cease to maintain an EHC plan where the person is aged 18 or over. EM v Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead: [2024] UKUT 317 (AAC): The LA decided to cease to maintain a young person’s EHC plan and the reasons for this decision were that he would be better supported in an adult care environment, he had received intensive provision and made (relatively) small progress, and future progress would not be significant. The Upper Tribunal confirmed that when considering if an EHC plan is necessary, the law does not require a person to be able to reach a certain level of progress or for certain skills to reach a particular level. A decision to cease an EHC plan cannot be based on whether the person’s level of progress justifies or is in proportion to the amount of provision. The potential for learning may be a relevant factor when thinking about necessity but a specified amount of potential is not: a particular level of learning potential is not essential for an EHC plan to be needed. This case also covers the requirement for the SEND Tribunal to provide adequate reasons for its decisions. Hampshire County Council v (1) GC (2) GC (SEND): [2024] UKUT 128 (AAC): In this case, the Upper Tribunal: decided that a decision to cease to maintain, or stop, an EHC plan will be invalid if it is taken in breach of the procedural requirements of regulation 31 of The SEND Regulations 2014 disadvantaging the parent/young person dealt with what being in a local authority’s (LA) area means for the purposes of an LA being “responsible” for a child or young person under the Children and Families Act (CFA) 2014. Being in an LA’s area may involve physical presence, but this isn’t the definitive test: The question involves considering whether the child or young person is ordinarily or habitually resident in that area (even if there is a temporary absence – in this case, caused by the parent’s deployment overseas as part of the Royal Navy), and confirmed LAs always have discretion under section 45 CFA 2014 to continue to maintain a plan where they are “no longer responsible” for a child or young person. In this case, that discretion didn’t apply because the child was found to still be in the LA’s area. Where the LA remains responsible for a plan but the child or young person is absent from the area overseas, then the LA could simply maintain the status quo pending the family’s return to the UK.
Can school stop my 13-year-old from attending equine therapy once a week, even though the LA agreed to it, because it's an unregistered alternative provision? My child doesn't have an EHC plan and is in the process of having an EHC needs assessment. Expand The statutory guidance Working together to improve school attendance (applicable from 19 August 2024) confirms (at paragraph 65) that in some circumstances a pupil’s education may be provided partially at school and partially somewhere else. It confirms that schools have responsibilities for the safeguarding and welfare of pupils attending an approved educational activity outside of school. However, “unregistered alternative provision arranged by the school” is an example of an approved educational activity in the guidance (paragraph 311). A school is permitted to arrange this if it is satisfied that “the activity is supervised by a person considered by the school to have the appropriate skills, training, experience and knowledge to ensure that the activity takes place safely and fulfils the educational purpose for which the pupil’s attendance has been approved.” (paragraph 310). There’s a specific code (code B) that the school has to use to record a child’s attendance in these circumstances (regulation 10(3) and 10(11) of The School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024). However, if the local authority (LA) has agreed to arrange this provision, rather than the school, the LA may be doing so because of its duty under section 19 of the Education Act 1996. This duty means LAs must secure suitable, full-time education for children of compulsory school age who would not otherwise receive it. LAs can fulfil this duty by providing education outside of school on the days a child will not be at school. As this is the LA’s duty, it’s the LA (not school’s) decision whether your child can have equine therapy. The School Attendance (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2024 has introduced a new attendance code for recording attendance at education provision arranged by the LA. Regulation 10(3) requires the school to use code K if a pupil is attending a place arranged by a local authority under its duty to secure: suitable, full-time alternative education for children of compulsory school age who would not otherwise receive it due to illness, exclusion or another reason (section 19 of the Education Act 1996) the special educational provision in section F of an EHC plan (section 42(2) of the Children and Families Act (CFA) 2014), or any special educational provision that it has decided is necessary for a child or young person for whom it is responsible to be made otherwise than in a school or post-16 institution (section 61 of the CFA 2014). Therefore, if the LA arranges your child’s equine therapy because it has a duty to, the school can’t stop it and must record that your child is attending provision arranged by the LA in the register using code K. If equine therapy is required to meet your child’s special educational needs, it will count as special educational provision. During the EHC needs assessment, you can make the case that it is not something mainstream schools provide from within their own resources and an EHC plan is necessary for your child to be able to access it long term. If the LA agrees to issue your child with an EHC plan and equine therapy is required to meet her needs, make sure it is described specifically in section F. Please see our information on what an EHC plan contains and what to do when you receive a draft EHC plan for more information.
