What is the LA's role in SEND mediation?

Local authorities must arrange and fund SEND mediation within 30 days of a parent requesting it, attend with someone able to resolve the dispute, and inform families of this right when notifying an appealable decision. That last duty starts the process: when you notify a parent or young person of an appealable decision, or issue or amend an EHC plan, you must tell them about their right to mediation (s.52, Children and Families Act 2014) and give them the contact details of an independent mediation adviser (reg.32, SEND Regulations 2014).

You arrange and fund it, but you do not run it

This is the point most parent-facing guidance does not spell out for the council side. For any dispute that is not about health care, the LA must arrange the mediation and must ensure it is conducted by an independent person, meaning a mediator not employed by the council (s.54). You pay for it; you do not chair it. Practically, that means the council cannot:

• refuse to mediate, or treat the request as optional;
• narrow what it is willing to mediate about, because the family sets the issues, not the LA;
• let the 30-day clock slip, which runs from the date the family told you they wished to pursue mediation (reg.36, SEND Regulations 2014);
• send a note-taker. The person attending must have actual authority to resolve the issues, and the family needs at least 5 working days' notice of the date and place (reg.37).

The one appeal that skips mediation

A family normally cannot appeal to the First-tier Tribunal until a mediation adviser has issued a certificate confirming they were given the mediation information and either took part or chose not to. There is one exception worth knowing on the caseworker side: where the appeal concerns only the school or institution named (or not named), or the type of placement specified, known as a section I-only appeal, no certificate is needed and the family can go straight to the Tribunal (s.55). If you receive a section I-only appeal that never went through mediation, that is correct, not a procedural gap. For how a placement-only appeal works, see appealing when the council names the wrong school, and for the term itself the SEND mediation glossary entry.

Where this is heading

Nothing above has changed: the current mediation duties remain in force. But the 2026 SEND reform proposals (the Schools White Paper and the Education for All Bill) set out a greater role for mediation, with the Tribunal positioned as a backstop. If that direction holds, the mediation step will carry more statutory weight, so getting your mediation capacity and attendee-authority right now is the sensible preparation. For the related dispute routes, see responding to a Tribunal appeal and handling SEND complaints.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.