Recommendation 3 update
Recommendation 3:
Local area partnership leaders should improve the effectiveness of joint working to support the co-production of EHC (Education, Health and Care) plans and annual reviews so that at each stage the provision that is planned takes full account of children's and young people's current and changing needs.
What we wanted:
Multi-agency EHC Needs Assessments (EHCNA) undertaken and completed so that they are in line with National averages.
What we did:
- maintained capacity within the SEND Assessment team to match demand for EHC needs assessment and statutory reviews
- maintained investment of the Educational Psychology Service to support timeliness and increased face to face engagement of EP advice as part of the EHC needs assessment process
- reduced the backlog of EHC needs assessments to under 30 weeks before the start of the academic year 2025
- carried out internal audit activity in SEND service to quality assure EHC plan quality and advice
- created a multi-agency Quality Assurance framework and audit tool to evaluate and report on the quality of EHC plans
- implemented reporting processes to track timeliness and quantity of advice obtained during assessment and review
- reduced the issuance of EHC plans over 30 and 52 weeks
- implemented a priority programme to update EHC plans older than 3 years
- conducted a review and analysis of complaints received by the SEND service between January and August 2025 to determine areas for service improvement
- progress against improving multi-agency Annual Reviews remains a challenge in part due to the % growth in the number of EHC plans
The difference it made:
- children and young people undergoing EHC Needs assessment have a better quality and timely assessment. The average assessment time for 2025 to date is 30.5 weeks reduced from over 40 weeks in the 2024 calendar year. The timeliness of EHC needs assessment is currently 44% compared to 16% in 2024
- EHC plans describe a child or young person's current needs and arrangements with 78% of plans meet the standard of less than 3 years old
- SEND Team service standards refreshed with improvement activity targeted to ensure improved communication and response
Priorities for 2025-26:
- Managers across health education and social care to embed processes to quality assure statutory advice for EHC assessment and annual reviews
- timely and high-quality annual reviews with the multi-agency workforce contributing to the monitoring and review of plans
- quality assurance activity will inform improvement, workforce training and commissioning priorities