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Derbyshire County Council
Data availableEast Midlands
536
appeals registered, 2024 (official DfE figure)
690
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.
- Derbyshire Information, Advice and Support Service for SEND (DIASS) — 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 · Leave a message on 01629 533668 The Service aims to respond in 5 working days..
- 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 — 500 (72.6%)
Contested, council lost — 126 (18.3%)
Contested, council won — 34 (4.9%)
Partially split — 29 (4.2%)
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 (690 appeals) — see how estimates work.
Freedom of Information responses
Successful
Question asked: 'How many Tribunals were held in 2017-2018 and what number of these won/lost? How many tribunals were held in 2018-2019 and what number of these won/lost? How many tribunals have been held since April 1st 2019 to present date and won/lost?' The council confirmed it held the information and responded via an internal-review letter, but the substantive figures were delivered only as a scanned PDF attachment (20191024152932413.pdf) with no machine-readable text layer, so the actual won/lost numbers could not be transcribed in this research pass.
Caveat: The original request was administratively 'overlooked' by the council for roughly two months, prompting a formal complaint and internal review before any substantive response was issued. The visible email thread contains the question and process correspondence only; the figures themselves are locked inside a non-text PDF that would need to be opened/OCR'd directly to extract.
Awaiting classification
Question asked, per year 2020-2024, regarding appeals about Section I (EHCP placement): (1) number of appeals that took place, (2) number of appeals won and lost by the LA, (3) number the council capitulated on prior to the tribunal date, (4) number withdrawn by parents. Council response: 'I can confirm that we do hold the requested information. The response to your request is attached.' The figures were delivered only as a PDF attachment (FOI 7765 Blackwell Response.pdf) with no extractable text layer, so the actual figures could not be transcribed in this research pass.
Caveat: Response was significantly delayed (over three months) and only provided after the requester filed for internal review citing a section 1(1) FOIA breach for failing to confirm or deny whether the information was held.
Successful
Question asked: number of appeals to SENDIST made in 2019; how many SEND Tribunals DCC defended in 2019; how many DCC won; how many used a barrister; total barrister spend in 2019. Council confirmed it held the information ('The response to your request is as attached'), but the answer was delivered only as a PDF attachment (FOI Response.pdf) with no extractable text layer, so figures could not be transcribed in this pass.
As indexed by WhatDoTheyKnow's own search engine (the full attachment text was not directly viewable in this pass): "In 2018 how many SEND Tribunal did DCC defend? To date 119 appeals have been registered with SENDIST in 2018 and of those the LA has defended/is defending 100. Of the 119, 1..." (snippet cuts off here). Full figures, including the specific 'won' count, are in the attachment 'ResponseFOIRequest115518cunnington V1.doc'.
Caveat: The search-engine snippet is truncated before the specific tribunals-won figure; only 'appeals registered' (119) and 'defended/defending' (100) are confirmed here. The source .doc should be opened directly for the complete answer.
Awaiting classification
Question asked: between 1 Jan 2019 and 1 Oct 2024, how many SEND appeals were received, and of appeal cases decided by tribunal, how many were in favour of the council. Council confirmed it held the information ('The response to your request is attached'), but the answer was delivered only as a PDF attachment (FOI 6571 Knight Response.pdf) with no extractable text layer, so figures could not be transcribed in this pass.
Caveat: Part of a national batch of this exact request title sent to 339 English authorities by the same requester -- useful as a fast cross-reference for other regions' catalogues.