| SPOTLIGHT |
The number of tribunals for people appealing against local authority decisions about Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) for children with special educational needs has hit an “all-time high” of 13,700, according to the latest Ministry of Justice data.
The Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel De Souza, has warned this is “further delaying children from accessing the vital support they need”.
The MoJ statistics show that in the academic year 2022/23, HMCTS tribunals recorded 14,000 registered SEN appeals, an increase of 24% when compared to the previous year. Since 2014, the number of appeals has increased every year.
Further, the proportion of cases found at least in part in favour of the appellant is 98%, up from 96% in both 2021-22 and 2020-21, demonstrating a low ‘success rate’ for councils.
Looking at registered appeals by type, more than a quarter (28%) of appeals were against refusals by local authorities to conduct an education, health and care assessment - the first step towards getting an EHCP.
The Children’s Commissioner noted that despite only 32% of pupils with EHCPs having autism, almost half (45%) of appeals were related to autistic children and young people – “suggesting that autistic children may find accessing support particularly challenging”.
De Souza said: “As the data indicates, children and their families are often having to chase an EHCP to get the support they need to thrive in school. […] We must focus on identifying and supporting children’s additional needs early, rather than expending huge resource on adversarial complaints processes which are disruptive to children’s education and care – and place huge stress on families.”
Calling for “radical reform” of the SEND system, the Children’s Commissioner said: “I am extremely concerned by these statistics, which indicates a distinct lack of support for children with Special Educational Needs.
“It’s welcome that the Government has published its SEND implementation plan, but we still have further to go to bring about urgent change for families.”
The Department for Education has been approached for comment.
Lottie Winson
To find out more on this topic, Local Government Lawyer is conducting a short, anonymised survey on SEN appeals.
