Appeals to SEND formerly SENDIST Tribunal

The request was partially successful.

Dear Ministry of Justice,

The appendices to the annual reports of SEND/SENDIST show the number of appeals registered against each local authority, in alphabetical order.

I am requesting the following information:

1)
I would like details of the number of appeals registered against each local authority, presented in descending order (from the largest number to the fewest) for each LA for each of the last five years; to clarify I would like to know which LAs had the most and which LAs had the fewest number of appeals.

2)
Please provide me with the total annual number of appeals per LA per 10,000 of school population, for each of the last five years, again in descending order;

3)
Please provide details of the percentage change (increase/decrease) in the annual number of appeals made to each LA for each of the past five years; again in descending order; in addition, if possible, please provided details of the percentage change for the different types of appeal;

4)
Please provide me with the details of the overall number of appeals conceded by each Local Authority, the number of appeals withdrawn by each LA, the number of appeals won by each LA and the number of appeals lost by each LA, for each of the previous five years.

It would be helpful if this information could also be shown in terms of the percentage of the annual total number of appeals made for each LA.

5)
For the previous five years, please provide the number of appeals made to each LA:
Against refusal to assess
Against refusal to make a statement
Against refusal to change name of school
Against decision to cease to maintain statement
Against school named in statement
Against failure to name a school
Against contents of the statement - parts 2 & 3
Against contents of the statement - parts 2,3 & 4
Against contents of the statement - part 4

If possible, please provide the outcomes of the appeals, that is how many were dismissed, upheld,conceded and withdrawn for each type of appeal,for each LA.

For example:
"Somewhereshire CC" 2010
Appeal type refusal to assess: total number of appeals 30 upheld 4 withdrawn 17 conceded 5 dismissed 4

I hope that is clear, but unfortunately I am unable to format/insert an example of a table on this website request!

6) Please provide SEND's explanation/definition of the use of the terms "upheld" "conceded" "dismissed" and "withdrawn"

Section 16 of the FOIA requires authorities to provide assistance to requesters; this includes assistance to refine a request, which would otherwise be over the appropriate limit. Therefore do please contact me first in order to assist me to refine my request, if necessary, before deciding to refuse it under Section 12 of the FOIA.

I have tried to make my request as clear and specific as possible, but do please contact me if you need any clarification.

I would prefer to receive the information requested in the form of Excel spreadsheets.

Yours faithfully,

J Spicer

J Spicer left an annotation ()

I haven't received an acknowledgement 4 working days after making my request; can anyone advise me whether I should I send them a chase up message?

Dear Ministry of Justice,
Can you please confirm receipt of my FOI request sent 30 July 2011. I just want to ensure that you have received it.
Thank you,

Yours faithfully,

J Spicer

Shackell, Teresa,

1 Attachment

  • This attachment has been hidden. There are various reasons why we might have done this, sorry we can't be more specific here. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Dear Mr or Ms Spicer

 

Thank you for your e-mail of the 30^th of July to the Ministry of Justice,
Data Access and Compliance Unit. Your Freedom of Information Act request
was passed to me to deal with as I am responsible for handling requests
for data about appeals in Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service
(HMCTS).

 

Your request has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000
(FOIA), and I can confirm that the Department holds information within
scope of your request.

 

You have requested the following data, for each of the last 5 years,

 

1.        the number of appeals registered against each local authority

2.       the total annual number of appeals per LA per 10,000 of school
population

3.       the percentage change (increase/decrease) in the annual number of
appeals made to each LA, and if possible, the percentage change for the
different types of appeal;

4.       the overall number of appeals conceded, withdrawn, won and lost
by each LA (shown in numbers and terms of the percentage of the annual
total number of appeals made for each LA).

5.       the number of appeals made to each LA against

§         refusal to assess

§         refusal to make a statement

§         refusal to change name of school

§         decision to cease to maintain statement

§         school named in statement

§         failure to name a school

§         contents of the statement - parts 2 & 3

§         contents of the statement - parts 2,3 & 4

§         contents of the statement - part 4

And the outcomes of the appeals, for each LA.

