Every EHCP must be reviewed annually. Most SENDCos know the deadline is coming. Too many still miss it.
This is not a compliance failure. It is a capacity problem with a structural solution.
The average SENDCo manages 67 pupils on their SEND register. In a school with 15 EHCPs, that is 15 annual reviews to coordinate, evidence, chair, document, and submit, on top of everything else the role demands.
What the process actually involves
An EHCP annual review is not a single meeting. It is a sequence of tasks that begins weeks before the review date and ends only when the local authority has confirmed its decision. In between, the SENDCo must gather evidence from every teacher who works with the pupil, request contributions from parents and external professionals, prepare a review report, chair the meeting, write up the outcomes, and submit everything to the local authority within the statutory timeframe.
Each step requires chasing people who have their own competing priorities. Teachers who haven't updated their contribution. Educational psychologists whose reports haven't arrived. Parents who haven't responded to the invitation. The SENDCo sits at the centre of all of it, holding the timeline together through a combination of persistence, institutional memory, and often a colour-coded spreadsheet.
Why it keeps going wrong
The bottleneck is almost never a lack of commitment. SENDCos are among the most dedicated professionals in education. The problem is that the annual review process was designed for a world where SENDCos managed small caseloads with significant administrative support. That world largely no longer exists.
In most schools, the SENDCo is also a class teacher. They are managing their caseload in the margins of a full teaching timetable. The annual review process demands sustained, proactive coordination over several weeks for every single EHCP. Multiply that by fifteen, and the arithmetic becomes uncomfortable very quickly.
The consequence is a predictable pattern. Reviews that were on track get deprioritised when something more urgent arrives. Deadlines slip by days, then weeks. The local authority sends a chaser. The SENDCo, already stretched, has to context-switch back to a review that has now lost its momentum. The evidence gathering starts again from scratch.
This is the hidden cost of the annual review bottleneck. It is not just the missed deadline. It is the duplicated effort, the re-chasing, and the professional anxiety that accumulates every time the cycle repeats.
What a well-designed system changes
The annual review process does not need to be simplified. It needs to be managed. There is a difference.
A well-designed SEND management system treats every EHCP as a live workflow rather than a static document. It knows when each review is due. It surfaces that deadline automatically, weeks in advance, not the day before. It prompts the SENDCo to begin evidence gathering at the right moment, tracks which contributions have arrived and which are outstanding, and compiles the available evidence into a structured review record that is ready to use rather than ready to start.
The transition point that makes it worse
Year 9 is the statutory point at which EHCP reviews must include transition planning. For many SENDCos, it is also the review that takes the longest to prepare, involves the most external contributors, and carries the highest stakes for the young person.
A system that flags Year 9 reviews automatically, prompts the SENDCo to begin transition planning conversations earlier, and ensures the review record includes the statutory transition elements is not a luxury. For a pupil whose post-16 options depend on the quality of that review, it is the difference between a plan that opens doors and one that closes them.
The annual review exists to protect the young person. Every system built around it should do the same.
A final thought
The statutory framework for EHCPs is not going away. If anything, scrutiny of annual review compliance is increasing as local authorities face their own capacity pressures and Ofsted continues to focus on the quality of SEND provision.
SENDCos do not need to be told the reviews matter. They need the infrastructure to make doing them well a realistic expectation rather than an aspirational one.
OMNIA Inclusion automatically tracks every EHCP annual review deadline and surfaces outstanding actions before they become missed deadlines. Visit omnia-inclusion.com to arrange a personalised walkthrough for your school or trust.