The reason there is a huge backlog in applications for an education, health and care plan (EHCP) is threefold (Hundreds of children with special needs wait a year for support in England, 18 February).
First, funding in schools for special education needs and disabilities (Send) is now such that without an EHCP a child cannot be guaranteed any support at all. This means that schools have limited capacity to support children and young people whose families lack the resources (time, money and cultural capital) to get hold of an EHCP. I know of schools, for example, that are no longer able to offer any in-class support for students without a plan. So the families of children with moderate difficulties, who previously could have been supported by the school’s normal resources, are forced to seek an EHCP to get any help at all.
