Children with special needs face three-year waits for school support

The councillor responsible for education in Staffordshire has admitted the system is still not where he wants it to be.

Staffordshire County Council has come under fire from the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman for failing to ensure an autistic teenager with physical disabilities had an up to date Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) in place when she moved from a special school to college, as well as missing a number of deadlines to review plans.

The findings of the report have been considered by the council’s cabinet and the authority has agreed to put in place the recommendations made.

At the latest full council meeting Jonathan Price, cabinet member for Education and SEND (special educational needs and disabilities), said he had experience of the system as a father of a SEND child.

“I know how difficult it is for parents on the ground”, he said. “I certainly wouldn’t want to go through that and I don’t want any of our parents to have to go through that either.

“The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman have found this council at fault. It is an historic case in which the council allowed matters to drift and it took too long to resolve the case the parents had raised. There were numerous cases of this in the past.

“This was at a time when demand for Education, Health and Care Plans had risen sharply and it put our staff under severe pressure. Extra investment has been made since then in the team handling EHCPs, but there will always continue to be demand in the system.

“We were not where we needed to be when we had an inspection. We are still not where I would like us to be, but we’re not far and we have certainly come on a very long journey.”

Fellow council members said other families were also facing challenges in getting support in place for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

Councillor Charlotte Atkins said: “I am not familiar with this particular case but I am only too familiar with so many cases where parents have to fight real battles to get appropriate support for their special needs child, either through an EHC plan or even the interpretation of the plan.

“We all know that the earlier a child can be supported in school, the better the outcome for that child and indeed for the whole family. But all too often, parents have to become experts to navigate the complex process of first getting the plan and then fighting their way through the process, as they have to convince the school and the county council that that child is not getting the support they need.

“I’ve supported a number of parents who have had this sort of experience and I can tell you that the experience is devastating. It can last two or three years. They may win at the end of it, or they may not, but the mental health implications for the family, for the child, for the siblings, are immense.

“I really plead that the county council finds a way because it can’t be right that these families are put through this. It’s difficult enough meeting the needs of a special needs child. We should be helping them, not creating hurdles and barriers for them.”

Councillor John Francis said: “I’ve had to go through the mill for the last 24 years I’ve been involved with SEND, from Greenhall Special School to Marshlands Special School, and it is a big problem.

“The Education, Health and Care Plan can fall over, it can’t be done properly, the process is a minefield. You’ve got to be a lawyer as well as a parent.

“The big thing that worries me – and I’ve said it time and time again – is that at the schools with the inclusion programmes the SENDCOs (special educational needs and disabilities coordinators) have to be top notch and to know everything to do with EHC. And I’m afraid they don’t.

“It is devastating for the child. I know a child where the process started some years ago when she was five years old and she didn’t get sorted until she was nearly nine, which is just not good enough – it’s abysmal.

“We’ve got a big educational programme from county to try and address that. As long as we take on board what’s going on and the SENDCO problem is addressed then we are well on the way to sorting the problem. But it’s still a major issue for parents, make no mistake about that. It doesn’t do us any favours.”

Councillor Price responded: “On the SENDCO front, that’s something I’m very passionate about. We’ve had a new Head of Vulnerable Learners that has taken post and we’ve already spoken about the support we can give SENDCOs around training and the SENDCO networking we do. It starts at the bottom with the SENDCO, otherwise the parents find themselves having to go through the process.

“Staffordshire is experiencing the same increase in demand as elsewhere in the country. We all know a SEND review is required and I believe a Green Paper will be out shortly, where there will be a consultation on the way the Government supports SEND.

“Members are aware that we have gone through a very difficult children’s transformation and I want to pay tribute to the work to completely re-engineer the system to make it fit for purpose so our children get the right support at the right time. As part of this we had the SEND transformation as well and we’ve now gone onto a district model.

“I’m pleased to say that the way the SEND key workers are now in place will decrease the workload of those officers and enable us to do a much better job. As our new system beds in we’ve developed a plan and will continue to keep the processes under review.

“We will support all of our parents and the most vulnerable children in the community to get the education and support they require.”