Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many tribunal appeals there have been in relation to (1) academy schools’ admission processes for Special Educational Needs (SEN), and (2) academy schools’ education of pupils with SEN; of these how many tribunal outcomes went against the academy; and, in those instances, on how many occasions there were issues with compliance.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service, First-tier Tribunal Special Educational Needs and Disability (FtT SEND) considers appeals from the parents of children with special educational needs or from young people with special educational needs, against the decisions of Local Authorities where the parent or the young person cannot reach agreement with the Local Authority about how those needs will be met. FtT SEND also considers parents' or young persons’ claims of disability discrimination in schools. The Ministry of Justice has recently published FtT SEND statistics for the 2013-14 academic year and these can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/385777/sen-tables-2014.xls.

Although the tribunal deals with appeals against local authority placements it does not deal with appeals relating to the admission processes for children with SEN in any schools nor does it deal with appeals relating to the education within schools, of children with SEN. HMCTS is therefore unable to provide the specific information that has been requested and has no role in compliance.

Appeals to the FtT SEND are against Local Authorities rather than the individual school or educational establishment. Appeals can be made for a number of reasons including, for example, where the Local Authority has refused to undertake an assessment of the child's or young person’s needs or where a parent disagrees with the school named in the Education, Health and Social Care Plan provided by the Local Authority. The tribunal may, in this latter group of cases, require the local authority to amend the name of the school or other institution to that preferred by the parent or young person. That preferred school may be an academy.