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West Northamptonshire Council
Data availableEast Midlands
188
appeals registered, 2024 (official DfE figure)
279
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.
- Information Advice Support Service for SEND in Northamptonshire — 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 · 0300 126 1039.
- 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 — 202 (72.4%)
Contested, council lost — 51 (18.3%)
Contested, council won — 14 (5%)
Partially split — 12 (4.3%)
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 (279 appeals) — see how estimates work.
By decision type
By decision type — 2023-2024 (2025 not recovered)
| Category (council's own wording) | Appeals | Overturned |
|---|---|---|
| Refusal-to-assess decisions subsequently challenged via appeal to the First-tier Tribunal | 13 | — |
Freedom of Information responses
Awaiting classification
As indexed by WhatDoTheyKnow's own search engine (full attachment 'FOI RESPONSE FOI 24 006107.pdf' not directly viewable in this pass): SEND appeals received by year - '...er 2021 = 72' [1 April - 31 December 2021], '1 January - 31 December 2022 = 139', '1 January - 31 December 2023 = 125', '1 January - 1 October 2024 = 140'. On outcome: '1 April - 31 December 2021 - all 72 of the cases were concluded. Of these 72 cases, many were agreed by con[sent]...' (snippet cuts off before further detail).
Caveat: Search snippet is truncated before it states the actual won/lost/conceded split for 2021, and does not show the equivalent outcome breakdown for 2022-2024 at all; the full figures require reading the source PDF directly.
As indexed by WhatDoTheyKnow's own search engine (full attachment 'FOI 26 008638.pdf' not directly viewable in this pass): Q2(a) refusal-to-assess decisions figure: '2023 = 99, 2024 = 102, 2025 = 215'. Q2(b) of these, number subsequently challenged via appeal to the First-tier Tribunal: '2023 = 10 (Note: we did not start recording until late in 2023 when SEND came back in-house), 2024 = 3...' (snippet cuts off; the 2025 tribunal-challenge figure and the full Q8 SEND-Tribunal-appeals-and-concessions answer were not recovered).
Caveat: This is the only West Northamptonshire response in this catalogue with an overall WhatDoTheyKnow status of 'Successful' rather than 'Awaiting classification', suggesting the requester rated it fully answered -- but the Q8 Tribunal-appeals-and-concessions figures specifically could not be confirmed in this pass since only a Q2 snippet was recovered from the search index.