6.       SEND's explanation/definition of the use of the terms "upheld"
"conceded" "dismissed" and "withdrawn"

 

 

I have understood your request to be for data concerning appeals made to
the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal and its predecessor,
relating to each of the 150 Local Authorities in England, for the academic
years 2005/6 to 2009/10. Please let me know if I have misunderstood your
requirements. In response to the elements of your request in the order
they were listed,

 

▪ the numbers of appeals received by HMCTS are detailed in the attached
spreadsheets, which summarise the data in our published reports; the
first page is in alphabetical and the second page in descending
volumes order.

 

▪ The information you require about the number of appeals per 10,000 of
school population, is available in our published annual reports for
the years 2005/6 (Appendix 2), 2006/7 (Appendix 1) and 2007/8 (Section
3.1, App 1) and the numbers of appeals received in 2008/9 and 2009/10
are also published. The full published reports can be found by
following this link,
[1]http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/c....
 HMCTS does not hold the numbers of school population beyond 2007/8.
You may wish to contact the Department of Education, regarding School
population data for 2008/9 and 2009/10 as I understand this is the
appropriate authority for school population data.

 

▪ The data in the spreadsheets enables you to establish the increases
and decreases in the annual number of appeals made to each Local
Authority. This is not information that HMCTS calculates as it has no
business need for it.

 

§         The "outcomes" data required by items 4. and 5. of your request
is held by HMCTS, but is collated for statistical
purposes.                                           That is the
information is held in our records, but has not been gathered as data. To
retrieve the information will require the running and scrutiny of a report
of the cases brought against each local authority in a year, and entering
the figures for each type of outcome per local authority into a
spreadsheet to generate the statistical data you want. It is estimated
that this would require a minimum of 20 minutes for each of the 150 Local
Authority reports, (that is 150 reports @ 20 minutes each or 50 man hours)
for each academic
year.                                                                        
 Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act makes provision for public
authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing
with them would exceed the appropriate limit, which for central government
is set at £600 or 3.5 staff days.  Items 4 & 5 of your request exceed this
limit and so this data is exempt under Section 12 of the Act.
                                                                                                                                                                   You
could refine your request by reducing the volume of the reports we would
need to examine to provide the data you require.

 

§         The definitions used in the published Special Educational Needs
and Disability Tribunal annual reports by the terms "upheld" "conceded"
"dismissed" and "withdrawn" are as follows-

 

Upheld - appeal found in favour of the parent

Conceded - the Local Authority concedes the matter being appealed and
complies with the request of the parent before the Tribunal hears the case

Dismissed - the appeals is found in favour of the Local Authority

Withdrawn - the parent withdraws their appeal before the Tribunal hears
the case

 

 

As part of our obligations under the FOIA, the MoJ has an independent
review process.  If you are dissatisfied with this response, you may write
to request an internal review.  The internal review will be carried out by
someone who did not make the original decision, and they will re-assess
how the Department handled the original request.  

 

If you wish to request an internal review, please write or send an email
to the Data Access and Compliance Unit within two months of the date of
this letter, at the following address:

 

Data Access and Compliance Unit

Information Directorate

Ministry of Justice

6^th Floor Zone B, Post point 6.25

102 Petty France

London

SW1H 9AJ

 

E-mail: [2][email address]

 

If you remain dissatisfied after an internal review decision, you have the
right to apply to the Information Commissioner's Office under Section 50
of the FOIA.  You can contact the Information Commissioner's Office at the
following address:

 

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

 

Internet:  [3]https://www.ico.gov.uk/Global/contact_us...

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Teresa Shackell

 

 

 

 

 

From: J Spicer [mailto:[FOI #81302 email]]

Sent: 30 July 2011 17:33

To: Data Access & Compliance Unit

 

Subject: Freedom of Information request - Appeals to SEND formerly SENDIST
Tribunal

 

 

Dear Ministry of Justice,

 

The appendices to the annual reports of SEND/SENDIST show the number of
appeals registered against each local authority, in alphabetical order.  I
am requesting the following information:

 

7.       I would like details of the number of appeals registered against
each local authority,  presented in descending order (from the largest
number to the fewest) for each LA for each of the last five years; to
clarify I would like to know which LAs had the most and which LAs had the
fewest number of appeals.

