What this shows
When you ask your local authority for an education, health and care needs assessment, two statutory clocks start. The council must decide whether to assess within 6 weeks, and any final plan must be issued within 20 weeks of the original request (SEND Regulations 2014, regulations 5 and 13). The Department for Education publishes each council's record against those deadlines once a year. These pages put that data in one place for parents: your council's latest figures, its trend since 2019, and how it compares nationally.
New to the system? Start with what an EHCP actually is and the deadlines that protect you. And if you have seen the headlines about EHCPs being phased back, the 2026 SEND reforms page sets out what was really announced and when anything changes.
EHC plans exist in England only. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland run separate systems with different statutory frameworks, so this lookup covers the 153 English local authorities.
How long does an EHCP take?
The Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 set a deadline for each stage, counted from the day the council receives the request for an assessment.
- By week 6, the council must tell you whether it will assess. If it refuses, the letter must explain your right to appeal and how mediation works (regulation 5).
- By week 16, if the council has assessed and decided not to issue a plan, it must tell you (regulation 10).
- The draft plan comes with at least 15 days for you to comment on it and to ask for a particular school or college to be named (regulation 13(1)(a)).
- By week 20, the council must send the final plan (regulation 13(2)).
The council can go past 20 weeks only where one of the exceptions in regulation 10(4) makes the deadline impractical. One is a school or early years setting being closed for 4 weeks or more while the council waits for its advice. The others are exceptional personal circumstances affecting the child or family, and the child or family being away from the area for 4 weeks or more.
In 2025, England issued 46.1% of new plans within 20 weeks, leaving out cases where an exception applied. The rest took longer than the law allows, and how much longer depends heavily on where you live. That is what these report cards measure, council by council.
Could your child use some extra help while you wait for a plan?
The national picture in 2025
England issued 46.1% of new EHC plans within the statutory 20 weeks in 2025, down from 46.4% the year before. Behind that average sits an enormous postcode lottery: of the 150 councils with published data, 66 met the deadline in fewer than half of cases, 11 managed it in fewer than one case in ten, and 26 delivered over 90%.
England, % of new plans issued within 20 weeks (excluding exceptional cases; plan counts in brackets). † DfE changed the collection method between calendar years 2022 and 2023; treat cross-break trend comparisons with care.
What changed since 2024
The 2025 figures were published on 25 June 2026. Nationally, the share of new plans issued within the 20 weeks the law allows barely moved, from 46.4% in 2024 to 46.1% in 2025. Demand kept climbing: councils maintained 718,838 EHC plans as at January 2026, 12.5% more than a year earlier. A steady national average hides large local swings, and the councils that moved most in either direction are below.
Most improved since 2024
- North East Lincolnshire 36.8% → 98.6% (+61.8)
- County Durham 18.3% → 77.6% (+59.3)
- Bracknell Forest 45.8% → 100% (+54.2)
- North Lincolnshire 18.6% → 70.4% (+51.8)
- North Yorkshire 24.6% → 75.7% (+51.1)
- Harrow 38.7% → 88.2% (+49.5)
Biggest falls since 2024
- Lewisham 94.8% → 22.9% (-71.9)
- Hartlepool 74.6% → 21.4% (-53.2)
- East Sussex 85.1% → 43.1% (-42)
- Brighton and Hove 97.8% → 57.4% (-40.4)
- Swindon 49.4% → 11.8% (-37.6)
- Wolverhampton 55.8% → 19.6% (-36.2)
Change in the share of new plans issued within 20 weeks between 2024 and 2025, for councils that issued at least 30 plans in both years. Percentage-point change in brackets.
Fastest councils, 2025
- 1. Barnet 100%
- 2. Bracknell Forest 100%
- 3. Wandsworth 100%
- 4. Windsor and Maidenhead 100%
- 5. Barnsley 98.6%
- 6. North East Lincolnshire 98.6%
- 7. York 98.5%
- 8. Bury 98.1%
- 9. Kensington and Chelsea 97.9%
- 10. Liverpool 97.3%
Slowest councils, 2025
- 1. Derbyshire 5%
- 2. Devon 5.1%
- 3. Somerset 6.4%
- 4. Cumberland 6.7%
- 5. Bristol 6.8%
- 6. Leeds 7.3%
- 7. Cambridgeshire 7.3%
- 8. Buckinghamshire 7.8%
- 9. West Northamptonshire 7.9%
- 10. Wirral 8.2%
Rankings cover councils that issued at least 30 plans in 2025 (2 smaller councils excluded; their pages carry the same data with a small-numbers caveat). Every percentage is the share of new plans issued within 20 weeks, excluding exceptional cases.
