Children in the borough face assessment delays after a third of Send staff left the town hall under “incredibly high pressure”, reports Nick Clark, Local Democracy Reporter
A third of Barking and Dagenham Council’s special educational needs staff left the town hall last summer – causing a backlog in assessments.
The number of completed education, health and care plans (EHCPs) – which spell out the support a child with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) must receive – fell as a result of the departures.
The council says the Send staffing shortage was “not an unusual situation” for councils in London.
Speaking to councillors last week, the town hall’s commissioning director for education Jane Hargreaves said staff were working in “an incredibly high-pressured environment”.
Four staff out of a team of twelve left the council’s Send department in summer 2025. The departures came as demand from parents for EHCP assessments continues to rise.
A total of 646 children were referred for an EHCP assessment in Barking and Dagenham in 2025, compared to 526 in 2022.
However the number of plans that were issued fell to 313 – down from 502 the year before.
The figures were revealed in a presentation to councillors at an overview and scrutiny committee last Wednesday (11th). The presentation said the fall was “explained by the turnover of staff in the summer term 2025, with 33% of the team leaving”.
It said: “This led to a ‘backlog’ in decisions in the autumn term of 156 cases, whilst managing 245 new requests during the same period.”
The presentation also said just 21.2% of EHCPs were issued within the required 20-week timeframe. That’s down from 27.7% the previous year.
Denise Watts, the council’s head of Send, told councillors this was also down to the resignations. She said her department was taking action to try and deal with the backlog and speed up the time it takes to issue a plan.
Watts said: “It’s not where we want to be – the national average in terms of what’s being reported is around 45%. We’re working hard to get there.”
A council spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service today (Monday 16th) that many London councils face Send staffing issues.
The spokesperson said: “This is not an unusual situation, councils across London are experiencing recruitment and retention challenges for education, health and care team posts – for a number of reasons.
“We currently have agency staff covering the vacancies and will be recruiting to permanent roles. In response to the workload, we have created a small team to focus solely on completing assessments and clearing the backlog.”
Councils across the country are battling to cope with increased demand for EHCPs and the rising costs of providing Send services.
Hargreaves told councillors the increase in demand had coincided with the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the cost-of-living crisis. She said the council “started to struggle” with demand in 2022.
She said: “We’ve never really caught up to be honest. If you think about that time, it coincides with the coming out of the pandemic, and two years’ disrupted education for children.”
Hargreaves also said there had been a “stagnation” in schools budgets since 2015, while services that supported children and parents had been “hollowed out”.
She said this meant schools and parents came to rely on the EHCP system for support.
Hargreaves said: “The EHCP has become progressively more important as a way of surviving really. That’s particularly hit our primary schools.”
She added: “An increasing number of our primary schools are going into deficit.
“Alongside that with the cost of living other services have been cut back – it’s impacted on the voluntary sector, it’s impacted on our council services, it’s impacted on health services and the one thing that you can hold onto is an EHCP.”
