Mr Oktas continued: “Team members feel that they are letting their families down every day due to the overwhelming number of cases they handle.”

Meeting a statutory deadline of 20 weeks for delivering a final education, health and care plan (EHCP) is “totally unachievable” under current work conditions, according to the NEU.

An EHCP sets out the extra help a child needs to access education, on top of what is available through special education needs support.

Councils have a legal time limit of 20 weeks, in most cases, to issue an education, health and care plan (EHCP), after a parent or school asks for one.

In June, parents protested outside Wirral Council’s headquarters over a lack of EHCP’s being available on time for their children.

Mr Oktas added that some staff members are managing a surplus of 100 cases each, and have felt unsupported by the leadership.

NEU regional secretary Peter Middleman said the union was inviting Wirral Council back to the negotiation table to resolve the dispute.