Rochdale Borough Council has apologised after admitting that it has a backlog of nearly 1,500 support plans to review for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans must be reviewed annually, and councils need to inform parents if they intend to ‘amend, maintain or cease’ a plan.
The law states councils must then issue a final plan within 12 weeks of the review and within eight weeks of sending the amendment notice.
An investigation by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman found that Rochdale BC 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, which meant these families were waiting longer than they should have if they wished to appeal the council’s decision.
Out of the 300 cases in which the local authority decided to amend the plan, nearly 100 children and young people were still waiting for a draft plan after six months.
Sharon Hubber, director of Children’s Services at the council, apologised for the delays and said a ‘great deal of work’ has been undertaken since the Ombudsman’s report was published.
