Rochdale Council has admitted to a booming backlog of Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans to review.
The Borough Council told the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman it had a backlog of nearly 1,500 EHC Plans to review.
An EHC Plan is a legal document for children with special educational needs and disabilities.
Special educational needs
It sets out a child or young person’s special educational needs. It also details the support they need, and what they would like to achieve.
Councils must review the plans annually to ensure they continue to meet the child’s needs. Following such a review, the council must tell parents whether they intend to ‘amend, maintain or cease’ that plan.
The law states councils must then issue a final plan within 12 weeks of the review meeting. This must also take place within eight weeks of sending the amendment notice.
Council admits failures
When a family complained their child had not had an updated Plan for a number of years, the Ombudsman asked Rochdale about its records. The council admitted:
- It had more than 1,400 cases in which it failed to tell parents of its decision to amend, maintain or cease an EHC Plan within four weeks of the annual review meeting
- Of these, the council decided to maintain or cease the plans in 600 cases. This meant 600 families had to wait longer than they should have done if they wished to appeal the council’s decision to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal
- Of the 300 cases in which the council decided to amend the plan, nearly 100 children and young people were still waiting for a draft plan after six months.
The number of cases where Rochdale had completed annual reviews and not issued an updated EHC Plan increased from more than 800 in June 2024 to just over 1,200 in September 2024. By the following month, it had grown to more than 1,300.
‘Not having their needs properly met’
Amerdeep Somal is the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman.
She said: “Each of the 1,400 cases my report has highlighted represents a child or young person potentially not having their needs properly met, and their families being denied the chance to challenge the council through the Tribunal. And the longer it takes for the council to identify exactly what support that child needs, the longer those needs are not fully met.
“I have asked the council to create an action plan to identify the further steps it will now take to accelerate the improvements it is making, and reduce the time families have to wait.”
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman has the power to make recommendations to improve processes for the wider public.
In this case, the council has agreed to produce an action plan for improvement. It has also agreed to look at the measures it is already taking to assess whether they are working.
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Published: 20 April 2025
