Council officers were left "scratching their heads" after they were asked about the exam results of Hertfordshire's home-schooled children.

The findings of the county council's first quarter SEND performance review were discussed at the Education, SEND and Inclusion Committee on Thursday, September 11.

During the meeting, Cllr Ralph Muncer asked about the 1.1% of children being "electively home educated" and whether officers had data on the qualifications achieved by home-schooled pupils.

Cllr Muncer said: "Obviously, we want to make sure that we are providing children with the best possible outcomes and the best possible opprtunities, so can we have some data surrounding the educational outcomes and qualifications that are being gained by those children who are home educated? And if we have any of that information available at panel today that would be fantastic."

Cllr Mark Watkin, chairman of the committee, asked officers if they had the data.

He said: "I think it's a hugely significant question you've just asked, because absolutely it's a worrying thing we don't have the same access to these children's performances as we do at schools, where everything is monitored and measured, but you've got the officers scratching their heads at the moment."

Hero Slinn, director for skills and inclusion, said: "It's a really interesting and important point that's been made and we would like to take that away in terms of thinking it through. It's not something that we ordinarily would just have, but as part of our enhanced elective home education offer for families that we're trying to develop, we could ask questions in terms of outcomes and qualifications.

"I do know that a number of our families are working towards qualifications with their young people. But yes, the specifics, we can take away and think about."

Cllr Muncer suggested a report be prepared and brought back to the next cabinet panel with educational outcomes of GCSEs, A-levels and T Levels – two-year technical qualifications for 16 to 19-year-olds – across the county.

The SEND performance review stated 14,125 young people in Hertfordshire are being supported with education, health and care (EHC) plans in June 2025, representing a 13% increase on the previous year, while requests for assessments are up by 9%.

An EHC plan is for children and young people aged up to 25 who need more support than is available through special educational needs support. EHC plans establish the specific educational, health and social needs of the individual and the support required to meet those needs.

Councils have a legal deadline of 20 weeks to either issue EHC Plans or refuse them once a needs assessment has been requested, usually by the user's family. Data showed just 38% of EHCPs issued in Hertfordshire from January to June were within the deadline. This is a decrease from 56% last year.

The council document explained that "the work to ensure assessments are completed and plans issued" had led to "a knock on impact on the proportion completed in timescale", although it did not elaborate further.

It went on to say that monthly performance in June and July showed "improved timeliness as the overdue assessments have reduced" and that "sustained improvement" should be seen in the next quarterly report.

Elsewhere, 68% of parents surveyed were either "very satisfied" or "satisfied" with the experience of getting an EHCP in the first quarter, up from an overall figure of 60% last year.

A total of 615 appeals were lodged to the SENDIST Tribunal in the 12 months to June, down by 7.7% from last year. Out of these claims, just 4.15% of those judged to have grounds to appeal were successful.

Almost a third of Hertfordshire pupils with EHC plans (32 per cent) are in special needs schools, compared to 34 per cent nationally, while 14.2% of pupils in Hertfordshire have been identified as requiring special education needs support without an EHC plan.

Discussing the report to councillors, David Butcher, strategic lead for intelligence and insight, said: "We've seen significant activity in terms of increases in the overall number of children and young people who are supported with education, health and care plans.

"Obviously, that's an ongoing upward trend that we've talked about for some time, but a particular leap in the last few months I think correlates to a particularly significant amount of activity within our assessment and advice-giving services to make sure that all assessments that were due have been completed."

Cllr Watkin said: "It's really encouraging to see that direction of travel but this administration makes no claims that in any way are we near the end of that journey.

"The pressures of increasing demand are on Hero Slinn [director for skills and inclusion] and her team. You see this in the sense by how we almost have to adjust our resources to particular areas to make a real difference and then that somehow means other areas may drop a little bit."

Cllr Beth Kelly asked about permanent exclusions, as data showed 257 pupils were banned from school in the last academic year, down from 321 the year previously.

She said: "I'm really fascinated by the graph that shows permanent exclusions really ramp up from Year 7 to Year 10, and then obviously go down again when some are leaving school.

"I'm hoping some of the discussion we've had earlier will be about looking at why that is, and I'm going to be talking to a couple of officers, and they're going to explain what's actually going on here."