Bristol City Council Manages 05 Per Cent Timeliness On EHCPs This Year
The timeliness is an improvement on 01 per cent earlier this year
Plans supporting children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (Send) are still taking too long to process.
According to data from Bristol City Council, the timeliness of issuing plans has increased from 01 per cent in February 2025 to just 05 per cent by the end of August 2025.
The statutory plans must be issued within a legally required 20 weeks. But, Bristol City Council has historically failed to do so.
The average amount of time children and young people are waiting to have their plans issued in Bristol is currently 42 weeks. In May 2025, the average wait was one whole year.
The council’s Performance Position as of the 31 August 2025 stated that the percentage of plans finalised in 20 weeks was 32 per cent.
But delving deeper, this was just the number of plans finalised on time in July 2025. The year to date timeliness stands at just 05 per cent.
The paper – Children and Young People Committee Update Report – will be presented by Executive Director of Children and Education, Hannah Woodhouse, to Children and Young People Policy Committee this month.
The performance headlines say there has been 1,010 Education, Health and Care Needs Assessments (EHCNA) requests received in total in the year to date.
This is a ‘decrease’ of 06 per cent compared to the same period of time in 2024. This means the rate of requests per 10,000 population in Bristol for Quarter 1 is 22.0, below the England national rate of 23.2.
Bristol City Council says in the paper: ‘Improving the timelines and quality of children’s plans remains a priority. Whilst the proportion of EHCPs issued within 20 weeks remains below target (5% for the year to date) performance improved in August 2025 at 32%. The significant increase in the number of plans being issued
in 2025 has reduced the average time children are waiting to have their plans issued (down to 42 weeks in August 2025, from 52 weeks in May 2025) which is a positive trajectory although there is much more to do.’
The progress is measured against the council’s EHCNA Improvement Plan by the Children’s Quality, Improvement and Performance (QuIP) Board.
Bristol City Council refuses to release any agendas or minutes for these meeting.
Responding to a Freedom of Information request for the papers, the council said: ‘‘This is a highly emotive issue and disclosure of sensitive information in relation to this will undoubtedly lead to high volumes of enquiries from potentially affected families, which will impact upon the ability of officers in the service area to perform their roles, which will in turn be counter-productive in terms of service provision.’
Home: https://backstagebristol.com/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/chopsybristol.bsky.social
TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@chopsybristoltt
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/backstagebristol
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/chopsybaby