Rochdale Council has admitted to a booming backlog of Training, Well being and Care (EHC) plans to overview.
The Borough Council advised the Native Authorities and Social Care Ombudsman it had a backlog of almost 1,500 EHC Plans to overview.
An EHC Plan is a authorized doc for kids with particular academic wants and disabilities.
Particular academic wants
It units out a toddler or younger particular person’s particular academic wants. It additionally particulars the assist they want, and what they wish to obtain.
Councils should overview the plans yearly to make sure they proceed to satisfy the kid’s wants. Following such a overview, the council should inform mother and father whether or not they intend to ‘amend, preserve or stop’ that plan.
The legislation states councils should then difficulty a remaining plan inside 12 weeks of the overview assembly. This should additionally happen inside eight weeks of sending the modification discover.
Council admits failures
When a household complained their little one had not had an up to date Plan for a variety of years, the Ombudsman requested Rochdale about its data. The council admitted:
- It had greater than 1,400 circumstances through which it failed to inform mother and father of its determination to amend, preserve or stop an EHC Plan inside 4 weeks of the annual overview assembly
- Of those, the council determined to take care of or stop the plans in 600 circumstances. This meant 600 households needed to wait longer than they need to have performed in the event that they wished to enchantment the council’s determination to the Particular Instructional Wants and Incapacity Tribunal
- Of the 300 circumstances through which the council determined to amend the plan, almost 100 kids and younger individuals had been nonetheless ready for a draft plan after six months.
The variety of circumstances the place Rochdale had accomplished annual opinions and never issued an up to date EHC Plan elevated from greater than 800 in June 2024 to only over 1,200 in September 2024. By the next month, it had grown to greater than 1,300.
‘Not having their wants correctly met’
Amerdeep Somal is the Native Authorities and Social Care Ombudsman.
She stated: “Every of the 1,400 circumstances my report has highlighted represents a toddler or younger particular person doubtlessly not having their wants correctly met, and their households being denied the prospect to problem the council by means of the Tribunal. And the longer it takes for the council to determine precisely what assist that little one wants, the longer these wants should not totally met.
“I’ve requested the council to create an motion plan to determine the additional steps it is going to now take to speed up the enhancements it’s making, and scale back the time households have to attend.”
The Native Authorities and Social Care Ombudsman has the ability to make suggestions to enhance processes for the broader public.
On this case, the council has agreed to supply an motion plan for enchancment. It has additionally agreed to take a look at the measures it’s already taking to evaluate whether or not they’re working.
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Revealed: 20 April 2025