More than 3,800children with existing statements of special educational needs (SEN) were still waiting for newplans outlining their entitlement to educationalsupport and therapy after the 1 Aprildeadline passed.
Local authorities were told by government in September 2014 that all eligible children with statements of SEN needed to be transferred to education, health and care (EHC) plans by the end of March.
But released today show there were 3,873 transfers of SEN statements yet to be completed on 31 March2018.
The statistics show232,352 statements (98.4 per cent) had been transferred or discontinued.
The statistics follow an earlier release which revealed that on 1 March2018, there were yet to be completed, meaning decisions had been made on 10,432 statements in just one month.
Quality of EHC plans ‘varies widely’
There has been concern aboutlocal authorities rushing out EHC plans to hit deadlines.
Ofsted has said that the between different areas and, even when plans were completed on time, often theyincluded “too much confusing terminology and jargon” or could be too general.
The government has said previously that any statement of SEN for which a transfer review has not been completed by 1 Aprilwill remain in force to ensure that children and young people in this situation do not lose support.
But there have been previous warnings about delays in the system, with the local government and social care ombudsman saying earlier this year that children could wait up to 90 weeks for their statement to be transferred to an EHC plan.
Educational psychologists, who have a statutory role in the process, have said that the deadline was not likely to be met because there were not enough in their ranks.
