Mediation or appeal? What the certificate step actually requires

The certificate is required — the mediation is not

For most appeals, the Tribunal cannot register your case without a certificate from a mediation adviser. But telling the adviser you do not wish to mediate entitles you to that certificate:

“The parent or young person may make the appeal only if a mediation adviser has issued a certificate to him or her under subsection (4) or (5).” … “A mediation adviser must issue a certificate under this subsection to the parent or young person if— the adviser has provided him or her with information and advice about pursuing mediation under section 53 or 54, and the parent or young person has informed the adviser that he or she does not wish to pursue mediation.”

Children and Families Act 2014, s.55(3)–(4)

The Code of Practice puts a clock on the adviser: once you say you don't want to mediate, “the adviser will issue a certificate, within three working days of the parent or young person telling them that they do not want to go to mediation, confirming that information has been provided” (SEND Code of Practice (January 2015), para 11.23).

And one kind of appeal needs no certificate at all — an appeal only about the placement named (or not named) in the plan:

“But this section does not apply in respect of an appeal concerning only— the school or other institution named in an EHC plan; the type of school or other institution specified in an EHC plan; the fact that an EHC plan does not name a school or other institution.”

Children and Families Act 2014, s.55(2)

The 2-month contact window — the trap in the timetable

Whichever way you are leaning, you must contact the mediation adviser within 2 months of the LA's decision letter being sent. The regulations are explicit, in both directions:

“Where a parent or young person is required to obtain a mediation certificate, he or she must contact the mediation adviser within 2 months after written notice of the local authority's decision was sent, and inform the mediation adviser that he or she wishes to appeal and inform the mediation adviser whether they wish to pursue mediation.”

SEND Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/1530), reg 33

“The mediation adviser may not issue such a certificate if the parent or young person did not contact the mediation adviser within 2 months of the date of the notice issued by the local authority.”

SEND Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/1530), reg 34(2)

In plain terms: deciding “mediation or appeal” is not the urgent step — contacting the adviser is. Your decision letter must give you the adviser's contact details. Contact them inside the 2 months and both routes stay open.

How the certificate date moves your appeal deadline

The appeal deadline is the later of two dates — so obtaining a certificate late in the window, or going to mediation, moves your deadline rather than costing you it:

“The certificate will enable the parent or young person to lodge their appeal, either within two months of the original decision being sent by the local authority or within one month of receiving the certificate whichever is the later.”

SEND Code of Practice (January 2015), para 11.23

Work out your exact appeal deadline

The calculator computes the later-of date from your letters, in your browser — nothing uploaded.

If you do mediate: what the process owes you

Mediation is not a favour the LA grants. If you choose it, the duties run the other way:

• The LA must take part, and the mediator must be independent: “The local authority must— arrange for mediation between it and the parent or young person, ensure that the mediation is conducted by an independent person, and participate in the mediation.” (Children and Families Act 2014, s.54).
• It must happen within 30 days: “The local authority must arrange for mediation between it and the child's parent or young person, within 30 days from the date of on which it was informed by the child's parent or young person that he or she wished to pursue mediation.” (SEND Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/1530), reg 36(2); where the issues include health care, reg 35 sets the equivalent 30-day duty).
• The Code describes it as “mediation is an informal, non-legalistic, accessible and simple disagreement settlement process run by a trained third party and designed to bring two parties together to clarify the issues, and reach a resolution”, confirms “the parent or young person’s use of mediation is voluntary”, and says “the local authority will pay reasonable travel expenses and other expenses to the parent or young person taking part in mediation” (SEND Code of Practice (January 2015), para 11.22).
• If it concludes without agreement, your appeal route survives intact: “Where mediation is pursued before making an appeal to the First-tier Tribunal, the mediation adviser must issue a certificate under section 55(5) to the parent or young person within 3 working days of the conclusion of the mediation.” (SEND Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/1530), reg 39(1)) — and the one-month-from-certificate limb of the deadline then applies where later.

What a mediation agreement can — and cannot — bind

Mediation itself decides nothing: nobody there can impose an outcome on you. What has legal force is an agreement recorded in writing:

“This regulation applies where mediation has taken place and the parties to the mediation reach an agreement, to be recorded in writing (“the mediation agreement”).” On issues you could have appealed, “the local authority shall comply with the time limits set out in regulation 44, as if the mediation agreement were an order of the First–tier Tribunal”. And “Where the mediation agreement requires the local authority or responsible commissioning body to do something in relation to which the child's parent or young person has no right of appeal to the First-tier Tribunal, the local authority or responsible commissioning body must do that thing within two weeks of the date of the mediation agreement.”

SEND Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/1530), reg 42

Two honest limits. First, those duties attach only to what is actually written into the agreement — an assurance given in the room but not recorded is not covered by the regulation. Second, if no agreement is reached, mediation ends with a certificate and nothing else changes; the decision you disagreed with stands unless you appeal it.

You may have seen an “agreement rate” quoted for SEND mediation. The official sources do not measure agreement — they measure what happened next. The government-commissioned evaluation of the reforms' first two years found: “ Among those who opted to take up mediation, in the 42 LAs, the majority managed to resolve their disagreement without registering an appeal to the Tribunal: 54% in Year 1, rising to 63% in Year 2”, and that “a relatively low proportion of cases that took up mediation over Years 1 and 2 registered a Tribunal appeal: 22% in Year 1 declining to 14% in Year 2” (CEDAR (University of Warwick), “Review of arrangements for disagreement resolution (SEND)”, DfE/Ministry of Justice research report, March 2017, §4.2.1.4). In the DfE's statistics for 2024, of 10,500 mediations about a decision not to assess, 1,500 were followed by a tribunal; of 2,100 about a decision not to issue a plan, 500; of 1,900 about a plan's content, 700 (DfE, “Education, health and care plans: England 2025”, official statistics, June 2025 (data for calendar year 2024)).

Resolving without an appeal is not the same as an agreement being kept: we have found no official source measuring how often mediation agreements are then implemented, so — per our verification standard — we do not publish a figure for that.

The trade-offs, side by side

This is information, not advice: both routes are yours by right, they are not mutually exclusive, and nothing here predicts your case. Where a factual claim appears below, its source is quoted above on this page.

The tribunal-duration line is HMCTS's own practice guidance, not a statutory timescale: “From start to finish, the process of making an appeal can take up to five months depending on the type of case.” (HMCTS, “SEND37 — How to appeal an SEN decision” (February 2019), practice guidance).

Where next

• Preparing a tribunal appeal — the forms, the timetable and the working document, from HMCTS's own guide.
• Refused an assessment? — the appeal pack for that specific decision, with a grounds-of-appeal builder.
• The deadline calculator — every statutory date on this page, computed from your letters.