The EHCP 20 week deadline, and the four exceptions to it
Last updated 7 August 2026. Checked against the SEND Regulations 2014 as in force.
The council must issue your child's final EHC plan within 20 weeks of receiving your request for an assessment. That is regulation 13(2) of the SEND Regulations 2014. Twenty weeks means 140 calendar days. Only four narrow exceptions can lawfully extend it, and none of them is a staff shortage.
What is the EHCP 20 week deadline?
It is the legal long-stop for the whole assessment process. The council must send the finalised EHC plan to you, to the school or college named in it, and to the health commissioning body, within 20 weeks of receiving your request for an EHC needs assessment. The rule is regulation 13(2) of the SEND Regulations 2014.
The exact wording matters. The council must act as soon as practicable, and in any event within 20 weeks. So 20 weeks is not a target to aim for. It is the outer edge of lawful. If your case could reasonably have been finished at week 14, finishing at week 19 is still open to challenge, though week 20 is the line that is easy to prove.
This is a duty on one body only: the local authority. It is not shared with the school, the NHS or the educational psychology service. Their delays are the council's problem to manage, not your problem to absorb.
Source: SEND Regulations 2014 (SI 2014/1530), reg 13(2); Children and Families Act 2014, s.36(3).
When does the 20 week clock start, and does it pause?
The clock starts on the day the council receives your request, or the day it otherwise becomes responsible for your child under section 24 of the Children and Families Act 2014. It runs in calendar days from that date. It does not pause for weekends, half term, Christmas, staff leave or a change of case officer.
Week 20 is day 140. Because 140 days is exactly 20 weeks, your deadline always falls on the same weekday as the day the request landed. That is a useful sanity check on any date a council gives you.
The regulations use the phrase "working days" only where they mean it, for example the 15 working days for transferring a plan between councils in regulation 15(2). Regulation 13(2) has no such qualifier, and the Code of Practice confirms at 9.42 that the related 15 day representations window is counted in calendar days. Assume calendar days unless the provision says otherwise.
If you want the dates worked out for you, put your request date into thefree deadline checker. It returns every deadline that applies to your case with the regulation printed next to each one.
What deadlines sit inside the 20 weeks?
Three other clocks run at the same time as the 20 weeks, not one after another. They all start on the same day: the day the council got your request. Councils sometimes present them as stages that begin when the previous one ends. They do not.
| Clock | Who owes the duty | What must happen | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 weeks (day 42) | The council | Tell you whether it will carry out an EHC needs assessment. A refusal must give reasons and set out your appeal rights. | Reg 5(1); refusal notice reg 4(1) and reg 5(3) |
| 6 weeks from the request for advice | Each advice giver the council asks | Provide the advice. This is the clock that catches late educational psychology reports. | Reg 8(1); advice list reg 6(1) |
| 16 weeks (day 112) | The council | If the answer after assessment is that it will not issue a plan, tell you by now. This deadline applies to nothing else. | Reg 10(1) |
| At least 15 days from service of the draft | The council must allow it | Your window to make representations, ask for a particular school and require a meeting with an officer. | Reg 13(1); CFA 2014 s.38(2) |
| 20 weeks (day 140) | The council | Issue the final EHC plan. | Reg 13(2) |
Is the draft plan legally due at week 16?
No. There is no free-standing statutory deadline for serving the draft plan. Week 16 in regulation 10(1) is the deadline for telling you the council willnot issue a plan. If a plan is being issued, regulation 10(1) does not apply to your case at all, and the only hard date is week 20.
This is the single most common misunderstanding of the timetable, and it runs in both directions. Parents are told the draft is "legally due at week 16" and then cannot find the regulation that says so. Councils, when it suits them, treat a draft served in week 18 as proof they are on track.
What actually sits at week 16 is a Code of Practice expectation. The statutory timescales flowchart at Code of Practice 9.44 places drafting and the 15 day consultation phase in the weeks around 14 to 18, so that week 20 can be met. Treat a draft that has not arrived by about week 16 as an early warning, not a breach.
