Home › South West › Dorset Council
Dorset Council
Data availableSouth West
154
appeals registered, 2024 (official DfE figure)
143
appeals registered, 2025 (official DfE figure)
Data available. At least one Freedom of Information response gives real, extractable figures on tribunal appeals or outcomes for this council.
Estimated outcome breakdown
Estimated, not reported
Resolved before hearing — 104 (72.7%)
Contested, council lost — 26 (18.2%)
Contested, council won — 7 (4.9%)
Partially split — 6 (4.2%)
This council's own answer doesn't give a usable outcome breakdown. This estimate applies the pooled England-wide outcome rate (no regional sample was large enough to trust on its own) to this council's own real, officially-published appeal volume for 2025 (143 appeals) — see how estimates work.
By decision type
By decision type — 2023
| Category (council's own wording) | Appeals | Overturned |
|---|---|---|
| challenged via First-tier Tribunal appeal | 7 | — |
By decision type — 2024
| Category (council's own wording) | Appeals | Overturned |
|---|---|---|
| challenged via First-tier Tribunal appeal | 25 | — |
By decision type — 2025
| Category (council's own wording) | Appeals | Overturned |
|---|---|---|
| challenged via First-tier Tribunal appeal | 23 | — |
Freedom of Information responses
Awaiting classification
Q8. Dorset SEND Tribunal appeals and concessions: 2023: (a) total appeals registered at First-tier Tribunal (SEND) = 100, (b) appeals conceded by the LA before final hearing = 52. 2024: (a)=152, (b)=75. 2025: (a)=143, (b)=57. Q2. Outcomes of challenges to refusal-to-assess decisions: 2023: (a) challenged via statutory mediation=14, (b) challenged via First-tier Tribunal appeal=7, (c) number overturned = withheld ('This would require scrutiny of each child's record'), (d) average time to overturn = withheld, same reason. 2024: (a)=25, (b)=25, (c)/(d) withheld same reason. 2025: (a)=20, (b)=23, (c)/(d) withheld same reason. Council explained (c)/(d) withheld under s12 FOIA cost limit: 114 individual records would need manual review at ~90 minutes each (~171 staff hours total). Also answered inline: Q1 phase-transfer reviews (2024: 1173 due/387 completed by deadline; 2025: 3030 due/389 completed — combined, not split by deadline type); Q3 EP advice timeliness; Q4 EP advice provenance/source breakdown; Q5 external EP arrangements (Connect2Dorset joint venture, launched 8 April 2024); Q6 SEND corporate complaints by year (23-24: 130 total/34 part-justified/48 fully-justified; 24-25: 190/45/73; 25-26: 386/94/112); Q7 LGSCO decisions (Apr23-Mar24: 20 decisions/£69,608 remedies; Apr24-Mar25: 32/£40,630; Apr25-Mar26: not yet published).
Caveat: The refusal-to-assess overturn RATE (Q2c/d — how many of the mediation/tribunal challenges actually succeeded) was explicitly withheld under the section 12 cost-limit exemption, so only raw challenge counts (not outcomes) are available for Q2. Q8 explicitly excludes outcomes of fully-contested hearings — only pre-hearing concession counts are given alongside appeal volume.
Re-use terms stated by the council: Most of the information we provide is subject to copyright protection. You are free to use the information for your own non-commercial research or private study... you may also use information created by Dorset Council for certain other purposes under the terms of the Open Government Licence.