EHCP (Education, Health and Care Plan) Delays & Failures

What is an EHCP and who needs one?

An Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) is a legal document that outlines the support a child or young person with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND) should receive. It’s supposed to ensure their right to education- but that right often hinges on a diagnosis, which many families struggle to access.

When services like CAMHS (Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services) are delayed or deny access, the entire process can collapse before it even begins.

What’s wrong with the EHCP process?

Everything. The process is bureaucratic, slow, and often adversarial. Families must fight (aggressively) for every step from assessments to implementation. Even when a plan is granted, schools and councils regularly fail to deliver what's promised.

Legal battles are common, but justice is only accessible to those who can afford to fight. Meanwhile, the services those plans rely on are being stripped away, leaving families to pick up the pieces- emotionally, financially, and legally.

And all that pressure? It lands on already exhausted carers. The human cost of holding this broken system together is devastating. It's so hard to be fun and playful when you're already stretched to the max.

Why are EHCPs taking so long to process?

Legally, EHCPs should be issued within 20 weeks. But councils are overwhelmed, underfunded, and frequently delay assessments or reject requests unlawfully. In some areas, families wait over a year, while their children are left without the support they urgently need.

Want to know how your local council is performing? Submit a Freedom of Information request using our template and help expose the delays. Visibility builds pressure. Pressure builds change.

What makes the EHCP process so stressful?

Parents are forced to fight through miles of red tape to gather medical reports, evidence, and documentation... just to then battle their local authority to even be assessed.

The process is opaque, slow, and emotionally draining. Many families describe it as another full-time job on top of their day job and caring.

What happens if a school or council ignores the EHCP?

Shockingly, this is common.

Even with an EHCP in place (a legally binding document) some schools fail to deliver the support outlined. Enforcement is weak. Parents are often forced to resort to tribunals or legal action, at great emotional and financial cost, just to secure what’s already been promised.

Just another one to add to the list of fees associated with additional need.

Isn’t this illegal? Why aren’t councils held accountable?

Yes, it’s often unlawful. But enforcement takes time, money, and legal knowledge: things many families simply don’t have.

Councils actually bank on the fact that most parents won’t fight back, knowing full well they are already exhausted beyond measure. And even when they do contest, change often still takes years and comes with a hefty price.

When education fails, it doesn’t just affect learning: it affects identity, confidence, and mental health. The fight for an EHCP isn’t just paperwork. It’s survival. Many of the artists on this platform create out of that very struggle- the fear, the burnout, the feeling of being unseen.

At NotFine.Art, we believe in turning that pain into power. Through honest, emotional expression, we refuse to stay silent.

Explore the gallery or share your work. Your story matters.