After you send in your appeal, the SEND Tribunal aims to reply within 10 working days (working days do not include Saturdays, Sundays, bank holidays, any day between 25 December to 1 January, or any day in August) of registering your appeal.

This can take longer when the Tribunal receives a high number of appeals around the same time.

The Tribunal will tell you about important dates. It will tell you when the LA are required to respond to your appeal, give you a deadline to send further evidence and tell you when the hearing date will be. You should also expect to receive a Case Review Form. These key dates are legal directions and must be kept to.

At the same time, the Tribunal will write to the LA, sending them a copy of your appeal documents.

The LA will need to send its response to the SEND Tribunal by the deadline in the registration letter you receive. This is usually within 30 working days of receiving your appeal documents from the SEND Tribunal.

The LA must state whether it opposes your appeal and why. They must send you a copy of its response at the same time: tell the SEND Tribunal if you are not sent this.

Make sure that any evidence you did not send in with your appeal form is sent to the Tribunal by the final evidence deadline set. Always send a copy to the LA at the same time. The Case Review Form will also be due by this date.

The case review form is a summary of the appeal and if there are still outstanding issues the Tribunal may decide they need to do a telephone case management call (TCMC)

At least 10 working days before the hearing, the LA will send you and the Tribunal the bundle’, a page-numbered set of the documents the Tribunal has been sent regarding the case. Guidance for producing a Bundle - SEND Form 40

The SEND Tribunal is currently receiving more appeals than ever before. As a result, hearing dates are being set extremely far in advance.

The Tribunal must reserve a number of hearings for appeals concerning children and young people who are moving to a new phase of education in September.

The SEND Tribunal will prioritise hearings for phase transfer appeals and/or for children/young people out of education. You should make the Tribunal aware and can ask for an earlier hearing date if either apply, or if there are other reasons that the child or young person needs an urgent hearing. Because the SEND Tribunal needs to prioritise hearing dates many will be rescheduled.

Please see the link for further information on hearings and rescheduled hearings.  The hearing | (IPSEA)                        

If you need to ask the tribunal for something, such as an extension of time, a change to a hearing date, or permission to bring another witness, you will need to use Request for change: Form SEND7 - GOV.UK.

Before submitting the SEND 7 you must have consulted the other party, this will be the LA and Pathfinders.

You need to give 5 working days for a reply, the reply will need to be sent with the form.

• Name of the person the appeal is about.
• The appeal number, which will be at the top at the case directions.
• The type of appeal, for example, a Section I appeal.
• The LA, the parent, carer or young person is appealing against. (Central Bedfordshire Council)
• The final hearing date.
• The date he sent the request for change to the LA/
• You must tick the box if the hearing has been previously adjourned.
• Tick the box or boxes that are relevant to the request you are making. For example, if you would like to request an earlier hearing date, tick the ‘A change to the final hearing date’ box
• Details of the changes you are requesting. This could be something such as an extension to submit final evidence.
• Complete the date of the request and tick the box of who is making the request.
• Finally, a copy of the completed form needs to be sent to send@justice.gov.uk and copy in the LA and Pathfinders.
• Send the form using the following format in the subject line:
• Current hearing date, appeal number, the child or young person's full name, subject.

A working document is a copy of the final statement, on which both parties have worked to show the changes to the wording that they want or can agree, as well as those issues which the Tribunal must decide on the day of the final hearing.

Usually, because the LA has prepared the final statement electronically, they prepare the first draft, after they have seen the Notice of Appeal. They then send it to the parents who can consider it and decide whether they agree with it. The parents can amend it to show the changes they are prepared to agree and to highlight those which are still not agreed before sending it back to the LA for further consideration.

No time is set aside for the parties to negotiate at the hearing so the working document must be considered, prepared and distributed before the hearing.

The working document is sent to the Tribunal in advance of the hearing so that they are aware of the detailed wording in dispute. Sometimes the options preferred by the two parties are brief and immediately clear to the reader. On other occasions the issues are more complex and/or lengthy and may be confusing unless the document is carefully drafted.

If specific wording is derived from written evidence contained in the tribunal bundle, include a reference to the page or pages but avoid footnotes.

The Tribunal only needs the last copy of the working document; this need be electronic and hard copies.

These should arrive at least ten working days before the final hearing date.

If the wording changes after that deadline, the LA must:

• email the new version to the tribunal and the other party
• bring 5 paper copies of it to the hearing, so it can be added to the parties’ and tribunal’s bundles.

Working Document Guidance send23-eng.pdf

The Tribunal recommends a standard key to the document which will show each party’s position: Make sure the key is included in the working document.

Before the Hearing, the Tribunal may ask you and the LA to write a Position Statement, especially if there have been several options offered, or considerations made since the appeal was first submitted. Position statements can be a helpful way of getting your points across to the judge and the LA clearly and concisely, (and can be helpful if you are nervous about speaking at the hearing).

It helps the Judge have a clearer understanding before the hearing about the remaining issues and what has been tried to resolve them.

What to include in a position statement?

• It should be a short document of 1 to 2 sides of A4 paper.
• Put a heading at the top; case number/ Ref, yours and the other names with the date and time of the hearing.
• What has happened since the last hearing / Conversation with the Tribunal (for example, documents you have sent to the court, documents you have received from the LA and professionals, any documents the LA were supposed to send to you which you have not received)?
• If you have not complied with any tribunal directions, then provide a short explanation (a direction is when the court asks you do something such as finalise the working document)
• Any tribunal directions that the other party (the local authority for example) has failed to comply with.
• What directions do you want the court to make at the hearing? (i.e. to direct the LA to consult with a therapist of education setting)

What outcome do you want?

It helps to write a chronological list, especially where a lot of dates are involved.

Things to remember:

• Keep it short and concise
• Keep it factual
• Keep points easily identifiable

It helps to have a copy to read from for the hearing to help you explain clearly and quickly.

When you receive the registration documents there will be a table with a Key Dates Timetable.