Dorset
How Dorset performs against its statutory EHC plan duties, from official Department for Education and HM Courts & Tribunals Service statistics. England-wide figures are shown alongside for context.
Sources: DfE, Education, health and care plans: Reporting year 2026, published 2026-06-25 (timeliness, requests and appeal-rate datasets); MoJ/HMCTS, Tribunal Statistics Quarterly, July to September 2025 — SEND Tribunal Tables 2024 to 2025, published 2025-12-11 (Table SEND_1). Appeal rate: appeals registered with the SEND Tribunal (HMCTS) as a percentage of the authority's appealable decisions in the same calendar year, as published by DfE.
New EHC plans issued within the statutory 20-week limit
Percentage of plans issued within 20 weeks, excluding exceptional cases, calendar years 2019–2025.
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| Year | Plans issued (excl. exceptions) | Dorset — within 20 weeks (excl. exceptions) | Dorset — incl. exceptions | England (excl. exceptions) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 532 | 91.0% | 91.0% | 60.4% |
| 2020 | 467 | 79.9% | 79.9% | 58.0% |
| 2021 | 415 | 70.8% | 70.8% | 59.9% |
| 2022 | 459 | 62.3% | 62.2% | 49.2% |
| 2023 | 568 | 60.2% | 60.2% | 50.3% |
| 2024 | 0 | not published | 49.1% | 46.4% |
| 2025 | 510 | 78.2% | 78.2% | 46.1% |
Source: DfE, Education, health and care plans: Reporting year 2026, published 2026-06-25, dataset timeliness_20_week.
Requests for an EHC needs assessment refused
Percentage of requests where the authority decided not to assess. Published on this basis from 2023 only.
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| Year | Requests received | Refused to assess | Dorset — % refused | England — % refused |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 837 | 189 | 22.6% | 24.0% |
| 2024 | 881 | 175 | 19.9% | 25.2% |
| 2025 | 1,021 | 177 | 17.3% | 26.6% |
Source: DfE, Education, health and care plans: Reporting year 2026, published 2026-06-25, dataset requests.
How this compares: 20-week performance against similar authorities, 2025
Peers are the ten statistical neighbours in DfE's children's-services benchmarking model (May 2025).
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| Authority | Within 20 weeks, 2025 (excl. exceptions) |
|---|---|
| Dorset | 78.2% |
| Worcestershire | 66.1% |
| Kent | 56.9% |
| England | 46.1% |
| Essex | 20.1% |
| Suffolk | 16.5% |
| West Sussex | 15.5% |
| Shropshire | 11.9% |
| Devon | 5.1% |
| Derbyshire | 5.0% |
Source: DfE, Education, health and care plans: Reporting year 2026, published 2026-06-25, dataset timeliness_20_week; peer groups: DfE, Children's services statistical neighbour benchmarking tool (May 2025 rebuild, 2021 Census variables).
SEND Tribunal appeal rate
Appeals registered with the SEND Tribunal as a percentage of the authority's appealable decisions, calendar years 2024–2025. Outcomes of appeals are published for England only — see methodology.
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| Year | Appeals registered | Appealable decisions | Dorset — appeal rate | England — appeal rate (calculated) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 154 | 2,949 | 5.2% | 6.1% |
| 2025 | 143 | 2,858 | 5.0% | 6.6% |
Source: DfE, Education, health and care plans: Reporting year 2026, published 2026-06-25, supporting file SEND appealable decisions rate 2024-2025 (appeals: HMCTS GAPS2; appealable decisions: DfE SEN2). England rate calculated as the sum of appeals over the sum of appealable decisions.
About these figures
Counts are children and young people. The 20-week figure excludes cases where regulations allow more time ("exceptional cases"); the series including those cases is in each table above. "Not published" means the Department for Education suppressed or did not collect the value for that year. A single year's figure for a small authority can move a lot on few cases. Read the methodology page for what this data can and cannot tell you.