Suffolk County Council apologises to Bury St Edmunds parent over delay in annual review process for child’s Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)

Staff shortages are affecting the timelines for legally-required reviews into the provision of support for children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), the local authority has admitted.

Suffolk County Council (SCC) also offered an apology to Bury St Edmunds parent Deborah who says she has been at her ‘wits’ end’ over trying to obtain a final reviewed Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) for her child from the authority.

EHCPs lay out the support a child with SEND needs and how this will be provided. These are required by law, as are annual reviews into them.

Earlier this year SuffolkNews reported that the proportion of overdue annual reviews into EHCPs was around 40 per cent at the end of 2022 and 2021.

Deborah, who only wants to include her first name, said her child’s EHCP should have been reviewed in October last year, but the meeting was in January and by mid-May she still didn’t have even a draft.

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However, after SuffolkNews contacted SCC in relation to Deborah’s plight, she said she had received the draft EHCP within days.

A spokesperson for Suffolk County Council said: “We apologise for the delay in completing the annual review process.

“At the moment staff shortages, including recruitment difficulties, are affecting our timeliness. Plans to address these shortages are underway and we are making progress.”

SCC wanted to stress that widescale reform is under way within SEND provision across Suffolk.

At SCC’s annual general meeting on Thursday, the authority’s leader Cllr Matthew Hicks reiterated the council’s commitment to improving services for children with SEND, including £55 million to create 1,275 new SEND school places by 2025.

Deborah spoke with SuffolkNews to highlight the fight she has had with SCC over the important EHCP document for her child, now aged 17, who struggled to attend school – and says she isn’t alone.

She was finally granted an EHCP for her child, who has various challenges, in October 2021, nine months on from the initial application to SCC.

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The application for a EHCP had been rejected the first time, but when it was refused the second time Deborah said she was ‘distraught’, adding she was exhausted with it all – the forms, phone calls and the ‘constant uphill battle’.

As time went on following the annual review meeting in January, and Deborah had still not received a copy of the plan, she chased it up with SCC multiple times.

Speaking of added stresses, she said she was also concerned about the financial impact of not having an up-to-date plan on being able to claim child benefit in relation to her child, who is homeschooled.

They came out of school aged 12 as they became too anxious and they were going to go to college, but haven’t managed it so far.

Deborah said how hard it is to get help ‘really needs to be highlighted’.

She said: “So many parents are struggling to get basic help for their children and children’s mental health is a big issue too, with the delays; how long it takes to see a psychiatrist.”

She added: “Our children need help now!”