By Anna Whittaker, Local Democracy Reporter
Nottingham City Council is failing to consistently hit Government targets for completing assessments for children with special educational needs.
Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCs) provide support for people aged up to 25 with help such as speech and language therapy.
The Government’s target is for councils to complete the assessments within 22 weeks.
Before the pandemic, Nottingham City Council said it was hitting this target 95 per cent of the time.
Now, that figure has dropped to 65 per cent, although the authority pointed out the national average figure is currently 54.5 per cent.
The Director of Education at Nottingham City Council, Nick Lee, said the delays were partly due to challenges with the recruitment of educational psychologists.
He added that the authority is seeing increasing demand for support in special needs services for children.
Of all school children in Nottingham, 15.7 per cent of them have some form of special educational need and disability, or SEND.
And in January 2023, there were 1,411 children in the city with an EHC plan.
It comes after neighbouring authority Nottinghamshire County Council was criticised for “widespread failings” with its special needs services.
A new inspection framework for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities came into effect in January 2023.
Nottinghamshire County Council and the local NHS – the Integrated Care Board (ICB) – were among the first to be rated under the new framework.
They were criticised by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which found children and young people were waiting too long to receive educational health care plans (EHCs) and specialist help.
Now, Nottingham City Council says it is preparing for an inspection of its services. Any inspection would also include a look at the work of the ICB.
The city’s five special schools are all rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.
Mr Lee said he did not know when this inspection may be.
The comments were made at a Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee on September 28.
Mr Lee said: “It is challenging because the demand is growing.
“In the timeliness of our EHC plans, I’ll be honest, we have seen a drop in that, partly because we had challenges around recruitment of educational psychologists.
“We were historically always at 95 per cent. We are still above national averages in terms of our timeliness – but it’s not enough because it is below our target.”
The last time the city council was assessed on its SEND services in 2021, the watchdog did not find any “significant weaknesses” but it suggested areas for development.
Mr Lee added that the city council is one of few areas across the country which does not have an overspend in its ‘high level needs budget’ from the Government.
He said that it is partly due to the council keeping many children with SEND within mainstream schools.
Cllr Sam Gardiner (Lab) asked during the meeting: “How big of a gap do we currently have in terms of what’s needed and what’s provided?”
Mr Lee replied: “That is a challenging question.
“The rise in the number of children diagnosed with autism is driving our increase in special places.
“We are looking to add additional capacity. We’ve not currently got sufficient capacity to meet all those needs going forward.
“The issue with special school places is around expense and finite resources.”
Cllr Gardiner added: “Are you confident it will be enough to get us a good outcome in terms of the next inspection?”
Mr Lee said: “I don’t want to be a hostage to fortune. There is significant work we need to do.
“The framework is rightly demanding and challenging. We do know that waiting times are too long.
“I’m not going to give you a prediction but there is an understanding of the challenges we need to focus on.”
Cllr Georgia Power (Lab) added: “It feels to me that there’s a huge issue in secondary schools with children who tend not to have [EHC] plans.
“In a few cases, the family have fought for plans for a number of years and been turned down, and it has then escalated to the point where it’s unmanageable.
“Some of them have been horrific and we’ve allowed children to get to that point, despite families being there fighting for them.
“I am concerned and wonder if we can do something for children who don’t get a plan.
“Lots of us know what the challenges are but we’ve not been delivering on it for a long time.”
