Where the claim is about disability discrimination by a private nursery or a further education institution or by a service provider, this cannot be made in the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) (the SEND Tribunal).  The claim would need to be brought in the county court.  IPSEA doesn’t advise about county court claims, and if the issue cannot be resolved with the setting or service provider and a claim was being considered, you should take legal advice from a solicitor.  Discrimination on the basis of characteristics other than disability (such as race or sex) both by a school or by other settings or providers must also be brought in the county court.

If the issue is disability discrimination by a school, the first step would usually be to try to resolve the issue with the school directly. To do this, you could make a formal complaint using the school’s own complaints procedure. In your complaint, you should explain what type of disability discrimination you believe has taken place, and what action you think the school should take to remedy it. 

Hopefully, the school will act on your concerns and the issue will be resolved.  If the complaint does not resolve matters, you could choose to escalate the complaint to the Department for Education and Ofsted, or you could decide to bring a claim to the SEND Tribunal. 

If you want to make a claim to the SEND Tribunal you need to make sure you meet the deadline and sometimes there may not be time to follow the school’s complaints procedure first. That’s ok, what’s important is getting your claim to the SEND Tribunal in time. It’s not a requirement to complain to the school fist. 

However, it is worth considering whether a disability discrimination claim is the best path of action in your individual circumstances. 

Discrimination claims are ‘backward looking’, because they focus on a past event of discrimination rather than looking forward to what support is needed. While the SEND Tribunal can order reasonable adjustments to be made, if what you really want is for better support to be put in place for your child or young person who has special educational needs, you might be better off considering what the school should be doing to help, requesting an education, health and care (EHC) needs assessment, or, if they have one, trying to get their EHC plan changed so that it gives more or better support. 

A discrimination claim might have a negative impact on your relationship with the school. There are also limitations on what the SEND Tribunal can order when a discrimination claim is successful. 

However, you may think it is important to bring the claim for a number of reasons: 

• If your child has been permanently excluded, so that they can be re-admitted to the school 

• So that the school changes its policies and practices 

• So that they will not discriminate against any other children, or 

• If it is a group of schools or a chain of Academies, the claim will be against the whole group, meaning your claim could have a wider impact. 

If you decide to make a claim to the SEND Tribunal, you can find out about the procedure for bringing a disability discrimination claim on our website.