Purpose

To approve a plan to improve Education, Health
and Care plan (EHCP) waiting lists

Content

The report recognised the
implications of the current under performance on Education, Health
and Care Plan (EHCP) assessments for children, young people,
families and schools in Buckinghamshire and proposed additional
investment to improve timeliness, as part of the Council’s
overall improvement programme for SEND.
 
There was a statutory 20-week
deadline from request for an EHC Needs Assessment (EHCNA) to
issuing a final EHC Plan. As of 1st September 2025, there were 1488
children under assessment in Buckinghamshire with 1234 of these
beyond the 20- week deadline. The current average wait of completed
plans was 47 weeks – more than double the target timescale
set out in statute.
 
The report proposed an
investment of a total of £3m to accelerate the EHCP
assessment process and tackle the waiting lists. It was important
to note that an acceleration of EHCP assessments would result in
additional pressure on the High Needs Block to fund the provision
identified in plans, and on the Home to School Transport budget.
These would be built into the emerging Medium Term Financial Plan
2026/27+.
 
The improvement programme was
critical to the longer term sustainability of the system but the
work alone would not tackle the EHCP waiting lists in the short to
medium term. Demand was increasing at a pace that exceeded current
capacity. For example, in September 2025, 121 new EHCNA requests
were received and 66 plans were issued—highlighting the
growing challenge that more cases were entering the system than
were being progressed. On this basis, the Council were unable to
reduce waiting times with the current capacity, and they would in
fact continue to grow without further action. In view of the
ongoing demand, it was recommended that the Council invested as a
priority in additional staffing capacity to accelerate progress for
those families on the waiting list.
 
The Council has engaged with
national government through the Delivering Better Value programme
and had met all the requirements as confirmed by the DfE. 
However, this programme had not met the scale of the rise in
demand.  Furthermore, Government have pushed to an unspecified
date in the future any announcement on SEND funding reforms. 
In this context the Council were taking further action to meet the
rising demand and reduce the EHCP backlog.
 
RESOLVED that £3m be transferred into an earmarked reserve
and that this be invested into reducing the waiting times for
providing EHCP assessments.