How to Appeal an EHCP Decision Using AI

The letter arrives and your stomach drops. The local authority (LA) has refused to assess your child, refused to issue a plan, or sent a final plan that doesn’t describe the child you know. It’s okay to feel furious, or flattened, or both. Here’s the part that matters: an EHCP decision isn’t final just because the letter sounds final, and parents who appeal almost always win. This is a calmer way through, drafting your appeal with the free SEND Parents Help assistant.

Start with this prompt

Open the assistant, paste in the letter text and your rough evidence list, then paste this. It asks the assistant to decode the refusal and draft your grounds in one go.

I’m appealing a decision about my child’s Education, Health and Care Plan in England. My child is [age] and has [diagnosis or main difficulties]. The local authority has [refused to assess / refused to issue a plan / issued a final plan I disagree with]. Here is the decision letter: [paste the letter text]. Please do three things. First, list each reason the local authority gives, in plain English. Second, tell me which legal test applies and whether each reason stands up to it. Third, draft numbered grounds of appeal that respond to every reason, referring to my evidence: [list what you have, for example school reports, a paediatrician letter, your own notes]. Keep the tone factual and calm.

The assistant asks questions before it drafts, so a rough start is fine. New to ChatGPT? Our two-minute setup guide gets you a free account. If your letter is on paper or in a scanned PDF, our free Doc Tools page pulls the text out in your browser, with nothing uploaded, ready to paste in.

The four things that win an appeal

Strong grounds answer the letter point by point, in the calm, factual style the panel expects. As you draft with the assistant, keep four habits:

• Answer every reason the LA gave. Quote each one, explain why it’s wrong, and point to the evidence. Ask the assistant to check each ground still maps to a specific reason from the letter.
• Know the legal test for your route. For a refusal to assess, the test in section 36 of the Children and Families Act 2014 is deliberately low: your child “may have” special educational needs and provision “may be” necessary. For a refusal to issue, the question is whether a plan is “necessary”. An LA can’t refuse to assess just because your child has no diagnosis, or because the school hasn’t spent a set amount first.
• Lead with evidence, not emotion. “Needs help in the playground” is weak. “Requires an adult within arm’s reach at every break because he has run into the road twice this term” is evidence. Build a list so every claim points at a document: the decision letter, everything you sent with the original request, professional reports, school evidence, your own dated notes, and a short chronology.
• Be specific and quantified. Appealing the contents of a plan? Ask for “1:1 support for 3 hours per week in literacy”, not “additional support as needed”. Then ask the assistant to play devil’s advocate: “Respond to these grounds as the LA would. Where am I weakest?”

If you’re new to EHCPs entirely, start with what an EHCP is and whether your child needs one.

A few key facts

• The SEND Tribunal is free and you don’t need a solicitor.
• You need a mediation certificate before most appeals, a legal requirement under section 55 of the Children and Families Act 2014. You don’t have to attend mediation itself; tell the adviser you just want the certificate, normally issued within 3 working days. An appeal about nothing except the school named in Section I needs no certificate.
• The form depends on your route. SEND35A is only for a refusal to carry out an EHC needs assessment. Every other appeal, including refusal to issue and disagreements with Sections B, F or I, uses SEND35. Refusal-to-assess appeals are usually decided on written evidence without a hearing.
• If the LA refused to assess, you also have a second route: a fresh request with new evidence. Our post on what to do when the LA refuses to assess compares the two.
• When SEND appeals reach a hearing, parents win in roughly 99% of cases, and many more settle earlier because the council concedes, per the tribunal statistics.
• The wait is long: many appeals aren’t heard until 10 to 12 months after registration. Our guide to what actually happens at the SEND Tribunal covers the hearing itself.

Check it yourself before you send

AI can be confidently wrong, and you sign the appeal, not the assistant. Before anything leaves your house:

• Read it back as yourself. Every sentence must be true to your child; cut anything that isn’t.
• Confirm the deadline. Count 2 months from the letter date yourself and check the rules on the SEND Tribunal page on GOV.UK. Don’t take any date from an AI on trust.
• Use the current form. Download SEND35 or SEND35A from GOV.UK directly.
• Check every factual claim and legal reference. Dates, names, quotes from reports. The SEND Code of Practice is the statutory guidance; skim the paragraphs the draft cites. Swapping your child’s full name for initials before pasting also keeps their details private.

If your young person is 16 or over, the right of appeal is legally theirs, so they’ll need to be named and involved.

Getting help

You don’t have to do this with only an AI for company. Free, expert humans exist:

• IPSEA offers free legal advice on EHCP appeals, template letters, and tribunal guides, a strong second pair of eyes on your grounds.
• Your local SENDIASS gives free, impartial support in every LA area, and can attend mediation or the hearing with you.
• SOS!SEN runs a free helpline and workshops on tribunal appeals, including help writing grounds of appeal.

Sources and further reading

Legislation and official guidance

• Children and Families Act 2014, section 36 (the legal test for an EHC needs assessment)
• Children and Families Act 2014, section 51 (the right of appeal to the tribunal)
• Children and Families Act 2014, section 55 (the mediation requirement before an appeal)
• SEND Tribunal: appeal an EHC plan decision (deadlines, forms, and how to appeal)
• SEND Code of Practice (statutory guidance on EHC plans and disagreement resolution)

Statistics

• Tribunal statistics quarterly (SEND appeal volumes and outcomes)