Council pledges to come close to SEND target

A senior Essex county councillor has pledged to get as close as possible to the 20-week target for assessing all children for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Sam Journet, the Reform UK education cabinet member at the local authority, said that by July 2027, he expected 80-90% of assessments to be completed within the time frame.

Conservative opposition councillor Ross Playle described the commitments as "very lofty".

Essex County Council has faced intense scrutiny in recent years for its handling of education and health care plans (EHCPs).

The EHCP process should take a maximum of 20 weeks from the initial request for an assessment, to the final plan being issued.

It is a legally-binding document setting out the support children need up to the age of 25.

"We're working our absolute best to be able to do that," said Journet, speaking at a people and families policy and scrutiny committee at County Hall.

Reform took control of Essex County Council in May.

It pledged to end the "backlog" of families waiting for an EHCP by the end of this year.

The council says there are currently about 640 families who have been waiting more than 20 weeks for the process to be completed.

Director of education Clare Kershaw, who was at the meeting, said that as of 28 August, 421 of those applications were being actively assessed by an educational psychologist.

In 2024, Essex was at one point the worst performer of any local authority in England for meeting the deadline, with 1% of young people receiving an assessment in time.

That figure was 28% in 2025, the council said.

But according to a county council report, this figure had dropped to 17% as of 31 July this year.

The committee was told the volume of requests in Essex had increased by 1,900 - up to 4,706 - compared with five years ago.

"There are more children with increasing needs and increasing complexity," Kershaw told councillors.

Tory Sue Lissimore asked how the council would afford "agency staff which are very very expensive".

Kershaw said the extra funding had come from council reserves and staff would "minimise the use of agency capacity once the backlog is cleared".

Artificial intelligence tools were also being piloted "to speed up the plan writing", she explained.

The government is reforming the SEND system, and in 2035, only children with the most complex needs are expected to qualify for an EHCP.

Last year, the former Conservative education cabinet member, Tony Ball, said the 20-week target was "not achievable".

Asked by the BBC if Journet would resign if his 80-90% target was not met, he said: "Absolutely not. It's not a case of resigning over it.

"Because again - if this is our aspiration to achieve that. If there's some stumbling blocks in the way, of course we will address those as we go."

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