Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking with local authorities to help reduce the time taken for ECHP tribunals to be heard in the North East.

The department is working closely with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to help reduce the time families wait for appeal hearings about education, health and care (EHC) plan appeals.

MoJ recently recruited 70 new judges and increased administrative staffing by 10% to help process appeals. The use of judicial case management powers to settle cases earlier has also been expanded, and the Tribunal Procedure Committee have recently amended its rules to allow individual judges to determine whether appeals against a refusal to conduct an EHC needs assessment should be conducted in writing (known as ‘on paper’), which is quicker than a full oral hearing.

The tribunal always prioritises phase transfer appeals for children and young people who are moving school/placement in September and offers parents and young people the opportunity to have appeals heard throughout school holidays and paper hearings when there is capacity.

As the tribunal are hearing 99.5% of appeals remotely, all regions across England are served equitably.