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?

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.