Hundreds of Northamptonshire special needs children waiting too long for school assessments

A sharp rise in demand and not enough assessors has led to the North Northamptonshire Council being unable to meet statutory deadlines

Sarah Ward

Children with special needs in Northamptonshire are having to endure long waits for care plans, as the numbers requiring assessment have risen sharply in recent months.

Ann Marie Dodds, the consultant employed by North Northamptonshire Council to work as the assistant director of education, has said the local education authority’s performance is currently inadequate and the majority of children and families are having to wait longer than the statutory 20 weeks for an Educational Health Care Plan Assessment (EHCP).

She said since the new authority came to being in April 2021, the number of requests for EHCPs had risen sharply, with the numbers in the North of the county rising from an average of about 33 a month to 80 in May 2021.

And in the first week of December 36 new requests came in.

The authority only has six staff to assess the claims and the senior officer in charge of the team recently left to join another authority. 

With 2757 children with EHCPs in North Northamptonshi…