West Northamptonshire issued 7.9% of new Education, Health and Care Plans within the legal 20-week limit in 2025, down from 12.2% in 2024. That's out of 1,174 plans issued.
The England average that year was 46.1%, so West Northamptonshire was 38.2 points below the national average.
On average, a plan issued by West Northamptonshire in 2025 took 38.7 weeks — the England average was 24.0 weeks, against the 20-week legal limit.
Under the Children and Families Act 2014, local authorities have a legal duty to complete the EHC needs assessment process and issue a final plan (or decide not to) within 20 weeks of the initial request — with only narrow exceptions, such as school holidays or when a family requests a delay.
A late plan doesn't just mean waiting on paperwork — it can mean a child goes months longer without the legally-backed support they're entitled to.
Set out in Chapter 9 of the SEND Code of Practice — four checkpoints across 20 weeks.
A parent, young person, or a professional (e.g. a school) asks the council to carry out an EHC needs assessment.
The council must decide whether to carry out an assessment and tell the family — this is the first point they can say no.
Having gathered advice from education, health and social care professionals, the council decides whether to issue a plan and, if so, sends a draft.
After at least 15 days for the family to comment on the draft and request a school, the council must send the final EHC plan.
Staffing shortages or a backlog of cases aren't lawful reasons to go past the deadline. Roughly in order, here's what other parents typically do:
Ask which stage the process has reached and for a specific date — then put the same request in writing by email so there's a record.
IPSEA (a free, independent charity) publish a template letter for exactly this — pointing the council to the statutory deadline it's missed. Get the template letter.
If a written chase-up doesn't move things, use the council's own complaints procedure — this is usually a required step before anyone else will investigate.
If the council's complaints process doesn't resolve it, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman can investigate delay in the EHC process specifically, and regularly finds councils at fault for missing the 20-week deadline.