Bristol City Council Blames Schools For Late Annual Reviews

The law is clear that local authorities are responsible for holding an EHCP annual review

Delays around Education Health Care Plans (EHCPs) at Bristol City Council extend much further than lengthy waits for the plans to be finalised.

There are also severe delays in the Annual Review process which must take place exactly a year after plans are finalised. It all feeds into one long and ongoing unlawful delay at the council house.

What is an annual review?

An annual review is a statutory process that must be followed. It looks at the needs, provision and outcomes in an EHCP to decide if these need to be changed.

It is a local authority’s role to complete the first annual review within 12 months of a plan being finalised. All subsequent reviews must then be completed within 12 months of the previous review.

There are steps that must be taken during the annual review which includes consulting with the education setting or education provider and the the parent or carer to take into account those views.

A meeting must take place to discuss the plan.

Finally, before the meeting, all information must be gathered from all professionals and circulated no less than two weeks before the meeting.

There are more processes that must be followed during the review and following the review for it to be completed lawfully. But Bristol City Council is failing at the first hurdle.

There are currently 1,230 annual reviews that are unlawfully late – some of which are now over a year late. A further 509 have take place but the process has fallen outside of the legal time limits and are yet to be completed.

When we asked about the timeliness of EHCP Annual Reviews, Bristol City Council said: ‘In Bristol, the latest data shows that 6,690 children and young people have an EHCP, compared with 4,798 at the end of October 2024, representing a 39 per cent increase. As all EHCPs are subject to a statutory annual review process, this growth has a significant impact on the volume of annual reviews that need to be completed each year.

‘The table below shows two separate groups of Annual Reviews that are outside expected timescales:

‘The second column shows Annual Reviews that have not yet been carried out by the educational setting.

‘The third column shows cases where the Annual Review meeting has taken place, but the council’s post-review process has not yet been completed.

‘There are currently 1,230 Annual Reviews that have not yet been carried out by an educational setting and 509 cases where a review has taken place but the council’s follow-up process remains out of expected timeframes.

‘Our data validation work has provided a clearer understanding of outstanding cases. The Annual Review Improvement Project is systematically working through these cases, prioritising those that require the most urgent attention and monitoring progress closely. Alongside this, improvements are being made to the wider Annual Review process to support reviews being completed, followed up and recorded within the required timescales.

‘We recognise that the number of overdue Annual Reviews remains too high and that delays can have a significant impact on children, young people and their families. Reducing the backlog and improving compliance with statutory expectations remains a key priority, and progress is being monitored through the SEND Improvement Programme.’

Bristol City Council’s language around the answer they have given appears to put the responsibility for the lateness on education settings – ‘Annual Reviews not yet carried out by the setting.

However, in law, the entire process is the responsibility of the local authority.

At a meeting of Children and Young People Policy Committee at the council house last week, Green Party Councillor for Southville and Chair of the committee Christine Townsend said: “The responsibility is absolutely clear within the legislation that it’s the local authority, but there are agreements that schools that in some cases schools do those annual reviews or they hold them in the school.

“And as you know that is good practice that it’s better for the school to hold the annual review.

“But there’s also times when the local authority hopefully will join them, but not at every situation.”

The law is found here: Children and Families Act 2014 Part 3 Education Health And Care Plan Section 44 (1) says ‘A local authority must review an EHC plan that it maintains—

‘(a)in the period of 12 months starting with the date on which the plan was first made, and

(b)in each subsequent period of 12 months starting with the date on which the plan was last reviewed under this section.’

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