There has been an 11 per cent increase in the number of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP) created for children in Hertfordshire with social educational needs in the 12 months leading to September 2024.

A meeting of Hertfordshire County Council’s Education, Libraries and Lifelong Learning committee was presented with a report of the council’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Inclusion Performance Quarter 2.

The report summarised the data surrounding ECHPs – one of the biggest causes of complaint by parents of SEND children, with reports of backlogs throughout the country.

It stated: “Requests for assessment continuing to fluctuate monthly… although overall trend is an upward trajectory. 75 per cent of requests have been agreed to proceed to assessment in 2024 compared to 67 per cent in 2023. This is more consistent with historic and comparator proportions agreed.

“1,699 new plans were finalised in the year to June, a 54 per cent increase on the same point in 2023.

“The overall increases in assessment activity is creating capacity pressure for both professional advice givers across Health, Social Care and Education as well as the Statutory Assessment service.

“56 per cent of EHC Plans completed were issued within 20 weeks (to end Sept) higher than latest national (50%) and in line with statistical neighbours (56 per cent) and on course to meet the 60 per cent Improvement Plan milestone for 2024.

"This is not a ‘ceiling’ target: it represents an incremental milestone based on performance in 2022/23.

“Audits completed in the Quarter shows continuing signs of quality improvement of new EHCPs with 36 per cent of plans audited judged as good or outstanding: performance has improved each quarter over the last year, in line with the investment through Making SEND Everyone’s Business.”

The report also revealed there has been a 4.5 per cent increase in the number of appeals lodged over EHCP decisions in the 12 months.

It stated: “610 appeals were lodged in the 2023/24 academic year of which 235 relate to statutory processes and 375 relate to the contents of the EHC Plan.

“The numbers of ‘Refusal to Assess’ appeals lodged in the second half of the 2023/24 academic year were 70 per cent lower than in the first half of the year. 6.3 per cent of requests for EHC Needs Assessment have led to an appeal for a ‘refusal to assess’ in the 2023/24 academic year to date compared to 5.8 per cent in the academic year 2022/23

“Nationally, the numbers of appeals lodged overall have increased significantly since the SEND reforms (400 per cent since 2015): Hertfordshire has a higher appeal rate (4.5 per cent 2023) compared to Statistical Neighbour (3.1 per cent) and the national (2.5 per cent) position. The majority of appeals relate to placement.

“The majority of appeals lodged continue to be resolved without the need to proceed to hearings.”