See answers to previous information requests

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please provide the following information concerning appeals against your local authority registered with the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability). Please provide the information separately for each of these financial years:
• 2021/22
• 2022/23
• 2023/24
• 2024/25
• 2025/26

For each year, please provide:
1. The total number of SEND Tribunal appeals concluded during that year.

2. The number of those appeals that did not proceed to a contested final hearing because the local authority conceded or settled the appeal.

3. Of the appeals identified in question 2, the number conceded or settled:
• Before a final hearing date had been scheduled
• More than 28 calendar days before the scheduled final hearing
• 15 to 28 calendar days before the scheduled final hearing
• 8 to 14 calendar days before the scheduled final hearing
• 4 to 7 calendar days before the scheduled final hearing
• 2 to 3 calendar days before the scheduled final hearing
• One calendar day before the scheduled final hearing
• On the scheduled day of the final hearing, before the hearing began

For this request, “conceded or settled” means a case in which the local authority changed or withdrew its position so that the appeal did not proceed to a contested final hearing. This includes cases resolved through a consent order, agreement between the parties or withdrawal by the parent or young person following a change in the local authority’s position.
It does not include cases withdrawn solely at the initiative of the parent or young person without the local authority changing its position.
Where a hearing was rescheduled, please calculate the interval using the final hearing date that was scheduled at the time the appeal was conceded or settled.
If the information is not already held in the time bands requested, please instead provide, for each appeal identified in question 2:
• The financial year in which the appeal concluded
• The date on which the local authority conceded or settled the appeal
• The scheduled final hearing date in place at that time, or confirmation that no hearing date had yet been scheduled
Please provide these dates without names, tribunal reference numbers or any other information that could identify a child, young person or family. I can calculate the relevant intervals from the anonymised dates.
If exact dates cannot be disclosed because of the risk of identification, please provide the number of calendar days between the concession or settlement and the scheduled final hearing instead.
If any part of this request would exceed the appropriate cost limit, please provide the information that can be supplied within the limit and advise what refinement would allow the remainder to be answered.