Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the average waiting time between requesting an assessment and an Education, Health and Care Plan being issued; which local authorities have the longest assessment, planning and review processing times for these plans; and what plans they have, if any, to change statutory timelines for the delivery of these plans.

The Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) Regulations 2014 set out that the local authority must, unless certain specified exemptions apply, finalise the education, health and care (EHC) plan within 20 weeks of the local authority receiving a request for an assessment. 62,200 new EHC plans were issued during 2021, an increase of 3% compared to the previous year, and 59.9% of the EHC plans were issued within the statutory 20 weeks.

The department does not collect data on the average waiting times for EHC plans, but instead collect and publish data on the number and percentage of EHC plans issued within 20 weeks at the local authority level, both including and excluding exceptions. From this data, the department cannot establish which local authorities have the longest average waiting times.

In March 2022, we published the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper, which sets out our proposals to ensure that every child and young person has their needs identified quickly and their needs met consistently. The department proposes to improve families’ experiences of the EHC plan process by introducing standardised and digitised EHC plans. The department is committed to publishing a full response to the SEND and AP Green Paper in an improvement plan early in 2023.

The department will continue to support the system in the immediate term to continue to improve the experience and outcomes for children and young people with SEND and those who need AP.