“I want a different school named.”
The council has named a school you don't agree with, or left Section I empty. An appeal can change what Section I says, and this is the appeal we know best.
Reviewed by Tom, specialist SEND advocate. Last updated 19 August 2026.
The law starts from your choice. If the school you ask for is a maintained school, an academy, a non-maintained special school, a further education college, or an independent school approved under section 41, then under section 39 of the Children and Families Act 2014 the council must name it unless it proves an exception: that the school is unsuitable for your child's age, ability, aptitude or needs, or that naming it is incompatible with the efficient education of others or the efficient use of resources.
Making that exception out is the council's job.
In practice, almost every one of these appeals turns on a two-step comparison. First, is the council's named school actually suitable for your child's needs as Sections B and F describe them? If it is not, cost cannot save it. Second, if both schools could meet your child's needs, the difference in cost between them becomes the battleground: the council is entitled to rely on the extra expense of your choice, and the appeal then turns on the real figures rather than the headline fees. Councils' cost comparisons are often less robust than they look, and testing that arithmetic is one of the first things we do.
Asking for an independent school outside that list changes the route (section 9 of the Education Act 1996) and the test: still winnable, but differently. We tell you which track you are on at the free call.
The appeal deadline
The clock starts on the date the finalised plan naming the school you disagree with, or leaving Section I blank, was issued. You have two months from that date to register an appeal. If your appeal is only about which school is named, or whether one is named at all, you do not have to contact mediation first; if you do go to mediation anyway, the deadline becomes one month from your mediation certificate instead, whichever date is later.
How long it takes
A school naming dispute is usually bound up with the wording of Sections B and F, and many of these appeals settle before the hearing date, once the council has tested its unsuitability or resources argument against properly gathered evidence and found it doesn't hold. Tribunal listing times vary widely and the system is heavily backlogged, so we tell you the realistic current picture for your case on the free call.
What we do at each stage
We register the appeal and set out the grounds under the correct route, section 39 or section 9, from the outset.
Every letter, email and directions notice from here on is ours to handle, not yours.
What the case needs to defeat the council's likely unsuitability or resources argument, and any independent expert evidence that strengthens it.
Section I sits alongside Sections B and F, and most of these cases are actually decided in this negotiation, not at the hearing.
If the case reaches a hearing, we prepare the bundle and argue the suitability and resources case directly.
What it costs
Casework for a naming-a-school appeal is £4,200 including VAT, covering registration through to the final evidence bundle. Hearing-day advocacy is £1,800 per hearing day for our own casework clients, or you can instruct casework and representation together as one represented appeal, end to end, for £6,000 including VAT. As with every appeal type, you are billed at case milestones, and a stage the case never reaches is never billed.
All prices include VAT. Stage-billed: if the council settles early, later stages are never billed.
All prices include VAT, ex-VAT figures shown as small print. For the full stage-by-stage breakdown, the hearing-day representation-only rate, and the stage-billing table, see every SEND tribunal fee we charge.
From our casework
Questions parents ask first
Can the council just say our school is too expensive?
How long does it take?
Not sure this is your appeal? Not ready to commit to casework yet? see what a written case review gives you before you decide.
Book a free 20-minute call. We will listen, and give you a straight view on whether an appeal is worth bringing.