 

8.       Please provide me with the total annual number of appeals per LA
per 10,000 of school population, for each of the last five years, again in
descending order;

 

9.       Please provide details of the percentage change
(increase/decrease) in the annual number of appeals made to each LA for
each of the past five years; again in descending order; in addition, if
possible, please provided details of the percentage change for the
different types of appeal;

 

10.    Please provide me with the details of the overall number of appeals
conceded by each Local Authority, the number of appeals withdrawn by each
LA, the number of appeals won by each LA and the number of appeals lost by
each LA, for each of the previous five years.

 

It would be helpful if this information could also be shown in terms of
the percentage of the annual total number of appeals made for each LA.

 

11.     For the previous five years, please provide the number of appeals
made to each LA:

 

§         Against refusal to assess

§         Against refusal to make a statement

§         Against refusal to change name of school

§         Against decision to cease to maintain statement

§         Against school named in statement

§         Against failure to name a school

§         Against contents of the statement - parts 2 & 3

§         Against contents of the statement - parts 2,3 & 4

§         Against contents of the statement - part 4

 

If possible, please provide the outcomes of the appeals, that is how many
were dismissed, upheld, conceded and withdrawn for each type of appeal,
for each LA. For example:

 

"Somewhereshire CC" 2010 Appeal type refusal to assess: total number of
appeals 30, upheld 4, withdrawn 17, conceded 5, dismissed 4

 

I hope that is clear, but unfortunately I am unable to format/insert an
example of a table on this website request!

 

12.    Please provide SEND's explanation/definition of the use of the
terms "upheld" "conceded" "dismissed" and "withdrawn"

 

Section 16 of the FOIA requires authorities to provide assistance to
requesters; this includes assistance to refine a request, which would
otherwise be over the appropriate limit. Therefore do please contact me
first in order to assist me to refine my request, if necessary, before
deciding to refuse it under Section 12 of the FOIA.

 

I have tried to make my request as clear and specific as possible, but do
please contact me if you need any clarification.

 

I would prefer to receive the information requested in the form of Excel
spreadsheets.

 

 Yours faithfully,

 

 

J Spicer

 

 

This e-mail (and any attachment) is intended only for the attention of
the addressee(s). Its unauthorised use, disclosure, storage or copying
is not permitted. If you are not the intended recipient, please destroy
all
copies and inform the sender by return e-mail.

Internet e-mail is not a secure medium. Any reply to this message
could be intercepted and read by someone else. Please bear that in
mind when deciding whether to send material in response to this message
by e-mail.

This e-mail (whether you are the sender or the recipient) may be
monitored, recorded and retained by the Ministry of Justice. E-mail
monitoring / blocking software may be used, and e-mail content may be
read at any time. You have a responsibility to ensure laws are not
broken when composing or forwarding e-mails and their contents.

show quoted sections

Communications via the GSi may be automatically logged, monitored and/or
recorded for legal purposes.

References

Visible links
1. http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/c...
2. mailto:[email address]
3. https://www.ico.gov.uk/Global/contact_us...

Dear Teresa Shackell,
Thank you very much for your prompt response to my request. As you advised, I have refined the scope of my request.

In relation to questions 4 and 5, I am refining my request. I refer to page 2 "Descending" of the Excel spreadsheet attached to your response.
I would be grateful if you could provide the information requested in questions 4 and 5, for the years 2007/2008, 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 for the 20 Local Authorities with the most appeals for each year. For clarification, this is Essex through to Durham for 2007/2008, Hampshire to Manchester for 2008/2009 and Surrey to Barnet for 2009/2010.
On the basis of your advice, I calculate that this would take my request below the appropriate limit, but if I am incorrect, do please let me know and advise me further.
Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

J Spicer

Shackell, Teresa,

Dear Mr/Ms Spicer

I have begun the work needed to answer your refined data requirements.

