Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of proposed changes to SEND tribunal arrangements on the ability of families to challenge local authority decisions.

The ‘Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) reform: putting children and young people first’ consultation document explains our proposals for reforming the SEND Tribunal as part of broader SEND reform.

The department expects more disputes to be resolved much earlier through mediation without the need for a Tribunal appeal, meaning that children and young people get the support they need more quickly. However, we are also clear that the SEND Tribunal will remain an important legal backstop for families who disagree with decisions made by a local authority regarding not undertaking a needs assessment, the outcome of an assessment, the specialist provision package identified, and/or the placement named in an education, health and care plan.

We also propose measures to improve local authority accountability to act on Tribunal judgments and improve their decision-making processes where the Tribunal finds against them. These measures should give parents confidence that local authorities will get more decisions right first time in future.

The department will set out further detail following the consultation.