New Practice Direction for the preparation of bundles in SENDT from 15 July 2025

The SEND Tribunal has recently issued a new Practice Direction (linked below) which applies to bundles used in final hearings after 15 July 2025.

The guidance introduces new page limits for bundles, as well as separate page limits for individual documents including expert reports. The overall page limit for evidence submitted by each party depends on the type of appeal. For example, for an appeal against sections B, F & I of the EHC plan (i.e. content and placement), further evidence is limited to 175 pages per party. If either party wants to submit evidence that exceeds the page limit, they will need to make a 'request for change' application explaining why the additional pages are necessary.

Expert reports

The new guidance states that expert reports should be no more than 15 pages of typed A4 (size 12 font, preferably Arial) and should contain an executive summary of up to 2 pages of A4.  Expert reports should also be no more than 3 years old, unless required in exceptional circumstances.

The Tribunal has suggested that background information in expert reports could often be cut down as a way of reducing page numbers or possibly incorporated into the summary section.

In practice, independent expert reports are often much longer than 15 pages of typed A4 and we are aware it may be difficult for experts to produce a quality report detailing all their findings and recommendations, within this limit.

That said, we would encourage you, and any independent experts you have instructed, to be mindful of the new guidance as far as possible. If it is a choice between compliance with page limits and the quality of the report, then the latter must obviously be prioritised, supported by your covering note explaining the reasons. If an expert is unable to condense their report into 15 pages, you should ask them to provide a separate note explaining the reasons for this. For example, this may be due to the fact that multiple standardised assessments were carried out, each of which must be explained in the report along with the results, summary of findings etc. Or perhaps the expert needed to include pictures within their report, such as evidence of the child's handwriting, posture or gait.

You can then submit a request for change, to seek permission to include the additional pages, at the same time as submitting your evidence.

Witness statements

Any person attending the final hearing to give oral evidence as a witness, who has not already provided another written report, must provide a witness statement. The new guidance states that witness statements must not exceed 10 pages of A4 (exclusive of exhibits) unless there are good reasons for doing so. An accompanying note should be provided if a witness statement does exceed the page limit.

We are yet to see how this guidance will be enforced by the Tribunal, although we have been advised that local authorities will still need to include all evidence submitted by parents in the bundle, even if it exceeds the new page limit. In these cases, the local authority will be expected to include a note when they produce the bundle to explain why it does not comply with the updated guidance.

Link to full Practice Direction: NEW BUNDLE PRACTICE DIRECTION 2025 for publication