Find your council
East Midlands regional average 32.4%
- Derby 52.6%
- Derbyshire 5%
- Leicester n/a
- Leicestershire 20.3%
- Lincolnshire 86.8%
- North Northamptonshire 56.5%
- Nottingham 30.2%
- Nottinghamshire 32.3%
- Rutland 80.7%
- West Northamptonshire 7.9%
East of England regional average 35.3%
- Bedford 94.3%
- Cambridgeshire 7.3%
- Central Bedfordshire 56.3%
- Essex 20.1%
- Hertfordshire 60.3%
- Luton 29.1%
- Norfolk n/a
- Peterborough 66%
- Southend-on-Sea 47%
- Suffolk 16.5%
- Thurrock 35.4%
London regional average 61.6%
- Barking and Dagenham 27.2%
- Barnet 100%
- Bexley 65.9%
- Brent 69.7%
- Bromley 71.3%
- Camden 73%
- City of London 100%
- Croydon 61.2%
- Ealing 52.2%
- Enfield 67.2%
- Greenwich 31.2%
- Hackney 32.8%
- Hammersmith and Fulham 87.2%
- Haringey 89.6%
- Harrow 88.2%
- Havering 32%
- Hillingdon 77.6%
- Hounslow 58.4%
- Islington 85.8%
- Kensington and Chelsea 97.9%
- Kingston upon Thames 97.2%
- Lambeth 89.1%
- Lewisham 22.9%
- Merton 95.6%
- Newham 31.5%
- Redbridge 27.9%
- Richmond upon Thames 96.5%
- Southwark 42.8%
- Sutton 96%
- Tower Hamlets 46%
- Waltham Forest 25.7%
- Wandsworth 100%
- Westminster 92.9%
North East regional average 60.5%
- County Durham 77.6%
- Darlington 81.5%
- Gateshead 83.7%
- Hartlepool 21.4%
- Middlesbrough 93.3%
- Newcastle upon Tyne 21.8%
- North Tyneside 26%
- Northumberland 81.4%
- Redcar and Cleveland 19.9%
- South Tyneside 92%
- Stockton-on-Tees 52.9%
- Sunderland 59.4%
North West regional average 43.4%
- Blackburn with Darwen 79.9%
- Blackpool 55%
- Bolton 86%
- Bury 98.1%
- Cheshire East 23.9%
- Cheshire West and Chester 22.1%
- Cumberland 6.7%
- Halton 94.7%
- Knowsley 86.4%
- Lancashire 9.6%
- Liverpool 97.3%
- Manchester 74.2%
- Oldham 76.9%
- Rochdale 49.3%
- Salford 54.9%
- Sefton 42.9%
- St. Helens 59.6%
- Stockport 18.1%
- Tameside 30.3%
- Trafford 47.4%
- Warrington 73.6%
- Westmorland and Furness 72%
- Wigan 21.9%
- Wirral 8.2%
South East regional average 46.9%
- Bracknell Forest 100%
- Brighton and Hove 57.4%
- Buckinghamshire 7.8%
- East Sussex 43.1%
- Hampshire 52%
- Isle of Wight n/a
- Kent 56.9%
- Medway 21.4%
- Milton Keynes 11.5%
- Oxfordshire 37.8%
- Portsmouth 42.9%
- Reading 62.5%
- Slough 30.5%
- Southampton 80%
- Surrey 89.5%
- West Berkshire 25.2%
- West Sussex 15.5%
- Windsor and Maidenhead 100%
- Wokingham 43%
South West regional average 32.9%
- Bath and North East Somerset 33.2%
- Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole 69%
- Bristol 6.8%
- Cornwall 34.1%
- Devon 5.1%
- Dorset 78.2%
- Gloucestershire 27.4%
- Isles of Scilly 100%
- North Somerset 96%
- Plymouth 10.2%
- Somerset 6.4%
- South Gloucestershire 56.6%
- Swindon 11.8%
- Torbay 27.1%
- Wiltshire 61.6%
West Midlands regional average 42.3%
- Birmingham 37.1%
- Coventry 37.6%
- Dudley 25.1%
- Herefordshire 57%
- Sandwell 29.8%
- Shropshire 11.9%
- Solihull 74%
- Staffordshire 24.6%
- Stoke-on-Trent 58.7%
- Telford and Wrekin 97.3%
- Walsall 96.3%
- Warwickshire 22.8%
- Wolverhampton 19.6%
- Worcestershire 66.1%
Yorkshire and The Humber regional average 61%
- Barnsley 98.6%
- Bradford 86.5%
- Calderdale 94.1%
- Doncaster 83.9%
- East Riding of Yorkshire 92.9%
- Kingston upon Hull 37.4%
- Kirklees 62.8%
- Leeds 7.3%
- North East Lincolnshire 98.6%
- North Lincolnshire 70.4%
- North Yorkshire 75.7%
- Rotherham 79.4%
- Sheffield 27.8%
- Wakefield 80.2%
- York 98.5%
How we read this data
The DfE publishes the 20-week figure two ways. One counts every plan a council issued. The other leaves out plans the council flagged as exceptional cases, meaning the cases in which the regulations excuse a council from the 20-week deadline, such as a long school closure delaying professional advice or the family being away from the area. We headline the excluding-exceptions figure because it is the one the DfE leads with, and every council page also shows the all-cases figure so you can read both.
Exceptions usually apply to a small share of plans, about 7% nationally in 2025. Some councils flag many more, and a council page says so where the share is high, because the headline figure then rests on a smaller set of plans.
We rank only councils that issued at least 30 plans, so a council with a handful of plans cannot top or tail the table on a percentage that turns on one or two cases. We also set a council's figure aside when its exception flagging leaves too few plans to calculate a reliable rate. In the 2025 data that applied to Norfolk, which recorded almost every plan as an exceptional case, so the excluding-exceptions figure came out near zero from only a plan or two. Norfolk issued 59% of its plans within 20 weeks counting every case, and that is what its page shows rather than a misleading near-zero.
About the data
Figures are from the DfE "Education, health and care plans", reporting year 2026 (published 2026-06-25), covering plans issued in calendar year 2025. The percentage shown beside each council is the share of new plans issued within 20 weeks, excluding cases the regulations treat as exceptional. Each council page shows both counting methods, the number of plans behind every percentage, and the caveats that apply. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.