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Special educational needs (SEND)
How long families wait for an education, health and care (EHC) plan. The law allows 20 weeks from the request to the final plan.
Special educational needs in North Lincolnshire right now
1 of 2 standards met
The latest figures, January 2025. Coloured against England: ▼ worse ● about the same ▲ better.
The legal time limit is 20 weeks from the request to the final plan, with a few exceptions.
What the councils report
Every council reports to the Department for Education how many new plans it issued, and how many within 20 weeks.
| Measure | North Lincolnshire | England |
|---|---|---|
| New plans issued within the 20 weeks the law allows | 70% | 46% |
| Average time to issue a new plan | 20.0 weeks | 24.0 weeks |
| New plans that took more than a year | 0% | 10% |
| New plans issued in the year | 368 | 95,411 |
| Assessments that ended with no plan | 2% | 6% |
Red: worse than England. Amber: better than England, but misses the national standard. Green: better than England and meets the standard. Black: about the same as England. The legal standard is 100% within 20 weeks, so amber means better than England but still missing the law. Figures are for the 2025 calendar year and leave out the cases the law allows to take longer, such as some that fall in the school holidays.
North Lincolnshire Council: 19% within 20 weeks in 2024, 70% in 2025.
What these figures leave out
They count only new plans. They say nothing about the wait for a decision on whether to assess at all, changes after an annual review, a school place, or transport, and nothing about whether the help in the plan is actually provided. That is what families log here.
North Lincolnshire Council
Nothing logged yet
Figures appear here once 10 families have logged a wait in the last year. Two dates are all it takes: the day you asked and the day you got an answer. Still waiting? Start a clock.
No reply yet
North Lincolnshire Council has not replied. Every service named on this site can publish a response beside its figures.
Work for North Lincolnshire Council? How to reply.
Special educational needs (SEND)
What the service must do, or has promised
- Decide within 6 weeks whether to assess. Once you ask for an education, health and care (EHC) needs assessment, the council must tell you within 6 weeks whether it will carry one out. SEND Regulations 2014, regulation 5
- A final plan within 20 weeks. If a plan is needed, the final EHC plan must be issued within 20 weeks of the request. If the council decides not to issue a plan, it must tell you within 16 weeks. SEND Regulations 2014, regulation 13
- Deliver what the plan says. Once a plan is final, the council must make sure the special educational help in it is provided. It cannot say it has no money or no staff. Children and Families Act 2014, section 42
What you can do
- Ask for an assessment yourself. Parents, and young people aged 16 to 25, can ask the council directly. You do not need the school to do it, and you do not need a diagnosis. Children and Families Act 2014, section 36
- Appeal to the SEND tribunal. You can appeal if the council refuses to assess, refuses to issue a plan, or about what the plan says. Usually you must consider mediation first. The deadline is 2 months from the decision, or 1 month from the mediation certificate if later. It is free. GOV.UK: appeal an EHC plan decision
- Complain to the Ombudsman about delays. If the council misses the deadlines and its complaints process does not put it right, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman can investigate. It often tells councils to apologise and pay families for the delay. Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman: make a complaint
- Get free, independent help. Every council area has a free SEND information, advice and support service (SENDIASS). IPSEA gives free legal advice. IPSEA: free legal advice on SEND
General information, checked against each source on 13 October 2026. It is not legal advice. Follow the links for the official wording.
Kept fair
- Dates only. We never ask your child's name, school, diagnosis or needs.
- The clock starts with the request. That is when the law's 20 weeks start too.
- Good and bad. A plan on time counts as much as one a year late.
- Nothing goes to the council. Logging here does not request an assessment. Ask the council for that yourself, in writing.