(UK) Thurrock: Only 49% of SPED plans complete on time; 'significant increase in requests'

July 25, 2026, Thurrock special needs care plans miss legal deadline | Echo

MORE than half of Thurrock's Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP) missed the legal 20-week deadline last year, a performance deemed "not good enough".

Council officer Andrea Winstone told the Children's Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee last night how the council receives about 17 requests for plans each month.

Ms Winstone said the council is tracking how many plans are late, but told the councillors the last formally published figures cover January to December 2025.

These showed only 49 per cent of plans were completed on time, as she told the committee: "So not good enough."

EHCPs are issued and maintained by the council, which has a legal duty to complete the process within 20 weeks.

An Ofsted and Care Quality Commission inspection of Thurrock's special educational needs arrangements in December 2025 found timeliness, quality of plans and annual reviews "inconsistent".

Inspectors also raised concerns about long waits for neurodevelopmental assessments and gaps in data. . . .

Council officer Michele Lucas told the committee there had been "a significant increase in requests" and admitted Thurrock "were not working within those statutory timeframes for both educational healthcare plans and annual review".

She said the council is now managing over 3,000 plans, making annual reviews "extremely challenging" to complete on time.

Reform councillor Pam McCabe said it took two years for her grandchild to get through the system, forcing the family to pay privately for an assessment. . . .