SEND Sheffield: City Council spends £200,000 fighting parents at tribunals and loses 97 per cent of the time

Sheffield City Council is spending tens of thousands of pounds in court fighting parents over care plans for children with special educational needs (SEND) - only to lose their case 97 per cent of the time.

A Freedom of Information request by The Star has laid bare how much time and money the local authority spends contesting Education, Care and Health Plans (EHCPs) for special needs children that could be saved by just working with parents.

Moreover, in the past two years, the council has been successful in just four cases out of 87 - in the other 83 hearings, the courts ruled parents were right to question them.

And the number of tribunals heard in court more than tripled in 2023, each representing a child waiting for help to access education.

A human rights lawyer and SEND rights advocate in Sheffield, Chrissy Meleady, called the figures "extremely disturbing."

What are EHC Plans and SEND tribunals?

SEND tribunals happen when parents disagree with what local authorities set out for their children in their Education, Care and Health (EHC) plans.

Without these plans - or one that doesn't meet their requirements- SEND children are often unable to get the help they need in school to learn. This might include ruling that they should get a place in a special school, need one-to-one care, or require Speech, Language, and Occupational Therapy. They typically take years of assessments and meetings to arrange.

However, if parents think the plans will not work for their child, or find them discriminatory, the council can defend their decisions in court at a First Tier Tribunal for Special Educational Needs and Disability (SENDIST).

SEND rights advocate group Special Needs Jungle writes: "However, as always, we’d like to remind you of this; parent carers do not ‘win’ Tribunal appeals. Ever.

"If a SENDIST appeal is allowed, and even if goes the families’ way, what you think they’ve ‘won’ is only the same right to an appropriate education that millions of families of children without SEND take for granted – just with extra delay and pain.

"The SEND Tribunal isn’t a marriage guidance counsellor and it doesn’t take 'sides'; it applies the law. It looks at official decisions and amends them if law and evidence show that those decisions were faulty."

Sheffield parent Jennifer Dunstan told The Star how the stress of preparing for a SEND tribunal for her boy Rio was so great she lost "50 per cent of her hair" in the year running up to October 2023.

Jennifer fought to prove the council had the right to free school meals Rio when his EHCP showed he needed one-to-one tutelage in a calm, quiet environment - something three separate special schools told her they couldn't provide.

She told The Star: "Preparing for a SEND tribunal is like a terrible game of ping pong where the ball is your child.

"You just get lost watching your cases get passed back and forth by caseworkers and departments at the council.

"I was Rio's full time carer and mum while also spending countless nights up researching all I could - the Education Act, Disability Act, reading ombudsman and tribunal rulings. And if often felt like I was telling council staff 'have you thought about it this' and they come back saying 'oh you were right'.

"I don't know if they don't have enough staff handling SEND or a lack of knowledge, but I also believe they delay cases, by years at a time, so they can spread their resources.

"And when you find a solicitor, they tell you you have a case but they don't accept legal aid for education matters. I was already in debt, on benefits and fighting for money I was owed by the local authority. It was a nightmare."

Jennifer's case was eventually settled out of court without even going to a hearing in a landmark ruling for parents caring for their children full-time.

What is the cost of SEND tribunals in Sheffield?

Now, The Star can reveal how in Sheffield these hearings not only cost the taxpayer tens of thousands of pounds, but are unsuccessful for the council so frequently they arguably shouldn't have gone to court at all.

In 2022, Sheffield City Council spent at least £44,455.55 on 18 tribunal hearings, costing approximately £2,469 per child.

They were successful in two cases.

Then, in 2023, both the number of tribunals and the costs tripled. The council spent £138,638.86 on 69 tribunal hearings, costing approximately £2,009 each.

They, again, were only successful in two cases.

It means, in these two years, the council's decisions on how SEND children should be cared for were upheld less than three per cent of the time.

The Star has asked the council's FOI team to clarify if the cost of agency lawyers, educational psychologists, senior managers, and specialists or school staff brought in for a day as witnesses for the hearings are included in the figures. If not, then the costs are likely to be far higher.

The figures mirror national statistics. A report in 2023 by the Disabled Children's Partnership and non-profit group Pro Bono Economics found £60m of taxpayer's money was spent on 5,600 tribunals in England 2021-2022. £46m was paid by the local authority and £13.5m by the courts.

Just 3.7 per cent of them went in the local authority's favour.

Sheffield-based human rights advocate and chief executive of non-profit Equality and Human Rights UK Chrissy Meleady, said the tribunals represent money that could have been spent simply supporting SEND children and funding places in schools.

She said: "These cases should never have seen a court room but should be getting resolved by the local authority and their partners in health locally.

"This would save a lot of suffering and financial losses to families and would benefit the public purse too.

"A sizeable number of SEND unit places could have been funded with the money that Sheffield City Council has wasted on unsuccessful court disputes.

"In addition to this is the fiscal, emotional and mental adverse impacts caused to these families, in having to battle against their own local authority for SEND provisions that they were always entitled to in the first place.

"There is an unwarranted and significant strain being placed on Sheffield’s disabled children and young people, as well as their parents and carers, while they battle for this support.

"Families in Sheffield are experiencing that it benefits the local authority to have these cases dragged through the courts because as long as they are protracted, the local authority can conserve resources. And they as a local authority don’t have to pay anything to the court either."

Chrissy also claims research suggests that the cost to His Majesty’s Court & Tribunal Service is over £3,000 per child to pay for preparation, administration and the hearing day itself.

Sheffield City Council has been contacted for a comment on what will be done to reform SEND tribunals in the city.