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(UK) Northants: Students waiting up to 70 wks for SPED plans despite 20 wk limit

Aug 16, 2024, Northampton Chronicle: SEND parents in Northamptonshire have been waiting 34 weeks for educational plan from council despite improvements

E. Midlands


The number of children’s special education needs and disabilities (SEND) assessments completed on time in West Northamptonshire is on the rise, but there are still hundreds of vulnerable families stuck in the system that feel sidelined by the authority.


In June 2024, West Northamptonshire Council managed to issue 42 percent of education health care plans (EHCPs) within the 20-week time limit, up from the six percent average in 2023. However, at the end of July, the number of children awaiting an EHCP outside the statutory timescale sat at 340.


A freedom of information (FOI) request sent to WNC revealed the longest wait for a final EHC plan still in the system was 70 weeks, approximately a year and four months - more than triple the time it should have taken. The council has said it responds to the assessments in two separate teams: one for those who have requested an EHC assessment more recently and another known as the ‘backlog’ team.


The council has apologised to the children and families that have been impacted and said it is in the “very early days” of its SEND improvement journey.


Kirsty Andrews, 34, from Brackley, is part of the huge number of families who have not had their child assessed in time despite her anguish and continued attempts to contact the service.


She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that she had been waiting for 34 weeks for the council to issue a plan for her nine-year-old son, JJ.


“You hear that there’s other children that haven’t had this wait but are being seen just purely to make their statistics look good and it’s just heartbreaking.


 “[The EHCP is] the guarantee that he’s going to get the help and support that he wants. He’s a very intelligent boy which is really important for us that he has the opportunity to stay in mainstream school, but he needs those things in place to support him.”


JJ, who has autism and sensory processing disorder, will have to move school in September after his current school shut down over the summer. Kirsty says he should have had an EHCP in place in spring this year which would have helped her choose a school that could support him, but instead they are going into the unknown.


“He’s going from a class of 17 children to a class of 30 so it’s a big change ahead of him and he needs emotional support and he needs social support. Getting that EHCP I then know he’s going to get that,” she explained.


“We’re all waiting and it’s hard on all of us. It’s just soul-destroying that I’ve not even got something to work towards.” . . .


Nikki Mills, 44, from Northampton, also applied for a needs assessment for her son at the end of 2023, but says she feels no closer to receiving one. She said she was “disgusted” that other children with EHCPs were being put through before people who had “suffered for years already”.


“Without a diagnosis and without an EHCP you’re so limited in what you can do. We decided he needs to have specialist support which would be a much smaller classroom, less work… one-on-one support.”


She told the LDRS that getting her son to school every day was a struggle and said that she and her partner were “at breaking point”.


Nikki continued: “I don’t know what to do because there’s nothing out there. It’s breaking my heart to see him how he is and getting worse and worse by the week.


“As a mum your priority is your children and to know that you’re trying your hardest but still feel like you’re failing them is very difficult. Their education, and inevitably their future, is in other peoples hands because at the moment no education is the worst outcome for our son.

“Why should other children be fast-tracked when we have been waiting and waiting? I’d like [the council] to tell us why have we been put on the back burner and why is my son less important than somebody else’s child?”


In June, 28 percent of the EHC plans finalised and issued that month were within the 20-week period. Similar figures in July showed 20 percent of the 75 completed assessments in July were from the newer requests.


Another SEND parent, who has asked not to be named, said she has been waiting for eight months for her son’s EHC plan and hasn’t yet received a draft. She is also waiting for him to be seen by an educational psychologist but has no idea when that will be.


She said: “He’s been moved to what they call laughingly the catch-up list. I think what that means is they just get moved there and nobody sees them.


“I’m glad that children are getting their plan quickly, obviously, but children that were only put in a couple of months ago have got their plans within the 20-week timescale, whereas I’ve been waiting since January - that’s a long time overdue.


 “That’s sad for my child because the longer it goes on the more help he needs. It’s a very weary fight when no one wants to help.”


A spokesperson for WNC said: “Following on from the findings of the recent Ofsted inspection, we apologise to children, young people and their families who have been impacted by this.


“We are now in the very early days of our SEND improvement journey, with seven additional caseworkers joining the service in September. Over the coming months, we hope that families will be able to feel the impact of this work.


“We are making gradual, positive progress in addressing our challenges, particularly around our unprecedented EHCP caseloads and we anticipate that we’ll continue on the current trajectory to further increase the number of ECHPs issued within the statutory timescale.

 “We recognise that there is a long road ahead as we undertake our improvement journey, and we would like to reassure parents that there is a detailed plan in place to make the required improvements to provide the service that our SEND families need and deserve.”



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