They assessed him — then refused to issue a plan
The council agreed your child needed assessing, gathered the reports — and then decided a plan wasn't 'necessary'. This refusal turns on one question: can the school genuinely meet the needs the council's own assessment found, from its ordinary resources?
Phrases to look for on your letter: “it is not necessary for special educational provision to be made” · “needs can be met from resources ordinarily available”
Why this is an appealable position
The test is whether it is necessary for provision to be made through a plan, judged against what the school can actually deliver from its own budget and staffing. The council's own assessment reports usually list needs and recommended provision — your appeal maps that list against what school has actually provided and what happened. Two years of SEN support with flat outcomes is powerful evidence that school resources alone are not enough.
Your position is strongest when
- The assessment's own reports recommend specific provision (hours, specialist input)
- SEN support has run for terms with little progress
- School says openly it cannot deliver what's needed
- Provision keeps stopping when staff are reassigned
Evidence to gather now
- Every report from the assessment itself (EP, specialists — read them closely)
- SEN support plans + review outcomes
- Emails where school flags resource limits
- Cost/hours of what's actually being delivered
Your first move
Get the full assessment file, highlight every recommended provision, and build a table: recommended vs delivered vs outcome. That table is the appeal.
Build my SEND appeal pack — £11.99Answer plain-English questions about the decision and your child, and get Tribunal-ready grounds in minutes — matched to the right HMCTS form, SEND35 or SEND35A.
Common questions
The council says the school gets SEN funding, so no plan is needed. True?
Notional SEN budgets don't decide the law. If the needs found in assessment exceed what the school demonstrably delivers, the Tribunal can find a plan necessary — and the school's own account often supports you.
How does your council compare?
Refusal rates vary wildly between councils — England's average is 26.4%, but some councils refuse over 60% of assessment requests. Look up your council's refusal rate — it's context the Tribunal never sees but you should know, and free specialist advice is available from IPSEA (ipsea.org.uk).
Where these rules come from: Children and Families Act 2014, Part 3 · SEND Regulations 2014.