Purpose

The Council, like many Local Authorities,
faces unprecedented demand in relation to the consideration of
requests for support for additional Education, Health and Care
needs of young people and subsequent issuing of Education Health
and Care Plans (EHCP). EHCPs have, by statute, to be issued within
set timescales and must include advice from Education
Psychologists. Given the current demand for EHCPs there is a
significant recruitment and retention issue for local authorities
seeking to recruit and retain Educational Psychologists. The
Council is currently not fulfilling its responsibility in terms of
timelines with a considerable number of EHCPs which need to be
either reviewed or issued. Despite the best endeavours of the
existing staff, additional capacity is required to address this
backlog and improve the performance on timeliness of the end-to-end
EHCP process. The EHCP process is a significant undertaking for
young people and families, the timely issuing of plans will ensure
an improved experience for children and families and improved
outcomes for children. Accordingly, the Directorate proposes to
enter into contractual arrangements for the purchase of interim
support from specialised recruitment agencies for appropriate
Educational Psychologists to be engaged to work on and reduce the
EHCP assessments and reviews that are currently delayed.
 

Content

Please see attached report.