Overview:

Summary

The Council has delayed sending decisions following annual reviews of children and young people’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans. The Council has also delayed carrying out amendments to EHC Plans following annual reviews. This has meant many children and young people are having to wait too long to receive a decision about whether the Council will amend their EHC Plan. For those children and young people where the Council decided to amend the Plan, many of them had to wait too long to receive an updated EHC Plan.

Finding

Fault found causing injustice and recommendations made.

Recommendations

The Council must consider the report and confirm within three months the action it has taken or proposes to take. The Council should consider the report at its full Council, Cabinet or other appropriately delegated committee of elected members and we will require evidence of this. (Local Government Act 1974, section 31(2), as amended)

We recommend within three months of the date of this report the Council produces an action plan which details the steps it will specifically take to meet its statutory timescales for:

• issuing decisions after an annual review meeting; and
• issuing EHC Plans after annual reviews and reduce the time parents and children must wait for a final EHC Plan.
• As part of this action plan the Council should:

  • identify specific further steps which it can take to ensure it is sending families decisions following their annual review meeting within four weeks and final EHC Plans within 12 weeks of the annual review meeting;

  • look at the impact of the measures it says it has put in place already and assess whether these are working; and

  • look at what steps it can take to progress its oldest cases, that is those which have been open for over six months without a draft EHC Plan.

The Council should give oversight of the action plan produced to the relevant Committee. The Council should provide quarterly updates of progress to the committee with explanations and reasons given if objectives or timescales have not been met. The action plan, quarterly updates and committee minutes should all be published in the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) section of the Council’s website to enable those affected to track the progress.

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