CUMBERLAND Council’s children’s services continues to face increased demand in cases of youngsters with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), according to a new report.
Members of the local authority’s health and wellbeing board are due to get a SEND update at The Civic Centre in Carlisle on Friday (September 11).
According to the report, as of July 9, 2026, a total of 3286 children and young people in the Cumberland Council area had an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP).
It states: “The three most prevalent needs continue to be autistic spectrum disorder, speech, language and communication needs and social, emotional and mental health needs.
“The SEND services have completed a data cleansing exercise internally and
created weekly performance trackers at child level to understand where all EHCNA requests are in the 20-week timeline.
“A monthly tracker for all annual reviews that have been sent to the local authority (LA) for processing, and those where the school/setting have not completed the review.”
In addition, during the period between January and June 2026, a total of 436 requests for EHCP assessment were received, compared with 369 requests in the same period in 2025 and in total 759 requests for EHCP assessment were received in 2025.
The report adds: “We are continuing to work through the backlog of annual reviews. Of the 3286 EHC’s we have 374 where schools and settings have not arranged reviews, and 992 in place for processing.
“An EP backlog assessment and EHC plan writing team have been commissioned to work through the significant backlog.
“From September 2026, all new requests will be completed by our own EP’s and Statutory SEND team to ensure we are meeting the 20-week compliance requirements. The compliance rates will then start to show nearing the end of the autumn term.
“An AI pilot is under way in the Statutory SEND team to test the use of AI for EHC writing. This is being completed by comparing and contrasting the use of AI on EHCP’s that are anonymised and already been written. The feedback from the project is positive and reducing plan writing time from 2.5 hours to 20 minutes.”
The report states that four new coordinators were due to start in the autumn term to support the timeliness of EHC assessments and plans as well as ensuring the annual reviews improved.
According to the report in March 2026, LAs were notified that a High Needs Stability Grant would potentially be available on submission and approval of a Local SEND Reform Plan at a local level.
It adds: “The grant, if received, will be allocated against the high needs deficit accrued up to the end of the 2025 to 2026 financial year. The value of this grant is expected to be 90 per cent of the net deficit on the Dedicated Schools Grant with the LA responsible for covering the remaining 10 per cent.”
According to the report the first draft of the plan was submitted by the May 19 deadline and it was reviewed by a DfE advisory panel. It adds: “Initial feedback on the plan was positive and following a meeting with the DfE Adviser, the plan was finalised for sign off by senior council officers and the partnership, including both integrated care boards.”
The report states that the final SEND Reform Plan was submitted on June 19, 2026, with feedback from DfE expected by mid-autumn.”
Share