Formal appeals and the SEN and Disability Tribunal (SENDIST)

If the complaint is about permanent exclusion (expulsion) from a maintained (state-funded) school, you should appeal to the Exclusion Appeals Panel. If the complaint is about admission to a maintained school, you should appeal to the Admissions Appeals Panel. Appeals about admissions or permanent exclusions must normally be made within fifteen school days of the dated letter from the head teacher telling you of the exclusion. Details of how to appeal should normally be included in the letter that tells you about the decision. Appeals about admission to, or permanent exclusion from, non-maintained (private) schools should be referred to SENDIST.
Appeals about provision of education and associated services, and fixed-term exclusions from any type of school should also be made to SENDIST.

If the complaint is about an institution of further or higher education, you can contact the Equality and Human Rights Commission in England, Scotland and Wales or the Equality Commsission in Northern Ireland for more information on how to make a complaint about disability discrimination.

SENDIST (the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal)

More detailed information about SEN and disability discrimination claims and appeals, including booklets on how to appeal, is available from SENDIST.

You can appeal to SENDIST on the following decisions:

• You asked the authority to carry out an assessment, and it decided this was not necessary (as long as the authority had not carried out a formal assessment on your child in the six months before your request).
• The authority made an assessment but decided not to issue a statement.
• You asked to change the school named in your child’s statement and the authority refused (as long as you asked for a maintained school and your child had a statement maintained by the authority for at least a year at the time of your request).
• The authority decided not to maintain your child’s statement any more.
• The authority carried out a re-assessment but decided not to amend the statement.

In a new (proposed or final) or amended statement, you can appeal against:

• the description in part 2 of your child’s needs;
• the description in part 3 of the provision to meet these needs;
• the school named in part 4; or
• the fact that no school is named in the final statement.

In any of the cases listed above, you have two months from the date you are notified of the authority’s decision to appeal to the tribunal. More information about the time limits for authorities and the tribunal is available from SENDIST.

Remedies

SENDIST can order any type of remedy, apart from financial compensation. For example, the tribunal could require the school to:

• make reasonable adjustments to prevent similar discrimination in the future;
• change policies to prevent discrimination;
• carry out staff training on disability awareness;
• organise meetings with the pupil, parents and the authority to ensure that changes have been made; or
• provide additional teaching to help a pupil catch up if the discrimination meant they missed teaching.