In England, an Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP) must be issued within 20 weeks of the assessment request under Regulation 13(2) of the SEND Regulations 2014. If the council has missed the deadline, the route is judicial review or the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, not the SEND Tribunal. A staffing or educational-psychologist backlog is not a lawful excuse.
You asked for the assessment months ago. The 20 weeks have come and gone, the council has gone quiet, and your child is still waiting for the support a plan is meant to bring. If you’re wondering how long an EHCP should take and what to do now the deadline has passed, you’re in the right place, and you’re not being unreasonable for chasing.
The timescales for an EHCP are set in law, not by the council’s own caseload. They aren’t targets. They’re deadlines.
This is an England-only guide. The framework comes from the Children and Families Act 2014 and the SEND Regulations 2014 made under it, so the deadlines below apply to local authorities (LAs) in England. (Sources checked June 2026.)
How long should an EHCP take, and what is the 20-week deadline?
The local authority must send the finalised EHCP within 20 weeks of receiving the request for an EHC needs assessment. That clock starts on the day the request lands, under section 36(1) of the Children and Families Act 2014, and runs to the final plan, not the draft.
It’s one continuous 20-week period. It covers everything: deciding whether to assess, carrying out the assessment, deciding whether to issue a plan, and finalising it. The council doesn’t get a fresh clock at each stage.
This is the legal maximum, not an aspiration. The duty in Regulation 13(2) is to issue the plan “as soon as practicable” and “in any event” within 20 weeks. A council that treats 20 weeks as a comfortable target has misread the law.
The scale of the problem is real, and you’re far from alone. In 2024, only 46.4% of new EHCPs in England were issued within the deadline, the lowest share on record. You can see how your own council performed in our EHCP timeliness by council data report.
That 46.4% figure means most families get a late plan. It doesn’t make a late plan lawful. The deadline still applies to your child, and you can hold the council to it.
What are the deadlines inside the 20 weeks?
There are two hard statutory anchors inside the 20 weeks: a decision within 6 weeks, and the final plan within 20. The council must tell you within 6 weeks of the request whether it will carry out an assessment at all, under Regulation 5(1) of the SEND Regulations 2014.
You may also see the milestone described differently. The public gov.uk guidance for parents says the council will tell you within 16 weeks whether a plan will be made, then has until 20 weeks to issue the final plan. Both framings are correct: the 6-week and 20-week points are the firm legal deadlines, and the 16-week notification sits between them.
The draft-plan stage in the middle is worth tracking, but treat it as derived from the timetable, not a separate statutory deadline. Counting the weeks yourself tells you exactly when the council is in breach.
Mark the 6-week and 20-week dates on a calendar the day you send the request. If the 6-week decision doesn’t arrive, chase in writing straight away. If week 20 passes with no final plan, the council is in breach and the rest of this guide is for you.
What are the phase-transfer deadlines (15 February and 31 March)?
Phase transfers have their own fixed calendar dates, separate from the 20-week clock, and they’re some of the most commonly missed deadlines. When a child with an existing EHCP moves between school phases, the plan must be reviewed and amended so the named placement is settled before they start, under Regulation 18 of the SEND Regulations 2014.
The point of these dates is to give your family certainty about where your child is going while there is still time to appeal if the named school is wrong. A council that drifts past them can leave a child without a confirmed place over the summer.
| Phase transfer | Deadline to finalise the amended plan | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Into early years, infant to junior, or primary to secondary | Before 15 February in the year of transfer | Reg 18(1)(b) |
| Secondary to post-16 (college or sixth form) | Before 31 March in the year of transfer | Reg 18(1)(a) |
| Post-16 to a different post-16 institution | At least 5 months before the transfer takes place | Reg 18(2) |
These deadlines bite even when the council is busy. The leading case on amendment timing, R (L, M and P) v Devon County Council [2022] EWHC 493 (Admin), confirmed that resource constraints, staff shortages and workload pressure cannot justify missing them.
If your child is mid-transfer and the date has slipped, the amendment process has its own short deadlines too. After a phase-transfer review meeting, the council must send its decision within 4 weeks under Regulation 20(10). If it proposes to amend the plan, you get at least 15 days to comment under Regulation 22(2), and the final amended plan must follow within 8 weeks under Regulation 22(3).
