ESSEX County Council is investing an extra £2.6 million over the next two years. The money will accelerate recent improvements to the Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNAs) process.

This is a statutory process conducted by a local authority. It determines if a child or young person up to the age of 25 requires an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan.

The new funding will pay for 1,200 extra Education Psychologist (EP) assessments. These will be carried out by a well-established external agency.

It will also increase capacity in the council’s SEND operations and social care teams to co-ordinate the assessment process.

This will help maintain the accelerated pace of assessments. It will also help to clear the historic backlog and prepare the local system ahead of the Government’s SEND reforms.

The backlog has been largely due to a shortage of EP capacity to deliver the EP assessment part of the assessment.

Requests for EHCNAs continue to rise both locally and nationally. In Essex, they have increased year on year. 4,011 requests were received in 2022/23 and 4,572 in 2024/25. Almost 1,900 were submitted between September 2025 and January 2026 alone.

Nationally, the number of Education, Health and Care Plans has also risen by 166% since 2015. This has placed pressure on specialist services across the country.

Over the past year, Essex has significantly strengthened its EP workforce. This includes through recruitment of associate roles, agency support, as well as new ways of working.

Progress has been positive. The current agency contract is delivering all assessments three months earlier than planned. This includes both historic cases and new requests.

This has created an opportunity to clear the backlog sooner than planned. It will also enable the system to move back to ‘BAU’ in a sustainable way.

The council has made several multi-million pound investments to address the timeliness of assessments and increase EP capacity. This has helped to:

• reduce the backlog by more than 40% between July 2025 and February 2026 – Essex now completes more assessments each month than the number of new requests received
• double the number of Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plans issued between September and January year on year – from 595 in 2024/25 to 1,201 in 2025/26
• maintain quality through strengthened professional oversight and quality assurance
• expand the EP workforce to include assistant EPs, trainees and associates

Councillor Tony Ball, Cabinet Member for Education Excellence, Lifelong Learning and Employability, said: “This investment is an important step in maintaining the progress we have seen to date. The increased capacity has already made a real difference for families and we want to ensure that continues.

“By acting now, we can keep up the pace, clear the backlog sooner and put the system in a strong position for the national SEND reforms when they come.

“I want to thank all of our colleagues, partners, schools and settings for their continued hard work and commitment to supporting families. Your dedication makes a real difference and doesn’t go unnoticed.”