Postcode lottery for special needs support in Essex, Ofsted says

It comes after a report said “children and young people with SEND do not have equal access to all health services and access depends too much on where they live”

The new Reform administration at Essex County Council says it is ”committed” to improving special educational needs and disabilities services following a critical report on how long young people are waiting for assessments in the county, which largely depends on where they live.

The Essex SEND partnership, made up of the county council and the Integrated Care Board (ICB), was given a “middle” outcome after an inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in January this year. The report, which was released this week, concludes that “arrangements lead to inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND, and the local area partnership must work jointly to make improvements”.

The report also highlights challenges within the Essex SEND system, including the prevalence of a postcode lottery in children’s access to health services. The report said: “Children and young people with SEND do not have equal access to all health services. Access depends too much on where they live.”

The service has been working to improve its SEND provision. This has improved thanks in part to significant investments – in March, it pledged to put an extra £2.6 million into the SEND assessment process over the next two years.

The funding will pay for around 1,200 additional Educational Psychologist assessments. It says demand for assessments continues to rise. In Essex, requests have grown every year, with more than 4,500 received in 2024/25.

But it has cut the assessment backlog by more than 40 per cent and is completing assessments faster than planned. However, inspectors said there were still concerns around the time it was taking.

The report said: “The timeliness of education, health and care (EHC) plans is poor. Some children and young people wait too long to receive appropriate provision and support from some services. Many families are dissatisfied because of these delays.”

It added: “Too few EHC plans are issued within the statutory timeframe. The main cause of delays has been challenges with the recruitment of educational psychologists (EPs).”

Essex County Council, the NHS Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB), the NHS Suffolk and North East Essex ICB and the NHS Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB are responsible for planning and commissioning services to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND in Essex, as part of the Essex local area partnership.

ICBs are partnerships that bring health services, including GP practices, NHS trusts, and council services such as disability services, under one management system.

Councillor Peter Harris, Leader of Essex County Council’s Reform UK Group and Leader Elect, said: “We want the Essex SEND system to provide all children, young people and their families with consistent and effective support.

“The report is an important document for us to understand how Essex is performing, and where we should focus our attention to make improvements. My political colleagues and I are committed to continuing the work to improve the service in partnership with schools, partners and of course, families themselves.”

Tom Abell, Chief Executive at NHS Essex ICB, said: “We are pleased to see that the CQC noted the progress that has been made in Essex and the strong partnerships that we have to improve the support children and young people with SEND receive, but we recognise there remains much to be done so that every child and young person gets the consistent high quality support they need. We will continue to work to make services better in Essex, in partnership with children, young people and their families.”