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Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council
Data availableNorth West
52
appeals registered, 2024 (official DfE figure)
166
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.
This council says it doesn't track this. In its FOI response, Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council told the requester it does not categorise SEND tribunal appeals as simply "won" or "lost" — most are resolved by consent order rather than a contested ruling. See why that's true almost everywhere.
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.
- Wigan 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 · 01942 233323.
- 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 — 116 (69.5%)
Contested, council lost — 30 (18%)
Contested, council won — 18 (10.8%)
Partially split — 3 (1.8%)
This council's own answer doesn't give a usable outcome breakdown. This estimate applies the pooled outcome rate from other North West councils with real reported figures to this council's own real, officially-published appeal volume for 2025 (166 appeals) — see how estimates work.
Freedom of Information responses
Awaiting classification
Response to 'LBC REQUEST - FOI SEND provision' batch FOI (ref FOI 17188). Q1 (spend on SEND provision 2019-2024): not held, no specific budget for tribunals/mediations. Q2 (legal team spend on SEND appeals 2019-2024): refused under s12 FOIA (would take 15-30 mins per file across every appeal file, exceeding 18-hour cost limit). Q3a, number of appeals that went to mediation as a result of appeals to decision-making around EHC needs assessment and EHC Plans: 2019-7, 2020-3, 2021-25, 2022-47, 2023-85, 2024 YTD-80. Q3b, of these, number of mediation cases that proceeded to tribunal: 2019-0, 2020-0, 2021-0, 2022-7, 2023-13, 2024 YTD-33. Q4, of tribunal cases, found in favour of Wigan Council: 2019-n/a, 2020-n/a, 2021-n/a, 2022-0, 2023-2, 2024-3.
Caveat: Figures in this response (framed around 'mediation cases proceeding to tribunal') are substantially inconsistent with the figures Wigan gave in its separate 'EHCP Statistics Query' response (request ehcp_statistics_query_4, e.g. that document shows 19 cases going to tribunal in 2021 vs. 0 here) and its 'First-tier Tribunal' response (request first_tier_tribunal_special_educ_18, which shows only 1 case per year 2017-2019). The three Wigan FOI responses appear to use different scopes/definitions (mediation-escalated-to-tribunal vs. total appeals-that-reached-tribunal vs. contested hearings actually defended) and should not be combined or treated as the same metric.
Successful
Response to 'EHCP Statistics Query' (ref REQUEST 16936), question 6: 'How many EHCP appeals have happened in each of the past 10 years, and of those how many went to tribunal each year?' Table (Years / Number of Appeals / Tribunal Number): 2014: 10 appeals / 10 to tribunal. 2015: 1 / 1. 2016: 3 / 3. 2017: 7 / 7. 2018: 11 / 2. 2019: 7 / 4. 2020: 3 / 3. 2021: 25 / 19. 2022: 47 / 17. 2023: 85 / 24. Question 6b (how many tribunals were won each year): 'Wigan Council do not hold and record the number of tribunals won/lost each year.' [Document also contains EHCP census/waiting-list/home-education figures unrelated to tribunals, omitted here as out of scope.]
Caveat: Wigan's win/loss-by-tribunal data is explicitly stated as not held/recorded. These 'appeals'/'tribunal' figures do not match the 'mediation proceeding to tribunal' figures given in Wigan's other FOI response (lbc_request_foi_send_provision_326) for the overlapping years 2019-2023 -- e.g. 2021 shows 19 here vs 0 there -- indicating different definitions were used across the two responses.
Response to FOI 9958 ('First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability)'). Number of cases Wigan LEA defended in the First-tier Tribunal (SEND): 2017-1, 2018-1, 2019-1. Number of cases won: 2017-0, 2018-1, 2019-n/a ('The 19/20 case is still ongoing'). Legal costs for defending cases at Tribunal: 2017-£23,469; 2018-£22,485; 2019-n/a ('The 19/20 case is still ongoing'). Note appended: 'These amounts include spend by the LA on SENDIST casework. It includes any money spent preparing for, or during SEND tribunals and the amount of money allocated to internal counsel for SENDIST casework.'
Caveat: This response defines 'cases defended' very narrowly (apparently only cases that reached a contested Tribunal hearing), giving just 1 case per year for 2017-2019 -- far lower than the tens of appeals per year shown in Wigan's other two FOI responses covering overlapping years, which count appeals lodged / proceeding from mediation. The three Wigan datasets are not reconcilable without knowing the precise stage each one measures.