The real trap. Regulation 13(1) gives you at least 15 days, beginning with the day the draft was served, to respond and to name a school. If the draft arrives in week 18 and a half, the council has squeezed your statutory window against its own week 20. If it then finalises the plan before your 15 days are up, that is a separate breach of regulation 13(1), on top of any breach of regulation 13(2). Note the date the draft was served and count 15 days from that day.
The four lawful exceptions, quoted in full
Regulation 13(3) says the council need not meet the 20 weeks "if it is impractical for any of the reasons set out in regulation 10(4)(a) to (d)". There are four grounds, and only four. Here they are in the words of the regulation, with what each one means in practice.
| Ground | What regulation 10(4) says, word for word | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| (a) Long school closure | "the authority has requested advice from the head teacher or principal of a school or post-16 institution during a period beginning one week before any date on which that school or institution was closed for a continuous period of not less than 4 weeks from that date and ending one week before the date on which it re-opens" | The council asked the head or principal for advice in a tightly defined window around a closure of at least four weeks. In practice this is the summer holiday exception. It covers that advice request, not the whole case. |
| (b) Long early years closure | "the authority has requested advice from the person identified as having responsibility for special educational needs (if any) in relation to, or other person responsible for, a child's education at a provider of relevant early years education during a period beginning one week before any date on which that provider was closed for a continuous period of not less than 4 weeks from that date and ending one week before the date on which it re-opens" | Exactly the same rule for a nursery or other early years provider. |
| (c) Exceptional personal circumstances | "exceptional personal circumstances affect the child or the child's parent, or the young person during that time period" | Something exceptional affecting your family, such as serious illness or bereavement. It is about you, not about the council. |
| (d) Four week absence from the area | "the child or the child's parent, or the young person, are absent from the area of the authority for a continuous period of not less than 4 weeks during that time period" | You or your child were out of the council's area for a solid four weeks or more. A fortnight away does not count. |
Source: SEND Regulations 2014, reg 13(3) applying reg 10(4)(a) to (d). The same four grounds govern the six week decision deadline (reg 5(4)) and the 14 week re-assessment deadline (reg 27(3)).
What councils get wrong about the exceptions
The four grounds are narrow, and every one of them is about your child, your family or your child's setting. None of them is about the council. Staff shortages, caseload, restructures, waiting on health colleagues and a national shortage of educational psychologists are not on the list, so none of them makes a late plan lawful.
| What you get told | What the law says |
|---|---|
| "We are waiting on the educational psychology report." | Not a ground in reg 10(4). Regulation 8(1) puts a separate six week duty on the person the council asked. The council's own duty under reg 13(2) is untouched by their delay. |
| "The summer holidays stopped the clock." | Only if a specific advice request was made inside the reg 10(4)(a) window around a closure of at least four weeks. Ask which request, and on what date. |
| "An exception applies, so there is no deadline now." | Wrong. Code of Practice 9.43 says the remaining steps must still be completed within their own prescribed periods, and that you should be told an exception is being relied on. |
| "We have a backlog, everyone is late." | Volume is not a defence. In January 2025 there were 638,745 EHC plans in England, up 10.8% in a year, which explains the pressure but changes nothing in the regulations. |
Plan numbers: Department for Education, Education, health and care plans statistics, January 2025.
Ask this in writing. "Please confirm which of regulation 10(4)(a) to (d), applied by regulation 13(3), the council is relying on, and the facts it relies on for that ground." Most councils claiming an exception cannot answer that question, because they are describing their own capacity rather than one of the four grounds.
