Special Educational Needs: Appeals

(asked on 2nd March 2020) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to reduce the number of cancellations of first hearings in Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunals.


Answered by
 Portrait
Lord Keen of Elie
This question was answered on 13th March 2020

The Ministry of Justice recognises that there is a high level of postponements in the Special Educational Needs and Disability jurisdiction of the First-tier Tribunal (“the SEND Tribunal”). Statistics show that 77% of cases listed for hearing in 2018/19 were postponed, compared with 76% in 2017/18. The number of postponements (2,900 in 2018/19) is due to two factors. The first is that there has been a significant increase in the number of appeals received (an increase of more than in the last three years); and the second is related to the listing policy currently in place where cases are listed for hearing upon receipt and hearings have to be postponed if the date is unsuitable to the parties involved.

The SEND Tribunal has increased the number of administrative staff, legal advisers, salaried and fee-paid judges in the course of the past year. A campaign to recruit a further 50 fee-paid judges and 100 specialist members is being taken forward by the Judicial Appointments Commission. The posts will be filled in the next financial year.

The tribunal will introduce a revised listing process in April 2020 under which parties will be asked to identify, in a two-week window, dates on which they will be able to attend. This will enable a mutually convenient date to be identified in advance of the hearing being fixed.

These two measures will reduce the number of cases which are postponed after they have been listed for hearing.

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