How to appeal an EHCP decision to the SEND Tribunal

What can you appeal to the SEND Tribunal?

You can appeal nine council decisions, and only those nine. They are listed in section 51(2) of the Children and Families Act 2014. If what has gone wrong is not on that list, the Tribunal has no power over it and you need a different route.

Two things follow from that list. First, delay is not on it. If your council has blown the 6 week, 16 week or 20 week deadline and has not yet made a decision, there is nothing for the Tribunal to bite on yet, and your route is a complaint or judicial review instead. That is covered inthe guide on what to do when the council misses a deadline. Second, appeal rights against plan contents come round again. You can appeal Sections B, F and I when the plan is first finalised and again after any amendment or replacement (s.51(3); SEND Regulations 2014, reg 22(5)).

Note on health and social care: our sources record that the Tribunal can also make non-binding recommendations about the health and social care sections, but the statutory reference for that power is flagged unverified in our framework document, so we do not cite one here. Check it with IPSEA before you rely on it.

Do you have to try mediation first?

No. You have to contact a mediation adviser and get a certificate, but you never have to actually mediate. An appeal can only be brought if an adviser has issued a certificate (Children and Families Act 2014, s.55(3)), and the adviser must issue one within 3 working days if you tell them you do not want mediation (SEND Regulations 2014, reg 34(1)).

This is the step that trips up most parents, so it is worth being precise about it.

1. Contact the adviser within 2 months of the decision notice being sent (reg 33). Their details must be in the decision letter, along with the timescales and what you have to tell the council (reg 32 sets out everything that notice must contain).
2. Say whether you want to mediate. If you say no, the certificate must follow within 3 working days (reg 34(1)). That is the whole transaction. One phone call.
3. If you do want to mediate, the council must arrange it within 30 days (regs 35(3)-(4), 36(2)), you get at least 5 working days' notice of the date (reg 37(2)), and the certificate must be issued within 3 working days of mediation concluding (reg 39(1)). If the council fails to arrange it in 30 days, mediation is treated as having happened and the certificate must still be issued within 3 working days (reg 39(2)-(3)).

Contact the adviser late and they cannot issue a certificate (reg 34(2)), though the Tribunal can be asked for leave to proceed anyway (reg 34(3)). If you do mediate and reach an agreement, the council must act on it to the reg 44 timescales where the matter was appealable, or within 2 weeks where it was not (reg 42(2)-(3)).

How long do you have to appeal?

Two months from the date the decision notice was sent, or one month from the date the mediation certificate was issued, whichever of those two dates is later. That is the exact wording of the Tribunal rules, and the trigger is the date the council sent the notice, not the date you read it.

"in a special educational needs case, within 2 months after written notice of the decision being challenged was sent to the applicant; or within 1 month from the date of issue of the mediation certificate if that date would be a later date."

Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (Health, Education and Social Care Chamber) Rules 2008, r.20(1)(c), as substituted by SI 2014/2128.

Because the second limb can extend the window, getting your certificate late is not always a disaster. But it is never a reason to sit on the decision letter. Ourfree deadline checker takes the date on your notice and works out both dates for you, so you can see which one actually applies.

How do you lodge the appeal?

You send an appeal form to the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability), part of HM Courts and Tribunals Service. You must attach the decision letter you are challenging, and the mediation certificate where one is required (r.20(3)).

The form commonly used is SEND35, with SEND35aused for refusal-to-assess appeals. We flag this as a practical detail rather than a verified citation: our framework document marks the form names as unconfirmed against a primary source, and HMCTS changes forms. Check the current form and version on gov.uk before you fill anything in.

What you write on the form matters more than the form itself. Say which decision you are appealing, which sections you are challenging, and what you want the Tribunal to order instead. If you are appealing Section F, it helps enormously to have already worked out which parts of the wording are unenforceable. Theguide to EHCP sections A to K sets out what Section F must legally contain, and thedraft plan response template gives you the wording to ask for.

What happens after you lodge the appeal?

The Tribunal registers the appeal, the council files a response, and a hearing date is set. A large share of appeals never reach that hearing, because councils concede. When a council concedes, the regulations give it hard deadlines to act, and so does a Tribunal order if the case is decided.

Once a final or amended final plan is issued, the council must secure everything in Section F from the moment it is issued. There is no grace period and no funding defence (Children and Families Act 2014, s.42(2)). Winning the appeal and then waiting six months for the provision is a separate breach, not a delay you have to accept.

How often do parents win?

Almost always, once a case is actually decided. The published outcome data has been lopsided for years, and it has got more lopsided as appeal volumes have risen.

95% to 99%

Of roughly 11,000 decided SEND cases in 2023-24, 95% were upheld fully or partially in the parent's favour (Ministry of Justice tribunal statistics, 2023-24). For 2024-25, analysis of Ministry of Justice data by Browne Jacobson found 99% of decided cases went the parent's way, with a council win rate of 1.3%.

Volume is rising with it. There were 13,658 SEND appeals registered in 2022-23, and registrations rose 55% in 2024 (Special Needs Jungle analysis of Ministry of Justice data). The full breakdown, year by year, with the gaps marked as gaps, is on theSEND tribunal success rates page.

Read those numbers carefully before you take them as a promise. They describe decided cases, not every appeal lodged, and every case turns on its own evidence. What they do tell you is that a council refusal is a long way from a final answer, and that councils lose these arguments as a matter of routine.

What does an appeal cost?

Nothing to lodge. HM Courts and Tribunals Service does not charge a fee for a SEND appeal, and in the ordinary run of cases neither side is ordered to pay the other's costs. Our statutory source list does not cover the Tribunal's costs powers, so if anyone tells you that appealing puts you at financial risk, check that with IPSEA before you withdraw.

Representation is optional. Plenty of parents appeal without a lawyer, using IPSEA's free advice line and their local SENDIASS for support on the paperwork. Where money does go is on independent evidence, for example a private educational psychologist or speech and language therapy report, and that is a choice rather than a requirement.

The real cost is time, and the way to control that is to be organised from the day the refusal letter lands. If you have just been refused, start withwhat to do next after an EHCP refusal, which sets out the order to do things in and the dates to diarise.