Who can appeal? 

To be able to appeal, you must be: 

• the parent of a child, or
• a young person. 

If the decision concerns a child, it is the parent who has the right of appeal. If the decision concerns a young person, then it is the young person who has the right of appeal. Where a young person cannot make decisions in relation to their appeal themselves, because they ‘lack capacity’ under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, their parent or another representative can appeal on their behalf. Our pages on young people aged 16-25 contain helpful information on the rights of young people.

What is the deadline for registering an appeal?

The first thing to make a note of is the deadline for making an appeal. When your local authority (LA) makes a decision (for example, to cease to maintain an EHC plan or a refusal to carry out an EHC needs assessment) or issues a final plan, it must also tell you of your right of appeal.

The date of this notification is the date from which the time frame for making an appeal starts to run.

For most appeals, you must make sure your appeal form is received by the SEND Tribunal within two months of the date on the LA’s decision letter or the letter enclosing the final EHC plan, or one month from the date on the mediation certificate, whichever is the later. 

To get a mediation certificate (or to try mediation if you want to), you need to contact the mediation service within two months of the LA’s decision letter. Please see our information about mediation and what you need to do if you are unsure about this.

If you are only appealing section I (placement) the mediation service is not legally required to give you a mediation certificate, so make sure your appeal form is received by the SEND Tribunal within two months of the date on the LA’s decision letter/ letter enclosing the final EHC plan. For all other types of appeal, you will need to a mediation certificate.

Mark any deadlines on your calendar and in your diary, with reminders, so you don’t miss them.

The only time these deadlines are different is over August and the Christmas period:

• If the two months/one month ends in August, then you have until the first working day in September to get the form to the SEND Tribunal.
• If it would end on or between 25 December to 1 January, you have until the next working day in January to appeal.

You should have been sent a letter from the LA when they took the relevant decision or issued you with the final EHC plan. This letter should contain the following information on your rights of appeal:

• your right to appeal that decision;
• the time limits for doing so;
• information about mediation — including relevant contact details;
• the availability of —
• disagreement resolution services; and
• information and advice about matters relating to the special educational needs of children and young people.
• for all appeals except when the LA’s decided not to do an EHC needs assessment, the letter must also explain that the SEND Tribunal can make recommendations about health and social care.

The SEND Tribunal may well extend the deadline if all this information was not provided and the deadline has passed.

If you have missed the deadline, you can ask the SEND Tribunal to accept your appeal late. If you need to do this make sure you submit the appeal form and enclosures as soon as possible. You will need to explain why you could not have submitted it on time and why it would be fair for the SEND Tribunal to accept it late. There is space on the form to do this.  If any of the above information was missing from the LA’s letter, make sure you mention this when asking for your appeal to be accepted late.

If you were unable to get a mediation certificate because you did not contact the mediation service in time, you should explain why, and why it would be fair for the SEND Tribunal to accept your appeal without it, on the appeal form too.

How do I register an appeal?

You will need to fill out a form and send in supporting evidence to the SEND Tribunal. Remember to keep copies of all of your paperwork (letters, reports etc.), so you have a clear record of everything you’ve sent.

For more information on what to send with your appeal form see below.

You can submit your appeal online, by email, or by post. 

The appeal form

You will need to fill in an appeal form. Make sure you are using the right form depending on what you are appealing. For children and young people living in the community (those who are not in custody in the criminal justice system): 

If you’re appealing:	then
refusal to carry out an EHC needs assessment	use form SEND35A and send it by email or post, or complete online.
any other appealable decision	use form SEND 35 and send it by email or post, or complete online.

If you have difficulty using the internet or accessing the online appeal form, you may be get free help from the We Are Group.

If the appeal concerns a child or young person who is in custody, please note the law applies differently to them compared with children and young people who are living in the community. You can find more information about this in our separate resources (at present the information on our website relates to children and young people in the community except for this information on SEND Tribunal forms and one of our template letters).

If you’re appealing:	then
about a child who is in custody	use form SEND 28 and send it by email or post.
as a young person aged 16 (and no longer compulsory school age) to 18 in custody	use form SEND 28A and send it by email or post.

If you are also bringing a claim about disability discrimination, there will be a separate form for the appeal about the EHC needs assessment or plan and the discrimination claim. If appropriate, the appeal and claim could later be consolidated so that they are both dealt with at the same hearing.

