Barking and Dagenham Council Faces Significant Delays in Education, Health, and Care Plan Assessments

A significant majority of Education, Health, and Care (EHC) plan cases in Barking and Dagenham are facing delays, with 85% of assessments not being completed within the statutory 20-week timeframe. This was revealed during a meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday, February 11, 2026.

Data presented to the committee showed that in SEN2 2025, only 27.7% of EHC plans were issued within the 20-week statutory limit. This figure is significantly below the national average of 46.4% and follows a particularly poor performance in SEN2 2024, where the timeliness dropped to just 14.4%.

Reasons for Delays and Backlog Management

The primary reasons contributing to these significant delays are a sustained and significant rise in demand for EHC assessments, with a 23% increase in referrals over the last four years. This surge in demand has placed considerable pressure on the service. Compounding the issue, a sudden loss of a number of staff and leadership in the summer term of 2025 saw 33% of the team leave, resulting in a backlog of 156 cases. The erosion of school budgets and a greater reliance on EHC funding, coupled with a lack of early intervention services, further contribute to the increased demand.

As of January 15th, 2026, there were 181 outstanding decisions yet to be made. Since that time, decisions have been made on 126 of those cases. The management of this backlog involves focus work, focus decision-making, etc., and making it manageable. So thinking about where those quick wins are, how we can make sure that those decisions are made in a timely way, to support them to deliver those decisions in a timely way. And having that weekly case supervision.

Council's Response and Future Ambitions

To address these delays, Barking and Dagenham council has implemented several measures. The team has been realigned to make sure that we've got four dedicated members of staff to deal with these initial assessments that are coming through, and efforts are being made to use the staff effectively as possible from within the current resource. The council is conducting internal monitoring on a weekly basis, looking at things line by line, case by case, seeing where we can make strides to get information in quickly, thinking about our decision-making and assignment-y way, thinking about how we support coordinators in order to respond.

A dedicated role of a high-knees tracking lead has been recruited to take responsibility for consolidating information. The council is also making it manageable by identifying quick wins and ensuring timely decision-making. Weekly case supervision is in place to support coordinators.

The council is working hard to get there regarding the national average for EHC plan assessment completion. The ambition is to be on track to be as close to 40% by the end of this year (referring to the five months following the meeting). Families are being prioritised, keeping families up to date.

More information on the council's work can be found in the Public reports pack for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.