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Hertfordshire County Council
Data availableEast of England
613
appeals registered, 2024 (official DfE figure)
684
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.
- Hertfordshire 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 · 01992 555847 (Monday - Thursday: 9:30am - 3:00pm | Friday: 9:30am - 2:00pm) Voicemail service available 24/7..
- 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 — 496 (72.5%)
Contested, council lost — 125 (18.3%)
Contested, council won — 34 (5%)
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 (684 appeals) — see how estimates work.
By decision type
By decision type — 2022/23 academic year (Sept 2022-Aug 2023)
| Category (council's own wording) | Appeals | Overturned |
|---|---|---|
| appealed the decision [not to carry out EHC needs assessment] | 137 | 90 |
| Appealed their refusal to issue | 21 | 4 |
| appeals lodged ... for sections B, F or I | 157 | — |
Freedom of Information responses
Awaiting classification
Response to Q3 ('how many SEND appeals were received by the council? Of these appeal cases decided by tribunal, how many were in favour of the council?'), table by calendar year of 'Total appeals received' and 'Appeal Dismissed': 2019 - 166 received, dismissed not given; 2020 - 183 received, dismissed not given; 2021 - 267 received, dismissed not given; 2022 - 292 received, 3 dismissed; 2023 - 574 received, 16 dismissed; 2024 - 456 received, 5 dismissed.
Caveat: Council states appeal outcomes prior to 2022 are not held electronically and that ascertaining whether the information is held would require integrating individual case files, exceeding the 18-hour FOI time limit — so only the 'Appeal Dismissed' figures for 2022 (3), 2023 (16) and 2024 (5) are given, with no outcome data at all for 2019-2021. 'Appeal Dismissed' is the only outcome category the council provided (no separate won/conceded/withdrawn breakdown).
Successful
For academic year Sept 2022-Aug 2023: (1) EHCNA requests received: 2841. (2) Agreed to assess: 1940. (3) Of those declined, appealed the decision: 137. (4) Of those who appealed, conceded prior to tribunal or tribunal ordered the assessment to go ahead: 90, of which 2 withdrawn and 65 awaiting decision at time of response. (5) EHCPs refused to issue after assessment: 95. (6) Appealed their refusal to issue: 21. (7) Refusal-to-issue appeals overturned at tribunal or conceded before tribunal: 4, of which 1 dismissed and 16 awaiting decision at time of response. (8) Overall appeals lodged Sept 2022-Aug 2023 for sections B, F or I: 157. (9) Of those, won by the LA with no need for the plan to be re-issued: 3. (11A) Spend defending tribunals 2022-23: Service Level Agreement with in-house legal team £141,763 + other legal spend (includes wider legal support for other inclusion services as well as SEND) £149,682 = total £291,445.
Caveat: Figures for items 4 and 7 include cases still awaiting a decision at the time of the response (65 and 16 respectively), so are not final outcome counts. Question 11B (cost of funding section F of EHCPs) was dropped by mutual agreement as disproportionately time-consuming. Question 11D (overall EHCP-related expenditure) was answered only by referring to an attached DfE S251 outturn financial return, which contains council-wide SEND/DSG spend by budget line (schools, high needs, home-to-school transport etc.) with no tribunal-appeal content — not included in this extract as out of scope.