When that first Tribunal Bundle lands in your inbox, it can feel like someone has just dropped a whole new job on your lap. Dates, directions, deadlines, working documents, evidence… and somehow you’re meant to keep all of it straight while still parenting, working, and firefighting school or LA issues.
SENDIST Guardian CRM is built to step in exactly at that point – when the bundle arrives – and turn the stress into a clear, parent led plan. This is how it works, step by step, from that first bundle through to the hearing.
First: Capturing the appeal and the key dates – you start by adding your appeal into the app: which child it’s for, the Local Authority, the type of appeal, and the hearing type. Once that’s in, you use the Tribunal Bundle and the Tribunal Directions to pull out the key dates – LA response deadline, evidence exchange, bundle date, case management review (CRF), and the hearing date.
Those dates are recorded straight into the appeal’s timeline so they’re no longer buried in a PDF; they’re visible, ordered, and attached to the right child.
From that point on, the app becomes your built-in Tribunal calendar. It tracks those milestones for you and can flag when something is approaching or overdue, so you’re not relying on memory or sticky notes to avoid a breach. It notifies you direct to your inbox 7 days before any deadline is due. When hearings are often 1 year on, this ensures nothing is forgotten or left unmanaged.
Second: One dashboard per child, not a muddle of cases. If you have more than one child in the Tribunal system, you know how quickly everything blurs. SENDIST Guardian CRM keeps each appeal separate. You choose the child from a simple selector, and the app remembers that choice as you move around. The checklist, timeline, evidence, breaches, and working documents you see are all for that one child only.
That means child 1’s deadlines, evidence and working document versions stay with child 1’s, and Child 2’s stay with Child 2. No more guessing which “WD v1” belongs to which child or worrying that one child’s case is contaminating another. The lines are clear easing your stress and confusion from day 1.
Third: Turning Tribunal directions into a practical checklist – Every appeal has stages: registration, LA response, preparation, evidence exchange, bundle check, CRF, hearing.
Under each stage, SENDIST Guardian CRM gives you a checklist of tasks you can tick off with dates and notes. Instead of “I know I need to do something before evidence exchange but I can’t remember what”, you have a concrete list: chase missing reports, upload new evidence, check LA documents, confirm bundle contents, prepare questions, and so on.
You work through the checklist at your own pace, marking items complete as you go. The app doesn’t replace legal advice, but it does stop you from missing procedural steps simply because life is busy and the paperwork is overwhelming.
Fourth: Organising the evidence bundle so it actually makes sense – Tribunal bundles are huge. The app lets you upload and organise your evidence by type – education, health, social care, expert reports, LA documents – and link each item to the relevant EHCP sections (B, C, D, F, G, H, I, K). You can see what you’ve already got, what’s missing, and what arrives late. If their is a breach this is logged automatically so that this can be included in your 2 page breach list – timestamped and digitally recorded for download.
Because evidence is scoped to the selected child, you’re never mixing up reports between siblings. When you add a file, it attaches only to that child’s appeal and shows up in their evidence list and bundle view. That makes it much easier to spot gaps, track late evidence, and prepare for the hearing with a clear picture of what’s actually in play.
Fifth: Controlling the Working Document and spotting manipulation – The Working Document (WD) is where a lot of the real battle happens. SENDIST Guardian CRM lets you track WD versions per child, so you can see how the document changes over time. When you upload a new version, it’s stored against that specific appeal, and tracks changes and breaches. For e.g. missing words (enforceable ones that matter).
The system is designed to help you notice if something has been quietly removed or reverted – Those “WD manipulation” moments where agreed wording disappears or amendments are undone. When tampering is detected, the app can flag it and create a breach record, so you have a clear trail of what happened and when. This is vital for parental voice to be heard and vital for the Tribunal to see what is actually going on!
Sixth: Logging breaches as they happen, not weeks later. Every time the LA misses a deadline, fails to send a document, manipulates the WD, or communicates in a way that breaches Tribunal directions or SEND law, you can log it as a breach. Each breach entry is structured: what happened, when, which rule or direction it relates to, and what evidence backs it up. This is Parental Gold, I kid you not! No parent should be without this if they are working through a WD.
Over time, this builds a picture of the LA’s behaviour across the appeal. Instead of trying to remember everything at the end, you have a running log you can draw on for complaints, case management requests, or Tribunal submissions.No parent should be without this if they are working through a WD.
Seventh: Keeping everything secure and invite only. Because this app holds sensitive information about children and families, it’s built with strict data isolation in line with GPDR and ICO risk assessments. Our Policies/procedures can be viewed within the app once you have been invited and before you input any information.
The app is invite-only, not open to public registration. That means only people who have been invited can access it. The login page reflects that: there’s no “create account” link for random visitors, just a clear route for invited parents to sign in. You own the data you input, which is allocated to your email address. Your email is the only data processed and it is never shared.
Putting it all together: Built by SEND professionals who have been advocating for SEND Parents for over 9 years. A command centre, not just another system! In practice, SENDIST Guardian becomes your command centre for the appeal:
- You capture the appeal and dates straight from the Tribunal Bundle and directions.
- You see one child’s case at a time, with their own timeline, checklist, evidence, breaches, and WD versions.
- You work through stage-based checklists so you don’t miss procedural steps.
- You organise and link evidence so the bundle stops being a black hole.
- You track and protect the Working Document, spotting and recording any manipulation.
- You log breaches as they happen, building a clear record for escalation.
- You do all of this in a secure, invite-only space, designed for parents rather than professionals.
The goal isn’t to turn you into a lawyer it’s to give you enough structure, visibility, and control that the Tribunal process stops feeling like something happening to you and starts feeling like something you’re actively steering.
To be invited to this link you have to first join us on our private group – Click here Then you subscribe to our Resource Hub Plus™ which holds over 450 human written resources, guides, timelines and how to’s all SEND Law led – Plus you receive “all access” status which gives you access to our CPD SEND Mastered Parent Training Module (15 CPD Professional points.) plus our Parent Webinar Vlogs (2 professional points) and our sister apps:
The SEND Bible (free to all – membership required for resource access)
Communication Tracker for LA/School (free to all)
EHCP Draft Checker (invite only upon subscription)
SEND Mastered CPD (invite only upon subscription)