If you are downloading or printing the appeal form, in the boxes on it, fill in:

• Your child’s name and date of birth, or yours if you are a young person;
• Your name and address;
• Details of anyone else who has parental responsibility, if possible; if you have a reason for not wishing to include this information, this must be stated (if you’re not sure about this or think this may be complicated, contact IPSEA for advice);
• The name of your LA and the date of the decision you’re appealing against or the date of the final EHC plan;
• Any special requirements to make the process accessible to you: say here if, for instance, you need documents translated, wheelchair access, a reader or a signer, or cannot manage negotiations over the phone.

In the appropriate section of the form, you will need to explain which decision you’re appealing against or which parts of the EHC plan you disagree with. This is called your reasons for appeal.

If you are using the online appeal form, each time you answer a question you will have the option to “continue” to the next one or “save for later”.

We suggest you regularly save the form, otherwise if there is an error or you lose internet you may lose information you have added to the form. The form will also time out, without saving, if you leave it for more than 30 minutes.

If you save the form, you will be asked to enter some details before leaving the form and be sent a link to come back to it later. The link only works once and you must use it within 28 days. You could then complete more of the form and save it again or submit it.

Always remember to finish and submit your appeal form within the deadline explained above.

Prioritised appeals

Hearing dates for appeals can be many months away but the SEND Tribunal prioritises some appeals for earlier hearing dates.

Phase transfer appeals

The SEND Tribunal will prioritise hearings for appeals that include section I (the name and/or type of school or institution) for children and young people approaching a phase transfer. The SEND Tribunal has confirmed this includes young people moving from one post 16 setting to another post 16 setting.

You should make the SEND Tribunal aware as soon as possible if the appeal involves a phase transfer placement and you can ask for an earlier hearing date if so. You can do this by including “phase transfer placement appeal” on your appeal form. If you are sending the form by email, rather than using the online version, include “new phase transfer placement appeal” in the subject line and cover email too.

Other prioritised appeals

There are other reasons that a child or young person may need an urgent hearing, such as children/young people out of education or who are looked after by the local authority (sometimes called “in care”) and you should bring this to the SEND Tribunal’s attention when you submit the appeal too.

Reasons for appeal

If you are downloading or printing the appeal form, it is often easier to put these on a separate sheet and write ‘See separate sheet headed Reasons for Appeal’ in the box/boxes on the form.

If you are using the online appeal form, you will provide your reasons for appeal in answer to relevant questions. When you click “continue” from one question, the next one appears.

Your reasons for appeal are where you set out why you think the LA’s decision is wrong, or why the contents of the EHC plan need to change. Try to put in everything you need to say, your full case, at this point. You should number each issue to help the SEND Tribunal clearly see all the issues you want it to resolve.

As much as possible, you should try to get together any supporting evidence to submit with your appeal form. Do be aware though that any evidence submitted with your appeal form will be treated as supplementary evidence and subject to the page limits explained here. In your reasons for appeal, you should refer to this evidence to support your arguments (for example, if you are saying that your child has not made progress despite the support they currently receive, refer to school reports and/or annual review records which show this). Don’t worry if you don’t have everything ready to send straight away; you can submit more evidence after you’ve registered your appeal.

You must send in enough information for the LA to be able to respond. 

DO

• Keep it short and to the point.
• Separate your points into paragraphs.
• Number your paragraphs or organise them under headings.
• Number each issue you want the SEND Tribunal to resolve.
• Refer to any evidence you already have which backs up your points.
• Say if you know there is evidence you don’t yet have but intend to send later, and what that evidence is or the issue it will relate to.
• Refer to the legal issues.

DON’T

• Get bogged down on history, the focus of the appeal is forward looking. If there is a long history of difficulties between you and the LA which are relevant to why it is not in agreement with you about the appeal let the evidence (e.g. letters between you and the LA) speak for itself.

What should I send with the form?

With the completed and signed form send the SEND Tribunal the following:

• A copy of the letter the LA sent you that told you of its decision
• Your mediation certificate
• The evidence supporting your arguments
• A list of all the documents enclosed with the application (it will be helpful to the SEND Tribunal if you put your evidence in chronological order, and then write out a list explaining what each document is, you can do this by completing the last page of the PDF form).

If you are using the online form, you will be able to upload documents. If not because you are emailing or posting the form, don’t send original documents, send photocopies or scans. Keep a copy of everything you send, including the form. If using the online form, you will be emailed a copy of it.

There are limits on the amount of evidence that can be submitted in an appeal - don't forget to check our information about the appeal timetable and preparing the case.

We have set out more detailed guidance on how to set out your reasons for appeal, what you should send with your appeal, and what evidence will be helpful, in the sections about refusal to assess appeals, appeals about the contents of an EHC plan and appeals about the school or other setting named in an EHC plan.

If you can’t find the answer to your question, you can book an appointment to speak with us.