Unhappy with an Education, Health and Care Plan decision

Assessments and mediation

Before you can register an appeal with the Tribunal, you must contact a mediation adviser within 2 months of the local authority decision you wish to appeal and consider whether mediation might be a way to resolve your disagreement with the local authority. If you want to appeal only about the school or other institution named in the Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan you do not have to contact a mediation adviser.

You can go to mediation about the health and social care elements of an EHC plan, but this is not compulsory. You can request recommendations about health and social care issues without having to receive mediation advice or attend mediation about those issues, provided there is also an education issue about which you're appealing.

Once a mediation adviser has been contacted, or once you have taken part in mediation, you'll be issued with a certificate. This will be necessary if you’re still unhappy and wish to progress to an appeal with the Tribunal. An appeal to the Tribunal must usually be made within 2 months of the decision about which the appeal is being made or one month following the issuing of the mediation certificate, whichever is the latter.

If mediation resolves the educational issues, you will not be able to appeal to the Tribunal on any health or social care aspects of the EHC plan. However, mediation supplies an opportunity for us to resolve disagreements and it can be completed more quickly than an appeal. It does not affect your right to make an educational appeal, and some aspects of the disagreement can go to appeal even when other aspects are resolved.