Send backlog to be cleared by January, says council

West Northamptonshire has seen an increase in children with an education, health and care plan (EHCP)

A backlog in issuing care plans for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) will be cleared by the new year, a council says.

West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) had invested and recruited teams to help with the backlog which they said could be cleared by January 2026.

Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) assessments were made for people aged up to 25 who needed more support than was ordinarily available to address Send.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Ben Pearson, assistant director of education at the authority, said: "We have made the commitment to always work chronologically, we will deal with assessments as they come into the Council."

West Northamptonshire Council said the backlog in issuing care plans for Send children would be cleared by January

Mr Pearson said that at the time of its Send service inspection in March 2024, about 1,000 children were waiting for EHCP assessments.

At a children, education & housing scrutiny meeting on 2 October, he added that in June, the number of plans had dropped - with about 660 needing to be finalised.

Its action plan to improve its Send provision included creating an extra 17 case worker posts and two EHC service manager roles.

The council said it had received an average of 125 requests for EHCPs per month, with the demand being managed by additional staff.

Recent data published for April to June 2025 showed that 2.2% of EHCPs were completed within the statutory 20 weeks.

As of June 2025, the current number of children who have an EHCP in West Northamptonshire was 4,708, an increase of about 20% from the same point last year.

Mr Pearson added: "What we won't do is quickly do new assessments to make our figures look better – that's not fair on children."

The authority confirmed its programme to create about 600 additional specialist school places was on track, including the opening of Tiffield Academy.

A full Ofsted and CQC re-inspection of Send services across West Northamptonshire, Northamptonshire Children's Trust and healthcare providers will take place in 2027.