Yahoo News Twelve families waiting for EHCP assessment for more than a year
TWELVE families have been waiting for an education, health and care plan assessment from the council for more than a year.
Councillor Richard Burton, BCP Council portfolio holder for children and young people, said the council hopes to complete all of these by the end of the school year.
Addressing the council’s cabinet, Cllr Burton said there were also 70 families that had been waiting more than 30 weeks for an assessment.
The statutory timeline for completing this is 20 weeks.
Cllr Burton was responding to a public question from Adam Sofianos read by Alex McKinstry.
The question requested the council commits to releasing data on the number and percentage of plans and needs assessments that had been refused or declined, as well as the number of those families that were waiting more than 30 weeks and more than 50 weeks.
Cllr Burton said: “The actual numbers on this can be quite complicated in that several of them are not refused or declined, they change by negotiation with the parents and carers.
“An actual number there would need a bit of detail behind it.
“Refusal does not automatically mean they would not get service and a decline can be with agreement with the parents and carers.
“The number of assessments delayed over 30 weeks, we now have 70 families over 30 weeks, compared with 186 in September.
“This will all be completed by the end of this school term.”
The council holds data on assessments delayed by more than 52 weeks, of which there are 12 families waiting for assessments.
Cllr Burton said there are currently no delays in plans this academic year, with timeliness at 100 per cent in six-week timelines for April, and more than 90 per cent from September.
In total, including the backlog, the council is at 61 per cent for timeliness in responses.
Cllr Burton added: “I totally agree that getting this data out in a way that can be understandable to people is really important. At the moment it is available through the parent carers forum, but I think it needs to be able to be shared more widely.
“I will commit to getting that data available without it going to Children’s Overview and Scrutiny.”