Education otherwise than in a school (EOTIS) Expand Derbyshire CC v EM and DM (SEN) [2019] UKUT 240 (AAC): Where a child or young person requires full time ‘education otherwise than in school’ (EOTIS, sometimes known as EOTAS) at home, the special educational provision and EOTIS package should be set out in section F. section I should be left blank, as there is no setting to be attended. NN v Cheshire East Council (SEN) [2021] UKUT 220 (AAC): It makes clear that if a child will be present at a school for at least part of the time, they will be attending it and so the school must be specified in section I of their EHC plan. This includes if the child will be attending provision provided by the school as part of a bespoke package outside of the conventional classroom setting. This case also confirms earlier case law on what counts as a school that only the type and name of setting can be included in section I of an EHC plan on how the decision of whether education other wise than in a school (EOTIS) must be made, and that where full time EOTIS at home is made section I will be blank and the special educational provision will be described in section F. TM v Hounslow [2009] EWCA Civ 859: In applying the test for education otherwise than in a school (EOTIS, sometimes known as EOTAS) and deciding if it would be inappropriate for special educational provision to be made in a school, it’s not enough to ask if the school can deliver it: The question is whether a school would not be “suitable” or “proper”. To decide this the LA must take into account all of the circumstances, some examples of which are included in this case.
I have heard of way forward meetings and next steps meetings. Are these the same as mediation? Expand No. Mediation is a statutory process. Way forward and next steps meetings are the names some local authorities (LAs) give to informal dispute resolution. Here are some of the key differences: You have the right to mediation whenever your LA makes a decision which you can appeal in the SEND Tribunal, or when an EHC plan is made, amended or replaced (this is set out in section 52 of the Children and Families Act 2014). If you want to take part in mediation, your LA cannot refuse to arrange it or refuse to participate in it. There is no right to a way forward meeting, a next steps meeting, or any other informal dispute resolution arrangement. These types of meetings might be offered by an LA but they are voluntary processes. If you choose to mediate, an independent mediator will be on hand to help with the discussions and see if agreement can be reached. They will have knowledge of the SEN, health and social care legal framework. No such independent facilitator will be required to attend a way forward or next steps meeting. Your LA must send to mediation a representative who has the authority to make decisions there and then, without the need to go back to a deciding panel. There is no such duty on your LA in informal dispute resolution meetings, and you may find decisions take longer to be made following these meetings because they need to be approved by a panel first. Agreement reached in mediation is recorded in a legally binding mediation agreement, and your LA must comply with it and within a set timescale. If it doesn’t, you can take action. No legally binding agreement will be entered into following a way forward or next steps meeting, and there may be very little you can do to make sure your LA does what it said it would, and when. Following mediation, you will receive a mediation certificate. You can use this to submit an appeal in the SEND Tribunal if the matter isn’t resolved in mediation. You will not get such a certificate following a way forward or next steps meeting, and you cannot make an appeal in the SEND Tribunal without it (unless the issue relates solely to Section I). If you have participated in an informal meeting which seemed successful, be mindful that you may still find yourself wanting to appeal (for example if your LA changes its mind about what was agreed). The right to appeal is time-limited, so you should take care not to miss your appeal deadline whilst waiting for your LA to action anything it informally agreed to do. If your appeal deadline is getting close and your LA has not done what was agreed (or you are not sure if It will), we suggest you take steps to consider statutory mediation and (unless mediation resolves the issue) submit an appeal.
