What to send with your notice of appeal

As well as the items referred to in the general advice about submitting an appeal, where the appeal concerns the contents of the EHC plan, the plan itself and its appendices should be attached to the appeal documents. If any of the appendices are missing you should send what you have and then during the course of the appeal, copies of the missing documents can be requested from the local authority (“LA”).

If the appeal includes Sections B and F of an EHC plan (the special educational needs of the child or young person and the provision to meet those needs), this must be made clear and you should explain clearly what amendments you want made to the EHC plan.

What amendments might be needed to Section B of the EHC plan?

Section B of an EHC plan must specify all of the special educational needs (“SEN”) of the child or young person. See IPSEA’s EHC plan checklist for further detail on what the law says Section B should contain.

When we talk about SEN, we mean the learning difficulty or disability that the child or young person has which gives rise to their need for special education provision. So for example, for a child with dyslexia, Section B should contain details of their dyslexia and the difficulties it causes them.

The first step with a Section B appeal will be to identify where the SEN are set out. If any SEN are included in other sections of the EHC plan, they will need to be moved to Section B.

Parents or young people may appeal because Section B:

• Fails to include some of the child or young person’s learning difficulties or disabilities, and this has an impact on Section F (which is lacking some provision);
• Overestimates or underestimates the child or young person’s difficulties and this has an impact on levels or type of provision and/or which setting has been named;
• Misconstrues the child or young person’s learning difficulties, for example where there is a difference of opinion over a diagnosis, or overemphasises one learning difficulty over another.

The notice of appeal does not have to specify every single amendment the parent or young person wants to include in Section B, but it will need to explain why the parent or young person wants changes to be made.

What amendments might be needed to Section F of the EHC plan?

Section F of an EHC plan must specify all of the special educational provision called for by the child or young person’s SEN. See IPSEA’s EHC plan checklist for further detail on what the law says Section F should contain.

You will need to ensure that there is a clear and stand-alone Section F setting out the special educational provision.

Parents or young people may wish to appeal because Section F:

• Does not include provision for each and every special educational need identified in Section B (or which they believe should be identified in Section B).
• Wrongly omits health or social care provision which educates or trains the child or young person (for example, speech and language therapy). This must be treated as special educational provision (section 21(5) of the Children and Families Act 2014). If any such provision is included in Sections G and H it will need to be moved into Section F.
• Is not sufficiently clear. As described in the EHC plan checklist, Section F must be specific. It should be clear what support is to be provided, who is going to provide it, where it is going to be provided; for how long; and for how often.
• Includes loose and meaningless wording, such as ‘access to’, ‘regular’ or ‘opportunities for’ and other similar expressions, which do not make it clear exactly what should be provided for the child or young person.

Particularly in appeals concerning a young person, it will be necessary to be clear how many days a particular placement is going to provide. Most Further Education colleges provide courses which run for a limited number of hours in a week. If the young person concerned needs a full-time five day a week package, then this will need to be specified in Section F.

What if I just want to appeal Section I?

It is worth remembering that an EHC plan should follow a process: first, all the child or young person’s SEN should be identified in Section B. Then, provision to meet each of those needs must be identified in Section F. The school or other institution named in Section I will be an institution which is able to meet the needs and provision as set out in Sections B and F.

Therefore if you want to appeal Section I of an EHC plan we would always recommend that you consider whether Sections B and F give enough accurate detail about the needs and provision required to support your arguments for the school or other institution you want in Section I.

 

We recommend that you also read the section containing general advice on submitting an appeal. If you can’t find the answer to your question, you can book an appointment to speak with us.