Local government leaders have pleaded with the tribunals service not to remove their right to attend special education needs and disabilities (SEND) appeals.

The Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ACDS) said its members had raised ‘significant concerns’ about plans to hear appeals on the papers only.

The Tribunal Procedure Committee outlined in a consultation in September that it was minded to change the rules so that appeals can be heard on the papers without the consent of both parties. The two proposed options were that neither party could request a full hearing or only the appellant could do so – effectively sidelining local authorities either way.

All sides agree that there has been an explosion in the number of cases involving special educational needs appeals. These usually happen when parents or guardians challenge the local authority’s refusal to secure an education, health and care (EHCP) needs assessment. These are required in many cases to gain access to funding for extra provisions to help SEND children get appropriate help with their education.

Around 3,000 appeals were registered in 2014-2015; in 2023-2024 that number had risen to 18,000. Waiting times for appeals continue to increase and appeals registered in March 2024 were being listed for hearing in February 2025.

The ACDS rejected the suggestion that local authorities are responsible for delays and that they should be cut out of the decision-making process for whether appeals go to full hearings.

It said: ‘Removing both parties’ rights for an in-person hearing removes the opportunity to provide additional evidence to support their case, while removing this only for the LA sends a provocative message to an already adversarial, broken system about the rights and intentions of the LA.

‘This is likely to only cause further distrust, making it harder for central government to reform the system into one which is effective and sustainable, where all partners are confident that decisions are being made with children’s best interests at heart.’

The ACDS said local authorities would be put at a disadvantage by appeals being decided on the papers because they would not be able explain why an EHCP had been rejected.

Rather than causing extra delay in the system, an in-person hearing would ensure that the SEND tribunal could take all the relevant information into account. The ACDS said the number of children with EHCPs had increased by 140% over the last 10 years and that this increase was directly attributable to ambiguity in the Children Act 2014.

Read more

The ACDS added: ‘The 2014 special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reforms caused a series of unintended consequences which have resulted with a system universally considered “broken”, with huge growth in demand, poorer outcomes for children, and high needs block deficits threatening the financial sustainability of local authorities.’

The Tribunal Procedure Committee received a request from the Ministry of Justice for a solution to the growing backlog of SEND appeals.

Only 14.5% of all appeals determined by the tribunal are currently decided on the papers. On average, cases decided at a hearing take 33.75 weeks from receipt to disposal, whereas those decided on the papers take less than 15 weeks. Parents and guardians ask for decisions to be made on the papers in 90% of refusal appeals, but local authorities consent to this in just 20% of cases. Parents and guardians succeed in 96.3% of refusal appeals on at least one ground.

‘Enabling a greater number of appeals to be decided on the papers, where appropriate, would allow the Tribunal to resolve cases more quickly and efficiently,’ said the committee.

‘The aim is to ensure that the children and young people involved in these appeals are provided with a decision as soon as possible, given that the provision of such services as they may require can be critical to their developmental and educational needs.’

Topics