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A council is trialling the use of artificial intelligence as a way of reducing long waits for education, health and care plans (EHCPs).

Cambridgeshire County Council is to create an AI-assisted EHCP solution, which it hopes will also tackle “significant and growing” workloads associated with the plans.

The council said it has more than 8,000 active plans requiring maintenance and annual review, alongside 160 new referrals per month for assessment.

Performance against the 20‑week statutory timescale is “poor”, the council added, with a “substantial backlog of assessments and limited capacity within casework teams to meet demand through existing ways of working”.

launched a similar trial last year, which it is due to review in July.

EHCPs still part of new SEND system

Long waits for EHCP assessments are a major challenge in the special educational needs and disabilities system.

Fewer than half of all decisions on whether to issue a plan were completed within the legal 20-week timeframe, according to the latest government data.

The number of EHCPs is continuing to rise, with 482,640 pupils with plans in schools in 2025 - an increase of 11 per cent on the previous year.

While the government’s latest rehaul of the SEND system will introduce an alternative to EHCPs, plans will still be offered to those students who are judged to need a specialist level of support.