If a transfer deadline is close and no school is named yet, don’t wait quietly. Put the missed date in writing, name the regulation, and ask the council to confirm the placement in time for you to appeal Section I if you need to.
Is a staffing or educational-psychologist backlog a lawful excuse?
No. A waiting list for educational psychologists (EPs), a staffing shortage or a budget squeeze isn’t a lawful reason to miss the deadline. The law sets out the only exceptions that allow the time limits to be disregarded, and backlogs aren’t among them.
Those exceptions live in Regulation 10(4) of the SEND Regulations 2014, and there are only four. They are narrow and rarely apply. Everything else, including the reasons councils most often give, is unlawful delay.
The courts have backed this up. In W, R (on the application of) v Hertfordshire County Council [2023] EWHC 3138 (Admin), the council issued a plan late because it was waiting on an educational psychologist and on Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. The High Court still declared the council had acted unlawfully by failing to finalise the plan within 20 weeks. Missing information from professionals didn’t excuse the breach.
So when a council blames “the EP backlog”, it’s describing why it broke the law, not a defence to having broken it. You can quote Regulation 10(4) back to them and point out their reason isn’t on the list.
The council has missed the deadline: is this a Tribunal matter?
No, and this trips up a lot of families. The First-tier Tribunal (SEND) hears appeals against specific decisions, like a refusal to assess, a refusal to issue a plan, or the contents of the plan. It doesn’t deal with lateness on its own.
Delay is a failure to perform a public duty, so it’s challenged in a different forum. The two routes for a missed deadline are a complaint to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) or a claim for judicial review (JR) in the High Court.
Knowing which route you’re on matters, because the Tribunal deadlines aren’t your deadlines here. An appeal to the Tribunal must usually be lodged within 2 months of the council’s decision letter, or 1 month from a mediation certificate, whichever is later. Before most appeals you must first contact a mediation adviser, though an appeal only about the school named in Section I is exempt, as the gov.uk appeal guidance explains.
Do not spend months pursuing the Tribunal over pure delay. It is the wrong forum, and the time you lose could have been spent chasing through the route that actually addresses lateness.
There is one important crossover. If the council eventually issues the late plan and you disagree with its contents, that final plan does carry a right of appeal to the Tribunal, with the clock running from the plan’s date. The delay itself, though, belongs to the Ombudsman or judicial review. If it’s the contents you end up challenging, our guide on appealing an EHCP decision walks through that route.
How do you chase a late EHCP, step by step?
Start the moment a deadline passes, and put everything in writing. A clear paper trail showing the date you requested the assessment and each deadline the council missed is what makes the later routes work.
Escalate in order. Most delays are resolved long before court, often by a firm letter that shows you know the law and the dates. The steps build on each other:
- Chase in writing. The day a deadline passes, email the special educational needs (SEN) team. State the request date, count the weeks, and name Regulation 13(2).
- Put the council on formal notice. If the chasing is ignored, write again giving a short, clear deadline to issue the plan, and say what you will do if it slips.
- Use the council’s complaints process. If there is still no plan, make a formal complaint about the delay and ask for both the plan and a remedy.
- Escalate to the Ombudsman. Once the council’s own process is exhausted, take the complaint to the LGSCO.
- Consider judicial review. For an urgent or persistent breach, take legal advice on a JR claim.
This is delay, not a wrong decision. If your problem is actually a refusal to assess or to issue a plan, that’s a different route, covered in our guides on requesting an EHCP assessment and what to do when the council refuses to assess.
Keep the tone firm and factual: precise, not aggressive. A letter that says “you received my request on 3 March, the 20-week deadline was 21 July, and it’s now September with no plan” is hard for a council to brush off.
If you want help getting the wording right, IPSEA publishes model letters for exactly this situation, and you can get the structure of your chasing letter sorted in minutes.
Send chasing emails, not phone calls, or follow every call with an email summarising what was said. When you reach the Ombudsman or court stage, the dated written record is your evidence.
What can the Ombudsman or a judicial review actually do?
The Ombudsman investigates fault and recommends a remedy, while judicial review can order the council to act. They do different jobs, and the right choice depends on how urgent your situation is.