A worked 20 week timeline with real dates
Say the council received your written request on Monday 12 January 2026. Every date below is fixed by that one date. Nothing here depends on how busy the SEN team is.
| Date | Day | What must happen | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon 12 Jan 2026 | Day 0 | Council receives the request. Keep the proof: email receipt, portal confirmation or recorded delivery. | CFA 2014 s.36(1) |
| Mon 23 Feb 2026 | Day 42, week 6 | Decision on whether to assess must be notified to you. | Reg 5(1) |
| Feb to Apr 2026 | Weeks 6 to 14 | Assessment runs. Each advice giver the council asks has six weeks from the date of that request. | Regs 6(1), 8(1) |
| Mon 4 May 2026 | Day 112, week 16 | If the council has decided not to issue a plan, it must tell you by today. If it is issuing one, this date does not bind it. | Reg 10(1) |
| Around week 16 | Expectation only | Draft plan served, so the 15 day window fits before week 20. Late but not itself a breach. | CoP 9.44 |
| Mon 18 May 2026 | 15 days after service | Earliest the council may finalise if the draft was served on 4 May. Finalising sooner breaches your response window. | Reg 13(1) |
| Mon 1 June 2026 | Day 140, week 20 | Final EHC plan must be issued and sent to you, the named setting and the commissioning body. | Reg 13(2) |
On 2 June 2026, with no final plan and no stated exception, the council is in breach. That is the date your escalation starts from.
What happens if the council misses week 20?
Nothing automatic. There is no fine, no penalty and no compensation that arrives by itself. A missed 20 week deadline is a breach of a statutory duty, and it gets fixed only if you escalate it. The sequence is a written chase citing regulation 13(2), then a formal council complaint, then the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman or a judicial review pre-action letter for serious delay.
The full sequence, with what each rung can actually get you, is set out inthe escalation ladder guide, and you can start rung one with our20 week breach letter template.
One thing to be clear about: delay itself is not a Tribunal matter, because there is no decision to appeal yet. Once the plan is issued, a fresh right of appeal opens on its content, and you have two months from the date the notice was sent. Parents do well at that stage. Reported win rates in SEND appeals run at roughly 95% to 99%, which is one reason a pre-action letter often produces a plan quickly.
Appeal outcome range: HM Courts and Tribunals Service SEND Tribunal statistics, as analysed by Browne Jacobson. Appeal time limit: Tribunal Procedure (First-tier Tribunal) (HESC) Rules 2008, r.20(1)(c).
Common questions
Is the EHCP 20 week deadline in working weeks or calendar weeks?
Calendar weeks. The SEND Regulations 2014 say "working days" only where they mean it, for example regulation 15(2) and regulation 34(1). Regulation 13(2) says 20 weeks with no qualifier, so week 20 is day 140 counted straight through weekends, school holidays and Christmas.
Does the summer holiday stop the 20 week clock?
Only in one narrow situation. Regulation 10(4)(a) applies where the council asked a head teacher or principal for advice in the window running from one week before a closure of at least four weeks to one week before the setting reopens. It excuses that delay. It does not freeze the whole case for the whole summer, and it does not apply at all if the advice was requested outside that window.
My council says it has no educational psychologists. Is that a lawful excuse?
No. The four exceptions in regulation 10(4)(a) to (d) are about your child, your family and your child's setting. Council staffing, caseload and educational psychologist shortages are not on the list, so they never excuse a missed 20 week deadline. Regulation 8(1) also puts a separate six week duty on the person the council asked for advice.
Can I appeal to the SEND Tribunal because the council is late?
Not for lateness alone. The Tribunal hears appeals against decisions listed in section 51(2) of the Children and Families Act 2014, and pure delay is not one of them. Delay is handled by complaint, the Ombudsman or judicial review. Once the plan is finally issued you can appeal its content within two months of the notice being sent.
The council warned me it would be late. Does that make it lawful?
No. Telling you about a delay is not a defence to it. The duty in regulation 13(2) survives the warning. Code of Practice 9.43 also says that even where an exception genuinely applies, the remaining steps must still be completed within their own prescribed periods.
Not sure where your case stands? The free deadline checker turns your dates into every legal deadline that applies, with the regulation cited on each one.
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