Parents say 'rushed out in bulk' EHCPs being used to reduce backlog

Lancashire County Council said earlier in March that SEND assessments would be cleared in two months. But what value does that carry if parents are left distressed by the results?

Hello and welcome to The Lancashire Lead.

Earlier in March, Lancashire County Council predicted the EHCP backlog (the measure by which children with special educational needs and disabilities [SEND] are provided bespoke support) would be cleared by May.

That is some turnaround from the 1,801 overdue assessments in December 2024 and the 2,078 waiting to see an educational psychologist in May 2025.

This has been put down to extra investment by the Reform-led authority since taking control in 2025.

But parents are asking what use it is to clear the backlog if the end result is something that ultimately leads to further conflict between authority and parents?

We’ve spoken to parents who feel they have been issued ‘boiler plate’ EHCPs in recent months and unpicked what might be behind that.

Lancashire briefing

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Parents say ‘rushed out in bulk’ EHCPs being used to reduce backlog - despite county council declaring victory

County Cllr Matthew Salter

By Luke Beardsworth

Parents and families receiving EHCPs from Lancashire County Council feel they are receiving ‘boiler plate’ plans as the authority prioritises slashing the backlog over the needs of children.

Lancashire County Council declared earlier in March that the backlog of EHCPs it had inherited - forming part of its SEND services that were declared ‘unacceptable’ just over a year ago - would be cleared in less than two months.

A damning Ofsted inspection report in February 2025 said hold-ups in the Lancashire County Council process for issuing new – and updating existing – education, health and care plans (EHCPs) meant some young people were not receiving the help to which they were entitled. Annual reviews of their requirements were sometimes “many years” late, the regulator found.

The authority was at that point led by the Conservatives but Reform UK took control in dominant fashion in the May 2025 local elections. At that point £5.4m was added to the SEND budget and used to help resolve a shortage of educational psychologists by drafting in agency staff.

The result is that the backlog has fallen from over 1,801 overdue in December 2024 to 360 in January of this year.

But frustrated parents who spoke with The Lancashire Lead who have dealt with the authority’s SEND system in the last few months said the plans currently being issued are ‘not worth the paper they are written on’. The authority acknowledges that not all families have the experience they would like.

Jonathan Thomson, 44 from Clitheroe, received a draft EHCP for his child in December 2025 after initially being told the authority would not carry out an assessment. That decision was reversed by Lancashire County Council after a tribunal was pursued.

He said: “We read it through against the evidence submitted and it didn’t represent what we’d sent to them. It was full of non-committal and non-binding things they were saying the school had to do.

“You’ve got a set number of days to respond, so I pulled that together explaining why I disagreed. We got an email back from the agency worker saying they couldn’t help and directing me to the case worker. They said ‘it’s just my job to get it out’.

“We then got a call from the school saying they had a final draft of the EHCP - we didn’t have it at that stage. When we did get it through and it was almost exactly the same as before, including typos and another child’s name.

“They don’t appear to have taken any acknowledgement of the points that we made. We just don’t know.”

“My impression is there’s a lot of parents going through exactly the same thing. I’m one of thousands of people in Lancashire that are being messed about. All of us have got children that are suffering because of this.”

Jonathan stressed that he has dealt with some ‘really good’ case workers who have been helpful - when he has been successful in actually speaking with them.

But he added: “They’re doing things that are resulting in the backlog going down, but that doesn’t mean that they’re doing the right things - they’re rushing out incomplete, boilerplate EHCPs that aren’t worth the paper they’re written on.

“The whole point is that it’s a legal framework that holds the education provider to certain things but it’s leaving parents with no way of enforcing it.

“It’s quite clear from the state of the document that they’ve been doing them in bulk to get them out as quickly as possible.”