Home › South East › Buckinghamshire Council
Buckinghamshire Council
Data availableSouth East
234
appeals registered, 2024 (official DfE figure)
271
appeals registered, 2025 (official DfE figure)
Data available. At least one Freedom of Information response gives real, extractable figures on tribunal appeals or outcomes for this council.
Thinking about appealing, or partway through it? These are free, independent sources of advice — not run by this site, and not run by any council.
- Buckinghamshire SENDIAS Service — this council's own free SEND information, advice and support service. Every council is legally required to fund one, at arm's length from itself · 01296 383754 (for voicemail only).
- IPSEA — Free, independent legal advice on SEN law — including EHC plans and tribunal appeals.
- SOS!SEN — Free helpline and 1:1 advice specifically on preparing a SEND tribunal appeal.
- Coram Children's Legal Centre — Free education law advice line, including SEN appeals and EHC plan reviews.
- GOV.UK: appeal an EHC plan decision — The official government guide to the appeals process itself — who can appeal, mediation, costs.
Estimated outcome breakdown
Estimated, not reported
Resolved before hearing — 197 (72.4%)
Contested, council lost — 50 (18.4%)
Contested, council won — 13 (4.8%)
Partially split — 12 (4.4%)
This council's own answer doesn't give a usable outcome breakdown. This estimate applies the pooled England-wide outcome rate (no regional sample was large enough to trust on its own) to this council's own real, officially-published appeal volume for 2025 (271 appeals) — see how estimates work.
By decision type
By decision type — 2023 (1 Jan-1 Nov)
| Category (council's own wording) | Appeals | Overturned |
|---|---|---|
| Refusal to Assess (RTA) | 35 | 30 |
Freedom of Information responses
Successful
Covering 1 Jan 2023 to 1 Nov 2023: of 1,196 EHC needs-assessment decisions, 379 were Refusal to Assess (RTA). 'What number of appeals to SENDIST were lodged as a result of a refusal to assess?' -- 35 RTA tribunals lodged during the period. 'What number of lodged appeals were resolved by carrying out an EHCNA prior to court?' -- 30 appeals resolved this way (i.e. conceded/settled before hearing). The request also asked for a further SENDIST outcome breakdown (awaiting trial / resolved prior to court / court-ordered assessment / court found for council) but this portion was not recovered.
Caveat: The 379/35/30 figures came from WhatDoTheyKnow's full-text search index snippet, not a directly opened attachment (the attachments themselves -- Responses 4972121.docx and Response all information to be supplied.pdf -- rendered empty in this session). Treat as reliable but re-verify against the source attachment before publishing.