Almost half of children needing support for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) waited beyond the legal deadline for an education, health and care plan last year.
Government data shows the number of children waiting more than 20 weeks for an EHCP increased by 35 per cent in just one year.
Councils are legally required to issue EHCPs within 20 weeks of a request, except in certain situations where an exemption is in place.
Of 62,686 EHCPs issued in the 2022 calendar year without any exemption, just 50.7 per cent were issued by the legal deadline. This is down from 59.9 per cent in 2021, and the lowest level since current records began in 2015.
It means 30,932 children waited beyond the legal limit for their plans last year, up from 22,947 in 2021, a rise of 35 per cent. While these children are also left waiting longer for support, it means their schools would also be without the funding to provide support which is attached to such plans.
Today’s data shows the total number of EHCPs in place nationally increased to 517,000 as of this January, up 9 per cent on the same period in 2022.
The number of new EHC plans increased by 7 per cent over the same period. There were 114,500 initial requests for plans in 2022, up by 23 per cent on 2021.
Data on special educational needs and disability tribunals (SENDIST), which give parents the right to appeal councils’ decisions about EHCPs, has also been published today.
It shows there were 5,574 tribunals outstanding at the end of March this year, up 68 per cent on the 3,324 that were outstanding at the same point last year.
This echos figures reported by Schools Week in February, in an investigation which revealed how parents of vulnerable children are being forced to wait nearly a year to challenge refusals by councils to offer SEND support.
This does not surprise me. My sons ehcp was finally issued in February. It took the council 45 weeks to issue instead of the legal 20 week deadline. The 45 weeks is from the date that the council conceded to my needs assessment request just before the tribunal date. I had requested a needs assessment twice before that as well. My first request was in September 2021 and it took until Feb 2023 to finally get the plan. They then refused to put any provision in place for him as the special school he got a place at can’t take him until September. It has been constant battles for nearly 2 years to get him the help he needs and he has been at home since last July. Completely unacceptable. I only had an apology from them last week and that was purely because I have taken them to the LGSCO.