I hope to have the data available to send to you no later than the 26th
August,

regards

Teresa Shackell


Performance Analysis and Reporting Team
HM Courts and Tribunals Service/Gwasanaeth Llysoedd a Thribiwnlysoedd EM

' 02920 662290
or 0787 948 6652

show quoted sections

Dear Teresa Shackell,
Thank you for letting me know that you can deal with my refined response. I look forward to receiving your reply.

Yours sincerely,

J Spicer

Shackell, Teresa,

1 Attachment

  • This attachment has been hidden. There are various reasons why we might have done this, sorry we can't be more specific here. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Dear Mr/Ms Spicer,

Thank you for your further e-mail of the 5th of August, refining your
original Freedom of Information Act request for data. This has also been
handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), and I can
confirm that the Department holds information within scope of your
request.

You requested the following data,

§       the overall number of appeals conceded, withdrawn, won and lost by
each LA (shown in numbers and percentages, for the years 2007/2008,
2008/2009 and 2009/2010 for the 20 Local Authorities with the most appeals
for each year the overall number of appeals conceded, withdrawn, won and
lost by each LA (shown in numbers and terms of the percentage of the
annual total number of appeals made for each LA).

§       the number of appeals made to each LA against

    *   refusal to assess

    *   refusal to make a statement

    *   refusal to change name of school

    *   decision to cease to maintain statement

    *   school named in statement

    *   failure to name a school

    *   contents of the statement - parts 2 & 3

    *   contents of the statement - parts 2,3 & 4

    *   contents of the statement - part 4

And the outcomes of the appeals, for each LA.

I have been able to provide most of the data requested, please see the
attached spreadsheets.

<<FOI 71669 data .xls>>

Unfortunately our reports do not show the outcomes of cases for each type
of appeal. This information is contained in the case files, but to examine
the files and collate the data would be work in excess of the appropriate
cost limit for dealing with Freedom of Information Act data requests. This
limit is set at £600 or 3.5 staff days for Central Government, and we have
used a little over 3.5 staff days in meeting your data requests to date.
Any further data you may require relating to this issue would therefore be
exempt under Section 12 of the Act

As part of our obligations under the FOIA, the MoJ has an independent
review process. If you are dissatisfied with this response, you may write
to request an internal review. The internal review will be carried out by
someone who did not make the original decision, and they will re-assess
how the Department handled the original request.

If you wish to request an internal review, please write or send an email
to the Data Access and Compliance Unit within two months of the date of
this letter, at the following address:

Data Access and Compliance Unit

Information Directorate

Ministry of Justice

6th Floor Zone B, Post point 6.25

102 Petty France

London

SW1H 9AJ

E-mail: [email address]

If you remain dissatisfied after an internal review decision, you have the
right to apply to the Information Commissioner's Office under Section 50
of the FOIA. You can contact the Information Commissioner's Office at the
following address:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Internet: [1]https://www.ico.gov.uk/Global/contact_us...

Yours sincerely

Teresa Shackell

 

Performance Analysis and Reporting Team

HM Courts and Tribunals Service/Gwasanaeth Llysoedd a Thribiwnlysoedd EM

 

show quoted sections

Dear Teresa Shackell,
Thank you very much for your response, which I have read with interest. I do appreciate your cooperation in dealing with my refined response.

Yours sincerely,

J Spicer

Dear Teresa Shackell,
Can you please clarify for me if the years on the spreadsheets and SEND's annual reports are calendar years (January to December) or financial years (April to April).
Many thanks,

Yours sincerely,

J Spicer

Shackell, Teresa,

Dear Mr/Ms Spicer

The data is in educational years, that is September to august, as are our
published statistics

regards

Teresa Shackell


Performance Analysis and Reporting Team
HM Courts and Tribunals Service/Gwasanaeth Llysoedd a Thribiwnlysoedd EM

show quoted sections

Dear Teresa Shackell,
Thank you for clarifying that for me so promptly.
Yours sincerely,

J Spicer