The LGSCO is free, doesn’t need a lawyer, and can recommend an apology, a financial remedy and service improvements. Judicial review is faster and more forceful for an ongoing breach, because the court can order the council to issue the plan. It has a tight deadline, though, and usually needs a solicitor.
To complain to the Ombudsman you must normally have gone through the council’s own complaints process first, or given it around 12 weeks. You must also complain within 12 months of becoming aware of the problem, as the LGSCO explains. For judicial review, a claim must be filed promptly and in any event within 3 months of the grounds arising, under Part 54 of the Civil Procedure Rules.
On remedies, the LGSCO’s published Guidance on Remedies uses around £50 a month as a guide for the frustration caused by avoidable delay. On top of that sits a moderate distress payment, often £100 to £300. Where fault caused lost education provision, it recommends typically £900 to £2,400 per term. These are guideline amounts to acknowledge the impact, not a fixed entitlement, and the figure depends on the harm to your child.
Does your child still get support while the plan is late?
Yes. A delay doesn’t pause your child’s entitlement, and the council can’t use a late plan as a reason to withdraw or reduce support that’s already in place. The legal duties continue throughout.
If your child already has an EHCP that is being amended, the duty to deliver the special educational provision in Section F doesn’t stop while the amendment runs late. That duty sits in section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014, and it’s an absolute one. The existing plan stays in force, and its provision must keep being delivered, until the amended plan replaces it.
If your child is out of school during the delay, a separate duty applies. The council must arrange suitable full-time education for any child of compulsory school age who would otherwise not receive it, under section 19 of the Education Act 1996. A late plan isn’t a reason to leave a child at home with nothing.
So two things are true at once: the council is in breach of the deadline, and it still owes your child the support and education they are entitled to right now. Press on both.
Getting help
You don’t have to work through this alone, and several free services specialise in exactly this kind of delay.
IPSEA gives free, legally based advice on EHCP timescales and has model letters for chasing a late plan and for putting a council on notice. Their advice line is a good first call when a deadline has passed.
Your local SENDIASS (Special Educational Needs and Disability Information, Advice and Support Service) offers free, impartial support in every area. It can help you write to the council and understand your options. You can find your nearest service through the Council for Disabled Children’s service finder.
Contact runs a free helpline for families with disabled children and can talk through the practical and emotional side of a long wait.
Council for Disabled Children publishes accessible explainers on the EHCP process and your rights when timescales slip.
SOS!SEN runs a free helpline and clinics on the EHCP process, including what to do when a council misses a deadline.
How our free tool can help
The assistant at SEND Parents Help can count the weeks from your request, tell you which deadline the council has missed, and explain whether the Ombudsman or judicial review fits your situation. It can also help you draft a firm chasing letter or a formal complaint in plain English, using the right regulations.
It won’t replace legal advice in an urgent case. But it can get you organised, dated and ready to push, which is often what turns a stalled plan into a finished one.
Sources and further reading
Legislation
- SEND Regulations 2014, Regulation 13 (final plan within 20 weeks)
- SEND Regulations 2014, Regulation 5 (6-week decision to assess)
- SEND Regulations 2014, Regulation 10 (the limited exceptions to time limits)
- SEND Regulations 2014, Regulation 18 (phase-transfer deadlines)
- SEND Regulations 2014, Regulation 20 (amendment decision notice)
- SEND Regulations 2014, Regulation 22 (representations and final amended plan)
- Children and Families Act 2014, section 36 (the request and the clock)
- Children and Families Act 2014, section 42 (duty to deliver Section F)
- Education Act 1996, section 19 (suitable full-time education)
- Civil Procedure Rules, Part 54 (judicial review time limit)
Official guidance and case law
- SEND Code of Practice 0 to 25
- gov.uk: extra SEN help and EHC plan timescales
- gov.uk: appeal an EHC plan decision and mediation
- LGSCO: how to make a complaint
- LGSCO: Guidance on Remedies
- W, R (on the application of) v Hertfordshire County Council [2023] EWHC 3138 (Admin)
- R (L, M and P) v Devon County Council [2022] EWHC 493 (Admin)
Statistics
Hero image: AI-generated illustration.