Essex County Council to spend £1m reducing SEND backlog

Essex County Council has the worst SEND assessment backlog in the country

A council is to spend more than £1m on additional special needs assessment specialists in a bid to reduce the worst backlog in the country.

Currently, 1% of SEND assessments by Essex County Council are completed within the 20-week deadline.

There are more than 1,000 cases going through the education and health care (EHC) needs assessment process.

Long waits were leading to "parental anxiety and low levels of confidence in the process", the council said.

The council said the most significant contributing factor was the national shortage of educational psychologists (EP), which meant it was often unable to allocate an EP at the point of request.

It added that in addition to the outstanding cases, its 20-week process was already running approximately five to six months behind schedule, with the Covid pandemic a contributing factor.

'Direct impact'

A statement, as part of an Essex County Council cabinet decision, said: "This has led to a large rise in complaints from parents awaiting the start of the process and has a direct impact on some aspects of the child or young person's education and provision, particularly around requests for special school placement, for instance.

"Where need is complex or children have high levels of need and vulnerability, there is, therefore, a larger than necessary delay in assessment of need and allocation of appropriate provision.

"This is somewhat mitigated by the use of Individual Pupil Resource Allocation funding but parental anxiety and low levels of confidence in the process remain high."

In 2016, Essex was responsible for 7,550 children and young people with an Education Healthcare Plan. In January 2024, the number increased by 75% to 13,228.

Requests for a special needs assessment increased by 143% between 2015-16 and 2022-23.

The local authority estimated it would cost a minimum of £1.125m to cover the current backlog over 12 months, with an option to extend help for a further 12 months.

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