Education, health and care assessments and plans issued 2018 to 2022 - Find a freedom of information request

1. How many requests for Education, health and care (EHC) Assessments were made in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022, how many EHC Plans were issued as a result?

2. What percentage of notifications as to whether an EHC Assessment would be undertaken were returned to the applicant within 6 weeks of the request having being made, and what percentage of EHC Plans were issued within the statutory 20 weeks?

3. What has been the cost to the Council in fines for EHC Plans not being issued within the statutory 20-week period between 2018-22?

4. What steps has the Council taken to improve the number of EHC Plans issued within the statutory 20-week period?

5. What procedures are in place to engage with parents/carers if it becomes apparent that it will not be possible to issue an EHC Plan within the statutory 20-week period?

6. What proportion of children and young people with SEN have their needs supported in mainstream education without an EHC Plan being issued?

7. What proportion of children and young people with an EHC Plan attend a Special School, or are currently waiting for a Special School place?

8. How many Educational Psychologists are employed directly by the Council, and how many are employed via agencies?

9. What proportion of the directly employed Educational Psychologists' time is allocated to carrying out statutory assessments?

1.

This data is from the Department for Education's published SEN2 data on gov.uk and can be viewed at: Create your own tables, Table Tool - Explore education statistics - GOV.UK https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/

2.

3. £0.00.

4. The following steps were taken to improve compliance with the 20 week deadline:

* Recruitment of additional local Educational Psychologists

* The introduction of Joint Assessments with other Educationalists

* Early consideration of EHCNA requests.

5. In the event that a plan will not be issued within 20 weeks the SEND Caseworker keeps regular contact with the family to provide a date by when the plan will be finalised, and to explain the reasons that it was not finalised within 20 weeks. The Caseworker will be able to inform the family of the delay well before the 20 week date so that they are aware before the date arrives.

6. Data from the January 2023 school census (most up to date data available) shows that there are 17888 CYP with SEN in mainstream schools, of which 2967 have an EHCP and 14921 are supported without an EHCP.

7. Lincolnshire currently has 7227 EHC plans. Of those, 2374 attend a special school.

8. 0 - the authority uses locum Educational Psychologists only.

9. 0 - the authority uses locum Educational Psychologists only.