EHCPs by Council: Refusal Rates and Waiting Times in England
Pick your council to see how many EHC needs assessment requests it refused in 2025, how many plans it issued inside the legal 20 weeks, how long a plan actually took, and how many children are home educated in the area. All of it comes from the Department for Education’s own published figures.
Across England in 2025, councils refused 29% of the EHC needs assessment requests they decided, and only 45.5% of all plans were issued inside the legal 20 weeks. Those averages hide an enormous amount. Refusal rates run from 6.4% to 63.5% depending on the council, so it is worth knowing what yours actually does.
See the full comparison of all 153 councils in one table, or pick yours below.
Councils A to Z
B Barking and Dagenham · Barnet · Barnsley · Bath and North East Somerset · Bedford · Bexley · Birmingham · Blackburn with Darwen · Blackpool · Bolton · Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole · Bracknell Forest · Bradford · Brent · Brighton and Hove · Bristol, City of · Bromley · Buckinghamshire · Bury
C Calderdale · Cambridgeshire · Camden · Central Bedfordshire · Cheshire East · Cheshire West and Chester · City of London · Cornwall · County Durham · Coventry · Croydon · Cumberland
D Darlington · Derby · Derbyshire · Devon · Doncaster · Dorset · Dudley
E Ealing · East Riding of Yorkshire · East Sussex · Enfield · Essex
G Gateshead · Gloucestershire · Greenwich
H Hackney · Halton · Hammersmith and Fulham · Hampshire · Haringey · Harrow · Hartlepool · Havering · Herefordshire, County of · Hertfordshire · Hillingdon · Hounslow
I Isle of Wight · Isles of Scilly · Islington
K Kensington and Chelsea · Kent · Kingston upon Hull, City of · Kingston upon Thames · Kirklees · Knowsley
L Lambeth · Lancashire · Leeds · Leicester · Leicestershire · Lewisham · Lincolnshire · Liverpool · Luton
M Manchester · Medway · Merton · Middlesbrough · Milton Keynes
N Newcastle upon Tyne · Newham · Norfolk · North East Lincolnshire · North Lincolnshire · North Northamptonshire · North Somerset · North Tyneside · North Yorkshire · Northumberland · Nottingham · Nottinghamshire
O Oldham · Oxfordshire
P Peterborough · Plymouth · Portsmouth
R Reading · Redbridge · Redcar and Cleveland · Richmond upon Thames · Rochdale · Rotherham · Rutland
S Salford · Sandwell · Sefton · Sheffield · Shropshire · Slough · Solihull · Somerset · South Gloucestershire · South Tyneside · Southampton · Southend-on-Sea · Southwark · St. Helens · Staffordshire · Stockport · Stockton-on-Tees · Stoke-on-Trent · Suffolk · Sunderland · Surrey · Sutton · Swindon
T Tameside · Telford and Wrekin · Thurrock · Torbay · Tower Hamlets · Trafford
W Wakefield · Walsall · Waltham Forest · Wandsworth · Warrington · Warwickshire · West Berkshire · West Northamptonshire · West Sussex · Westminster · Westmorland and Furness · Wigan · Wiltshire · Windsor and Maidenhead · Wirral · Wokingham · Wolverhampton · Worcestershire
Y York
If your council has refused an assessment
You have two months from the decision letter to appeal to the SEND Tribunal, or one month from your mediation certificate if that falls later. Nationally, 93.6% of the assessments that were actually carried out ended in a plan, so a refusal to assess is well worth challenging.
- What the tribunal data says about appealing: 99% of decided SEND appeals go the parent’s way.
- Free EHC needs assessment request letter generator
- The EHC Assessment Refusal Appeal Pack
- Everything we have on SEND and EHCPs
Also worth seeing: how many children are home educated in your council area, and why it peaks at Year 11.
And upstream of both: school absence by council. 176,361 children in England missed half of school or more in 2024/25, up from 120,000 in 2021/22.
Use the data
The full dataset behind this page is available as JSON: /data/ehcp-by-council.json. It contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0, sourced from the Department for Education. Free to reuse, and a link back is appreciated.
If your child cannot attend school, the council still has a duty
Under section 19 of the Education Act 1996 your council must arrange suitable education for a child who cannot attend because of illness, exclusion or any other reason, including mental health. What the duty covers, and when the clock starts.
This is information, not legal advice
Darling Mellow is a parenting website. We are not solicitors, we are not regulated to give legal advice, and nothing here is advice about your particular child or situation. We write about the law in England, we date everything and we link our sources so you can check them. Deadlines and duties change, and only you know your full circumstances, so please take proper advice before making a decision that matters.
Where to get free or regulated advice
- Your local SENDIASS. Free, confidential and impartial, and every council in England must provide one. Find yours through your council’s SEND Local Offer, or via GOV.UK.
- IPSEA. A charity with legally trained advisers, giving free advice on SEND law in England. Their guidance is the best free legal explanation available.
- Legal aid, through Civil Legal Advice on 0345 345 4345 (Monday to Friday 9am to 8pm, Saturday 9am to 12.30pm). Special educational needs is one of the areas still covered. Legal aid can fund advice and help preparing a SEND Tribunal appeal, though not representation at the hearing itself. Check whether you qualify with the official legal aid checker.
- A solicitor regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Find an education law specialist through the Law Society’s Find a Solicitor, and you can confirm anyone is genuinely regulated on the SRA register.
If you are in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, the law and the services differ and you should use your own nation’s guidance.