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Sunderland City Council
Data availableNorth East
108
appeals registered, 2024 (official DfE figure)
141
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 — 102 (72.3%)
Contested, council lost — 26 (18.4%)
Contested, council won — 7 (5%)
Partially split — 6 (4.3%)
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 (141 appeals) — see how estimates work.
By decision type
By decision type — 2023
| Category (council's own wording) | Appeals | Overturned |
|---|---|---|
| authority changed position and agreed to conduct the assessment | — | 34 |
By decision type — 2024
| Category (council's own wording) | Appeals | Overturned |
|---|---|---|
| authority changed position and agreed to conduct the assessment | — | 64 |
By decision type — 2025
| Category (council's own wording) | Appeals | Overturned |
|---|---|---|
| authority changed position and agreed to conduct the assessment | — | 76 |
Freedom of Information responses
Awaiting classification
Response given by Together for Children Limited (Sunderland's arms-length children's-services company) on behalf of Sunderland City Council, 7 May 2026, inline in the correspondence body (no attachment needed - only email-signature logo images were attached). Q8 'SEND Tribunal appeals and concessions': (a) total appeals registered at First-tier Tribunal (SEND) for 2023/2024/2025 - council did not give figures, stating 'Data are publicly available for 2023 and 2024 and will be available in June for 2025' (deferred to DfE published data). (b) number of appeals conceded by the authority before final hearing: 2023 - 40, 2024 - 79, 2025 - 95. Q2 (outcomes of challenges to refusal-to-assess decisions) sub-breakdown 'of the challenges..., the number where your authority subsequently changed its position and agreed to conduct the assessment': (i) total changed position - 2023: 5, 2024: 7, 2025: '<5'; (ii) via agreement at mediation - 2023: 45, 2024: 37, 2025: 62; (iii) via conceding the appeal before hearing - 2023: 34, 2024: 64, 2025: 76; (iv) via Tribunal order - 2023: '<5', 2024: '<5', 2025: '<5' (all redacted, see caveats).
Caveat: Q8(a) - the actual total-appeals-registered counts for 2023/2024/2025 were NOT disclosed in this letter; the council deferred to DfE published statistics instead. Figures under 5 are redacted throughout and shown as '<5', per the council's stated rationale: 'If the number is very low (less than 5) the information cannot be disclosed as it could potentially identify the individuals involved... exempt from disclosure under section 40(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000'. Q2(c)(ii) 'agreement at mediation' figures (45/37/62) are mediation, not Tribunal, outcomes - included here only because they appear as part of the same combined challenge-outcome breakdown as the Tribunal-relevant sub-items (iii) and (iv); the core Tribunal-specific figures are (iii) and (iv). Note the overall Q8(b) conceded totals (40/79/95, covering all appeal types) differ from the narrower Q2(c)(iii) refusal-to-assess-specific conceded-before-hearing figures (34/64/76), consistent with refusal-to-assess being the dominant but not sole appeal category. Response dated 7 May 2026; 2025 figures may not represent a complete calendar year for all metrics (Q8a note implies 2025 tribunal totals were still pending publication as of the response).