EHCP Appeal Success Rate: What the Tribunal Data Actually Shows

If your council has refused to assess your child, or refused a plan, or issued one that does not describe the child you actually live with, the question you are really asking is whether it is worth the fight. Nobody tells you the answer, so here it is, from the published figures rather than from a forum.

The number

In 2024/25 the SEND Tribunal recorded 20,000 outcomes on special educational needs appeals, up 19% on the year before. Of those, 71% (14,000) were decided by the tribunal. And of the cases that were decided, 99% went in favour of the appellant, which was the same proportion as the year before.

Ninety nine per cent. Not a narrow margin, not a coin toss. When an independent tribunal looks properly at these cases, it almost always concludes the parent was right.

The bit that gets misquoted

You will see that 99% repeated everywhere with the important half missing, so be careful with it, including when you read it here.

It is 99% of the cases that were decided, and only 71% of appeals reached a decision. The other 29% ended some other way: withdrawn, or conceded by the council before it got to a hearing.

That sounds like a caveat that weakens the number. In practice it usually does the opposite. A council that concedes has looked at the appeal papers and decided not to defend its own refusal. For the family, a concession and a win produce the same outcome, and the concession arrives sooner. The cases where a parent genuinely walks away with nothing are a small slice of an already small slice.

What the figure does not tell you is your odds, because it describes the families who appealed, not the families who were refused. Anyone quoting you a personal success rate is inventing it.

Why so many councils lose

Set the tribunal figures next to what happens earlier in the process and the picture is fairly plain.

• Councils in England received 162,702 requests for an EHC needs assessment in 2025, and refused 29% of the ones they decided.
• Of the assessments that were actually carried out, 93.6% concluded the child needed a plan.
• Only 45.5% of plans were issued inside the legal 20 week limit, and the average took 25.6 weeks.

So the assessments overwhelmingly find that the child qualifies, and the tribunal overwhelmingly finds that the parent was right. The pressure point is not whether these children have needs. It is the volume of decisions being made before anyone has looked properly.

You can see exactly what your own council does, because the refusal rate runs from 6.4% to 63.5% depending on where you live.

The queue is the real problem

Appeals reached 29,000 in 2025/26, the highest in the series and up 23% in a single year. Disposals rose too, to 23,000, but not fast enough: the open caseload grew 43% to 17,000.

That is the honest cost of appealing. Not the likelihood of losing, which is low, but the waiting, which is getting worse. Going in knowing that is better than going in expecting it to be quick.

What this means if you have just been refused

A refusal letter is not a finding about your child. Given how these appeals turn out, it is often a decision about capacity dressed up as a decision about need.

The deadline is two months from the date on the decision letter, or one month from your mediation certificate if that date falls later. You have to contact a mediation adviser before you can appeal, but you do not have to go through with mediation to get the certificate that lets you.

• Free EHC needs assessment request letter generator, which argues the actual statutory test in section 36(8) rather than the higher bar councils tend to apply.
• The EHC Assessment Refusal Appeal Pack if you have already been refused and want the process set out properly.
• Your council’s own refusal rate and waiting times.
• Everything we have on SEND and EHCPs.

Before any of that, talk to your local SENDIASS, which is free, statutory and impartial, and read IPSEA. Neither of them sells you anything, and IPSEA’s guidance is the best free legal explanation there is.

Common questions

What percentage of SEND appeals are successful?

Of the SEND Tribunal appeals decided in 2024/25, 99% were decided in favour of the appellant, which is the parent. That figure covers the 71% of appeals that reached a decision. The remainder were withdrawn or conceded before a hearing.

Is it worth appealing an EHCP refusal?

The published figures are strongly on the parent’s side once a case is looked at independently, and nationally 93.6% of completed assessments conclude the child needs a plan. What the data cannot tell you is your individual odds, because it describes families who appealed rather than families who were refused. Speak to SENDIASS before deciding.

How long do I have to appeal?

Two months from the date on the decision letter, or one month from the date of your mediation certificate if that is later. You must contact a mediation adviser first, but you are not required to take part in mediation to obtain the certificate.

How long does a SEND appeal take?

Longer than it used to. Appeals rose to 29,000 in 2025/26 while the open caseload grew 43% to 17,000, so the queue is lengthening. The waiting, rather than the likelihood of losing, is the real cost of appealing.

Do most councils give in before the hearing?

A substantial number do. Only 71% of appeals were decided by the tribunal in 2024/25, and much of the remaining 29% is councils conceding rather than defending a refusal they have looked at again. For a family, a concession and a win produce the same result.

Does appealing cost anything?

There is no fee to appeal to the SEND Tribunal. Costs arise only if you choose to pay for legal representation or private reports, and plenty of parents appeal without either. SENDIASS support is free.

Sources

• Ministry of Justice, Tribunal Statistics Quarterly, July to September 2025, for the 2024/25 SEND outcome figures.
• Ministry of Justice, Tribunal Statistics Quarterly, January to March 2026, for 2025/26 receipts, disposals and open caseload.
• Department for Education, Education, health and care plans, England 2026, calendar year 2025.
• Children and Families Act 2014, section 36.