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North Somerset Council
Data availableSouth West
94
appeals registered, 2024 (official DfE figure)
128
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.
- North Somerset SENDIAS — 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 · 0117 989 7725.
- 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 — 93 (73.2%)
Contested, council lost — 23 (18.1%)
Contested, council won — 6 (4.7%)
Partially split — 5 (3.9%)
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 (128 appeals) — see how estimates work.
By decision type
By decision type — 2019
| Category (council's own wording) | Appeals | Overturned |
|---|---|---|
| Refusal to assess | 15 | — |
| Refusal to issue | — | — |
| Sections I | — | — |
| Sections BFI | — | — |
By decision type — 2021
| Category (council's own wording) | Appeals | Overturned |
|---|---|---|
| Refusal to assess | — | — |
| Refusal to issue | 6 | — |
| Sections I | 5 | — |
| Sections BFI | — | — |
By decision type — 2022
| Category (council's own wording) | Appeals | Overturned |
|---|---|---|
| Refusal to assess | 10 | — |
| Refusal to issue | 8 | — |
| Sections I | 6 | — |
| Sections BFI | — | — |
By decision type — 2023
| Category (council's own wording) | Appeals | Overturned |
|---|---|---|
| Refusal to assess | 35 | — |
| Refusal to issue | — | — |
| Sections I | 14 | — |
| Sections BFI | 22 | — |
Freedom of Information responses
Awaiting classification
Covering letter (31 Jan 2024, ref 4892740) states on legal costs: 'Legal help is provided by Browne Jacobson. To date, North Somerset Council have paid invoices totalling £123,019 to Browne Jacobson in the current financial year and are currently forecasting total costs of £149,271 to the end of the financial year.' The attached spreadsheet ('Response FOI 4892740.xlsx') gives appeals registered against the LA by type and year, 2019-2023 (cell values under 5 are redacted as '<5' under s40(2) FOIA): Refusal to assess -- 2019:15, 2020:<5, 2021:<5, 2022:10, 2023:35. Refusal to issue -- 2019:<5, 2020:<5, 2021:6, 2022:8, 2023:<5. Sections I -- 2019:<5, 2020:<5, 2021:5, 2022:6, 2023:14. Sections BFI -- 2019:<5, 2020:<5, 2021:<5, 2022:<5, 2023:22.
Caveat: The original request asked for a 5-way breakdown including a 'Sections B and F' category, but the released spreadsheet only has 4 categories (Refusal to assess, Refusal to issue, Sections I, Sections BFI) -- 'Sections B and F' does not appear anywhere in the table, seemingly omitted rather than answered. The request also asked for the breakdown 'in terms of outcomes' (won/lost) as well as by year, but the spreadsheet only gives counts of appeals registered by type/year -- no outcome/win-lose dimension is actually provided anywhere in either attachment. Many individual cell values are redacted as '<5', so exact small counts are unavailable.
Awaiting classification
UNVERIFIED - North Somerset initially rejected the request under s12 ('some exceeds appropriate limit'); Andrew Hall resubmitted a narrowed version on 21 April 2026 (dropping Question 4) which included Question 7 (renumbered) = SEND Tribunal appeals and concessions 2023-2025. Two PDF attachments were issued ('Response some exceeds appropriate limit.pdf', 431K, and 'Response all information to be supplied.pdf', 423K); automated extraction returned no readable content. On 19 June 2026 the council separately emailed to say annual-review data it had offered might have data-quality issues and asked whether the requester still wanted it — this sub-thread appears unresolved as of the last correspondence visible.
Caveat: Attachment confirmed to exist but not machine-readable: Both PDFs downloaded and read in full (5 pages + 4 pages). Confirmed no tribunal appeal/concession figures for North Somerset are present in either document -- this specific data point genuinely was not provided in this thread. (Real North Somerset tribunal figures for 2019-2023 were separately obtained from the send_tribunal_information request above.). Needs manual retrieval, not necessarily a fresh FOI.