Ealing
Data availableLondon
74
appeals registered, 2024 (official DfE figure)
84
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.
- Ealing SENDIASS — 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 · 020 3886 2062.
- 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.
Structured outcome breakdown
Structured breakdown — cumulative since 2019 (315 cases defended, as at Jan 2025 response)
real, from FOI response
Resolved before hearing — 218 (78.4%)
Contested, council lost — 30 (10.8%)
Contested, council won — 19 (6.8%)
Partially split — 11 (4%)
Denominator is 315 cumulative CASES DEFENDED since 2019 (Q4), a different population/count from the per-FY 'registered' totals above (they do not sum to 315) -- appeals_registered left null to avoid conflating the two. resolved_before_hearing = 105 conceded + 85 consent order + 28 withdrawn = 218. contested_and_council_won = 19 dismissed. contested_and_council_lost = 30 upheld. partially_split = 11 part upheld. Remaining 37 of 315 (34 pending + 2 transferred + 1 vacated) don't fit any bucket and are excluded (218+19+30+11+37=315). Q5 separately gives %-dismissed/%-upheld by calendar year 2019-2024 (of contested cases only) but no raw counts for that per-year cut, so not reproduced as counts here.
Freedom of Information responses
Awaiting classification
Response to 'Levels of demand, supply and parent challenge re: SEND provision in the borough' (ref 24-1931). Q3, SEND tribunal appeals registered against the Borough by financial year (grand totals; the document also breaks each year down by EHC-plan section(s) disputed -- B, F, I and combinations -- but that finer breakdown is not reproduced here, see caveats): FY 6 Apr 2019-5 Apr 2020: 33. FY 2020/21: 38. FY 2021/22: 27. FY 2022/23: 35. FY 2023/24: 35. FY April 2024-ongoing (partial year at time of response): 32. Q4, cumulative SEND tribunal cases defended from 2019 to present (315 total), broken down by outcome across all appeal-type categories (Cease EHCP, Issue EHCP, Section F, Section I, Sections B&F, Sections B&I, Sections B,F&I, Sections F&I, Statutory Assessment, Section B): Conceded-105, Consent Order-85, Dismissed-19, Part Upheld-11, Pending-34, Transferred-2, Upheld-30, Vacated-1, Withdrawn-28. Q5, % of contested SEND tribunal cases (Dismissed vs Upheld) by calendar year: 2019 - Dismissed 33.33%, Upheld 66.67%. 2020 - Dismissed 60.00%, Upheld 40.00%. 2021 - Dismissed 30.77%, Upheld 69.23%. 2022 - Dismissed 33.33%, Upheld 66.67%. 2023 - Dismissed 20.00%, Upheld 80.00%. 2024 - Dismissed 50.00%, Upheld 50.00%. Q6, internal legal resource cost by year case received (Council states hours are not tracked, this figure is cost/case-count instead): 2019 - 1 matter, £67,111.29. 2020 - 1, £11,185.63. 2021 - 1, £2,367.30. 2022 - 9, £45,707.95. 2023 - 40, £60,267.99. 2024 - 14, £16,129.41. Total - 66 matters, £202,769.57. Q7, external legal support costs by FY: 2019-20 £12,291.25; 2020-21 £4,640.00; 2021-22 £11,864.25; 2022-23 £18,853.00; 2023-24 £21,560.00.
Caveat: The source document also gives a per-financial-year cross-tab of appeals by disputed EHCP section (Section B / F / I and combinations), but the table's leftmost column header is ambiguous in extraction ('School named in EHCP' appears as a possible additional category alongside Section F/I/B and combinations, rather than clearly as a row label), so the precise per-section annual split is not confidently reproduced here -- only the reliable FY grand totals above are reported. The Q5 won/lost percentages are of contested (Dismissed/Upheld) cases only, a smaller subset than the cumulative 315 cases in Q4, and Q4's outcome breakdown is cumulative-since-2019 rather than per-year.
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