'Green shoots' as West Northamptonshire Council halves average time to complete SEND plans
West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) has halved the average time it takes to complete education, health and care plans (EHCP) for children with special educational needs over the last year.
A children, education and housing scrutiny committee meeting held on Monday March 16, heard that the average time taken to complete an EHC assessment dropped from 54 weeks in February 2025 to 24.9 weeks last month.
An EHC plan is a legally-binding document that sets out the support for children and young people aged up to 25 who have special educational needs or disabilities. National guidance states that local authorities have 20 weeks to issue a final plan, however only around 50 percent of plans are completed within the time limit nationally.
Officers told the committee meeting that 34 percent of EHC assessments in West Northants were completed within 20 weeks – a massive increase from 1.6 percent issued on time a year prior.
Kim Stevenson, from the West Northants Voices in Partnership parent carer forum, told members that they were starting to see “green shoots” in the council’s SEND performance.
She said: “We’re getting parents that are not wanting any amendments on their written EHCPs – I mean, I don’t think I have seen that in 30 years.
“Turning the county is like turning the Titanic. It’s very early days, but we are going in the right direction.”
The assistant director for education, Ben Pearson, added: “This was a system-wide culture change that needed to happen across multiple organisations. What’s happened underneath the data is a genuine partnership across health, across social care and across education.
“What I’m most proud of is that from the very start of this journey, our parent forum had a seat at the table as an equal partner.
“I feel very assured in the direction that we are moving in. I’m not going to pretend it’s all roses because it’s not, but we know what we need to do to put it right.”
Head of SEND at WNC, Louisa Jones, said that the department is looking to continue the trajectory and reach at least 75 percent of EHC plans completed on time by October 2026.
However, concerns were raised by Far Cotton, Delapre and Briar Hill councillor Anthony Owens (Reform UK) about the possible financial and legal risk to the authority from SEND tribunals.
According to a Freedom of Information request submitted by the LDRS, the authority has been involved in more than 600 SEND tribunal cases in the last three years, rising from 158 cases in 2023/24 to 277 cases in 2025/26.
Melanie Barnett, the director of children’s services at WNC, said: “It’s a challenging national picture and it’s referred to as a crisis, and I would say in my perspective it is absolutely a crisis and something significant needs to change around that to make sure we get the very best outcomes for our children.”
The meeting also heard that the SEND partnership monitoring inspection, which was due to take place in October, has not yet happened.
Officers said they had shared a self-evaluation on progress made on the action plan and commitments for the next 12 months with the Department for Education, NHS England, the CQC and Ofsted, and that there is “confidence in the credibility of the plans and the people”.