A Commitment to Our Community
At Shropshire Council, the SEN Team have been working to make improvements to the way we support our children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). One of our main priorities is to increase the number of education, health, and care (EHC) plans that are issued within the 20-week statutory timeframe and improve the annual review timeliness. EHC plans are crucial to ensure that timely support is in place to help our young people to live their best lives.
The figures
One of the challenges we are facing is that we have seen a consistent increase in the number of requests for assessment, from 271 in 2021 to 902 in 2023 and the number of requests continues to be high.
We have issued 705 new EHC Plans so far this year compared to 572 in the whole of the previous year.
We are starting to see a great improvement. In February 2024, new EHC Plans issued took an average of 33.1 weeks. In October 2024 the average time taken to issue an EHC plan was 21.9 weeks.
Our overall performance for 2024 is improving and we hope to be in line with the national standard by the end of the year.
Continuous Improvement
As we move forward, we are enhancing our processes and ensuring that every EHC plan is issued as promptly as possible. We are embarking on digital processes and streamlining our admin processes where possible to reduce delays.
We are taking proactive steps to improve our staffing. We are proposing to increase the number of permanent staff within the SEN Team and have recruited some additional temporary staff to support our annual review recovery programme.
Annual review recovery programme
Our duty, as the SEN Team in Shropshire Council, is to review every plan at least every 12 months (6 months for early years). We acknowledge that there has been slippage in meeting this duty. We are looking to address this through implementation of an annual review recovery plan.
Our ultimate aim is that there will be no outstanding annual reviews. We recognise that the recovery plan is in its early stages and hope to keep everyone informed of our progress.
What is the LA duty regarding EHCP annual reviews?
The SEND Code of Practice suggests that EHC plans are not expected to be amended on a very frequent basis.
In most cases your school/college has the delegated responsibility of coordinating the annual review meeting. The SEN Team is responsible for reviewing EHC plans within four weeks of the review meeting. The local authority must decide whether it proposes to:
· Maintain but make no amends to the plan
· Amend plan
· Statutory re-assessment
· Intend to cease the plan
For more information, please see annual review FAQs and annual review process flowchart.
Who will deliver the recovery plan?
The recovery plan will be delivered by the SEN Team in conjunction with additional capacity that we are recruiting to support the recovery plan.
The recovery plan aims to recover those annual reviews that are late. The day-to-day processing of annual reviews will still take place.
How will priorities be determined?
As part of the workstream tasked with overseeing the recovery, a task and finish group is being set up between health, social care and parent carer representation to identify cohorts that will form part of the annual review recovery plan and will be in accordance will all relevant legislation. All annual reviews will, however, be processed according to statutory process including phase transfer.
Will the prioritised annual reviews be based on the last submission or the next review due to be undertaken?
The prioritised annual reviews will follow normal annual review process, based upon 12 months since the last review decision.
What quality assurance is in place to ensure that my child's plan will be of high quality?
Amended plans arising from an annual review are subject to the same quality assurance processes of any other EHC plan, whether it's a new draft or amended.
What happens if my child’s EHC plan is not agreed to or updated based on the information the LA has available to them?
If the Local Authority decide to maintain the plan in its current format, parents will be informed. Parent carers have the right of appeal, if they disagree with the decision.
How many annual reviews are still outstanding after the recovery plan has been implemented and how will this be addressed?
The recovery plan is in its early stages. We have implemented a robust data monitoring system to ensure that annual review performance is clearly visible at Partnership Board level, to ensure that challenge and support is in place.
We will ensure there is ongoing communication to parent carers to update them on the progress of the annual review recovery plan.
Contact - senteam@shropshire.gov.uk