THURROCK Council, which celebrated an 'outstanding' Ofsted and Care Quality report for its children's services in 2024, has been branded 'not good enough' in providing help for young people with special needs.

An overview and scrutiny committee has been told more than half of Thurrock's Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP) missed a legal 20-week deadline last year.

An Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) is a legal plan for a child or young person that sets out their special educational needs and the support they must receive.

Council officer Andrea Winstone told the Children's Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee that met on Thursday (23 July) how the council receives, on average, 17 requests for plans each month.

Ms Winstone said the latest published figures, compiled between January and December last year, showed only 49 per cent of plans were completed on time, as she told the committee: "So not good enough."

EHCPs are issued and maintained by the council, which has a legal duty to complete the process within 20 weeks.

Revisiting the council after delivering the 'outstanding' verdict in October 2024, inspectors carrying out a check on Thurrock's special educational needs arrangements in December 2025 found timeliness, quality of plans and annual reviews "inconsistent".

Inspectors also raised concerns about long waits for neurodevelopmental assessments and gaps in data.

The inspection looked at Thurrock's local area partnership, the council, NHS and education services but late plans and missed statutory timescales fall under the council's responsibilities.

The council's director for education, Michele Lucas, told the committee there had been 'a significant increase in requests, and admitted Thurrock 'were not working within those statutory timeframes for both educational healthcare plans and annual review'.

She said the council is now managing over 3,000 plans, making annual reviews "extremely challenging" to complete on time.

Reform councillor Pam McCabe told the meeting it took two years for her grandchild to get through the system, forcing the family to pay privately for an assessment.

Ms Winstone denied any plan had taken two years from request to completion, but accepted the process could 'feel that long' because schools must gather evidence and families often wait for educational psychologist reports.

Ms Lucas said the council and its NHS partners have created an improvement plan following the inspection, including staff training, tighter quality checks on plans and a new online portal for EHCP information.

She warned progress on delays depends on tackling workforce shortages and high staff turnover.

"We are seeing a lot of staff turnover. It is challenging role as you're waiting for things to come in and then planning for when they don't come in", she said.

"It's great we have new people coming but we need to ensure we are retaining staff in quite a difficult area."