Shocked about deadline results for education, health and care needs (ECHPs) across England

[Sunseastars]

Saw the headlines on the BBC last week about ECHPs and just came across this research and tool on this website https://tutorperch.com/tools/ehcp and I am absolutely shocked at the difference across councils in England at meeting the EHCP deadlines!

I looked up my council (Greenwich) and found that only 30 something percent of the plans were met by the deadline in 2025, and it seems to be wildly fluctuating over the years. Don't know what's happening in Lewisham as meeting the deadline has fallen 71% in a year, whereas lots of places in the North seemed to have massively improved! Even within London it's very varied with some councils having 100%.

The England average is only 46%. This seems a pressing concern for parents as it seems that percentage is decreasing over time nationally and the BBC said the number of children with ECHPs is increasing.

What's your experience with ECHP deadlines, did anyone's council miss their deadline? AIBU being really worried by these results? How long did it take for you?

“Access to" or "opportunities to" have never been legally adequate in the SEN world. It isn’t a just it has been more known about now.

I can’t remember the dates/references now but I remember reading one tribunal paper from tribunal where ‘access to’ was what the judge ruled what should be written and in the next one I read a judge made a point of saying ‘access to’ was inadequate. It stuck with me because of how contradictory it all was and how the interpretation of the law, could be different depending on which judge you had. The interpretation’s of the law has changed over time and not always in a linear way.

There has been various case law about wording being detailed, specified and quantified.

However, even now, sometimes such wording is Ordered. Doesn’t mean it is right. Sometimes Judges get it wrong. When SENDIST err, some choose to challenge it, some don’t.

Laughing bitterly at our local authority. From experience, the only reason they've got that timescale is because they have a habit of revoking access to correspondence saying 'cannot meet need' to something they've deliberately waited until a period of school closure to send and then issuing a direction on the grounds they never received a response.

OP you might be interested, but dismayed to read this:
https://www.mylondon.news/news/south-london-news/greenwich-council-launches-65m-send-34047103

EHCPs are not worth the paper they are written on. Until the government start building nuture schools and providing more staff it’s pointless. I worked as a ta for 20 years. When I started children that needed a statement had one and a 1:1 ta. Funding for TAs has been chipped away, that when I left I was trying my best to care for and help 6 children with varying needs including individual sensory circuits, nurture time, physio, a child screaming in the morning as they didn’t want to be there, list goes on. Yes a lot is unmet needs but there simply isn’t the staff or budget to meet the need. Even if you do get a funded ta you get bet your bottom dollar money is being siphoned off elsewhere for another child.

DS’s EHCP took over a year and only after endless complaints and chasing did it get sorted. Though the plan is pretty much a useless piece of paper as so poorly written and school says not enough funding to actually implement it. It’s taken over my life for the last 2 years trying to get it sorted.

This highlights why it is important for EHCPs to be well written. A poor EHCP isn’t worth the paper it is written on, but a well written one absolutely is.

I have 3 DSs with EHCPs. They receive all the provision in their EHCPs. If they didn’t, I would enforce it. But that is only possible because their EHCPs are well written. As LAs have been shown time and again, lack of resources, funding and staffing are not lawful excuses for breach of s42.

Interesting reading, thanks

That article says exceptions usually apply to a small share of plans, about 7% nationally last year, so most councils aren't claiming exceptional cases then, and I saw somewhere that most appeals if a council says no to doing a report or runs late are successful, so that's some good news

As they saying goes, there’s lies, damn lies and statistics!
My local authority, Barnet issued 100% of their NEW EHCP applications within the timescale apparently.

I’d love to know exactly how many this was.

Meanwhile my son’s annual review amended EHCP for 2025 wasn’t looked at for 12 months. Nothing new, but..

Then I was contacted by a brand new ‘back-log team’ to say they were updating it and wanted me to read the amended version get back to them with comments asap etc

All well and good but as they were so slow I was attending the annual review for 2026 and school had gathered and written new reports etc

Then the lunacy began. Barnet insisted they must amend and finalise the out of date EHCP. They had to meet their back-log targets.

Never mind that they were using reports from 2024/5 or that my son had since received an additional diagnosis. The document would be obsolete the moment it was completed.

I had to go to my MP in the end to tell him how the council were wasting money on this paper exercise. What a joke!

You can see how many it is in the link I posted. For Barnet, in 2025, 600 (excluding exceptions) EHCPs were issued and 635 (including exceptions) were issued. The link also has AR statistics.