A Rutland school's education director has raised concerns about the failure of a council to meet statutory targets for support plans for children with special needs as less than a fifth are being completed in the legal timeframe. 

Educational Health Plans (EHCPS) are a legal agreement between a local authority and parents about what additional support is needed to meet their child's education needs. 

A recent report revealed that at the end of September only 18 per cent of EHCPs carried out by Rutland County Council, as the local education authority, are being done within the 20-week legal timings.  

At the council's strategic scrutiny meeting last week (November 27) Canon Andrew Read, who works for the academy chain Peterborough Diocese Education Trust , said: "I sit on a number of other council bodies as well where this thought occurs to me, and I think it's important to say, isn't it that there is a legal minimum requirement for 20 weeks for EHCP turnaround? 

"It would strike me that probably other areas of this council's work wouldn't sit comfortably with knowing that they are explicitly in legal breach of minimum legal requirements set by UK government, which is what we are declaring here.  

"I don't think it's just safeguarding issues. It's litigation that would also come into that, and obviously that comes second to the needs of these individual children."  

The EHCP rate has worsened in recent months. At the end of the most recent academic year in August, the authority had 433 EHCP plans for Rutland children and new data shows they are expecting another 22 to be granted. 

The authority is heading towards a £10m overspend on its high needs education plan, which has been growing each year.  

Many local authorities are in the same position and at last week's budget the treasury announced the SEN deficits would be taken on by the government, but it is unclear where it is to be funded from, with some fears it could impact on education budgets. 

Responding to Canon Read the council's head legal officer Amanda Wakefield said the EHCP 'pipeline is extremely full and it is getting fuller'.  

She said: "We are very, very open and honest about it and it's extremely important that we shine a light on those areas. 

"I think it's probably impossible to overstate the amount of work and attention that is being directed at overcoming these issues. And although that this still is a very, very low statistic there, what you cannot see here is the improvement journey, and that is something that we will report in the next quarter as well, and the quarter following that, because it is ongoing very, very hard work, and it's a very, very difficult issue." 

The authority has recently set up a two-year fixed-term increase in staffing capacity within the SEND team to meet rising demand for EHCP assessments and process them more quickly. 

Canon Read responded to Ms Wakefield by saying: "It's important for members to recognise, isn't it, that we would not, quite naturally be expecting to hold citizens to account for non legal compliance.  

"This is an area of express non legal compliance, and I think that it would be not right if it wasn't said in a public forum like this, in the context of those parents and those schools.  

"So, I very much welcome the improvements, but I think that we just need to make sure that we recognise the real significance of the statement that's been made here."