I am unhappy with the school named in Section I of my child’s EHC plan. Is mediation available for this? Expand Yes, you have the right to mediation whenever your local authority (LA) makes a decision which you can appeal in the SEND Tribunal, or when an EHC plan is made, amended or replaced (this is set out in section 52 of the Children and Families Act 2014). This includes Section I, as you can appeal this in the SEND Tribunal. If you are only appealing Section I (and no other sections of the EHC plan), you do not need a mediation certificate before you can make an appeal in the SEND Tribunal. This means that you do not need to consider mediation if you do not want to – you can go straight to appeal without thinking about mediation first, if you decide that is right for you. You have the right to mediation if you want it, though and you can call the mediation advisor for advice on mediation if you wish. If you decide you don’t want mediation then you don’t need to wait for a mediation certificate before you can appeal (because a certificate will not be issued). This is different to all other appeals, where parents and young people do need to consider mediation first and get a mediation certificate. If you decide you want to mediate about Section I only, you will not get a mediation certificate once mediation had taken place. This means that if agreement isn’t reached and you need to appeal following mediation, you need to make sure the SEND Tribunal receives your appeal form within 2 months of the date on your LA’s decision letter (or letter enclosing a final amended EHC plan). Please see our downloadable information pack on appealing Section I to help you prepare for mediation. You might also want to consider whether Sections B and F also need to be appealed (as the SEND Tribunal will look to them when making placement decisions). If you do decide to appeal other sections of the EHC plan (and will therefore not be appealing Section I only), then you will need to consider mediation and get a mediation certificate before you can appeal.
My local authority was not able to arrange for mediation within 30 days of me asking for it. Can I still mediate, even if it is late? Expand Yes. Local authorities (LAs) must arrange for mediation to take place within 30 days from the date parents or young people tell their LA that they want to mediate. If an LA is not able to arrange for mediation in this time: the LA must tell the mediation advisor as soon as possible once it realises this the mediation advisor must send to you a ‘deemed mediation’ certificate within 3 working days of the LA’s notice, and you can use this certificate to lodge your appeal. However, The SEND Regulations 2014 make clear that you can still choose to mediate in this situation. Regulation 39(3) says that you must be given the mediation certificate “whether or not the child's parent or the young person later participates in mediation”. So, you do not lose your right to mediation simply because the LA is late arranging it.
Disability discrimination Expand AB v The Governing Body of Kingston Grammar School: [2024] UKUT 406 (AAC): This disability discrimination case makes clear that, in most cases, parents will need to show their child is disabled under the Equality Act 2010 (the Act). Evidence of any diagnoses may be helpful but parents must still evidence each element of the definition of disability under the Act, unless their child has a condition which is deemed to be a disability. It also confirms how the SEND Tribunal should deal with claims and appeals in the SEND Tribunal (whether under the Act or the Children and Families Act 2014): Usually, the SEND Tribunal must hold an oral hearing which deals with all the issues in dispute before making a decision, unless the parties (and the SEND Tribunal) agree to the matter being decided without a hearing. If a party fails to attend a hearing, the SEND Tribunal must either hear the matter in the party’s absence or re-arrange the hearing (adjourn it). Once a hearing has begun and it is clear that a party is absent, the SEND Tribunal cannot decide to deal with the matter on the papers instead of continuing with the hearing. RD and GD v The Proprietor of Horizon Primary (Responsible Body) (SEN): [2020] UKUT 278 (AAC): Whether or not a part-time timetable is discriminatory will depend on whether it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim – the school needs to consider whether the disadvantages caused to the child by the part-time timetable outweigh or are disproportionate to the school’s aim. In this case, on balance, the part-time timetable was determined to be proportionate and therefore it was not discriminatory. UW v Cheam Academies Network (SEN): [2026] UKUT 53 (AAC): The Upper Tribunal found that: By paragraph 2(4) of Schedule 13 to the EA 2010, the duty to make reasonable adjustments under section 20 of the EA 2010 applies to schools in relation to: (a) deciding who is offered admission as a pupil; and (b) provision of education or access to a benefit, facility or service. The latter encompasses the operation and application of a school’s behaviour policy, including in relation to sanctions and exclusions. The First-tier Tribunal erred in holding it had no jurisdiction to consider a claim of reasonable adjustments in relation to the behaviour policy, including in relation to detentions and exclusions. (Stout, J, paragraph 3 of summary of decision)