West Berkshire Council is missing its 20-week target for issuing Education, Health and Care plans (EHCPs). The council's performance review shows the 60% target is only being hit at around 20%.
The council says the shortfall is down to rising numbers of EHCP requests while the team size has stayed the same. "This is reflected over most other local authorities," said the council. "In 2024, we lowered the threshold for agreeing to assess for an EHCP. This was due to being taken to tribunal by parents and losing all cases. The consequence of this has been to drive up the number of EHCP assessments."
Completions are also delayed because assessments from Educational Psychologists are taking longer to arrive. There is a national shortage of those professionals and WBC has struggled to recruit. An EHCP cannot be issued without a psychologist's assessment.
Delays have been worsened by more consultations as mainstream schools increasingly reply 'no' to EHCP requests. "Before Christmas, the team sent out 220 consultations, of which 67 came back with a 'yes'," said the council. "Most recently, there have been some significant absences in the SEN Team which has led to further delays."
The council says extra resource has been added to the Educational Psychologists service to tackle the backlog. "Schools generally put in place the support and provision a child needs, even before the EHCP is finalised, so delays to EHCP should not impact on a child's ability to learn and progress," added the council.
Niki Hinman, Local Democracy Reporter
