'Help is often just not there' say parents demanding SEND improvements

A year after Devon County Council apologised to parents after being given a SEND improvement notice - heartbroken parents tell us they're now planning further protest action as they claim some children are still missing out.

A damning inspection in May 2022 warned the Secretary of State may need to intervene due to a lack of progress and a monitoring visit in December 2022- the fourth since the department was judged as inadequate in January 2020 - stated: "There has not been enough progress."

Greatest Hits Radio has spent time with support charities to understand the challenges, with one worker telling us: "Only people living and breathing this in the pit of despair know what is really going on - every aspect is so depressing, you expect if your child has a diagnosis that help would be there, but often there isn't".

Greatest Hits Radio understands despite a 20-week target for an Education, Health and Care Plan, the current waiting time in Devon is anecdotally estimated to be up to 18 months - if parents include the appeals process. Kellie Knott the council's SEND Improvement Director, says recent changes have reduced waits

Another parents' protest is being planned for February 8, 2024, at 11am outside County Hall by the Devon SEND Parents and Carers for Change campaign group, who say 'Nothing has changed whatsoever since we last protested and things seem to only have got worse'

What problems are parents facing?

Across the country a recent report by the Disabled Children's Partnership found 96 per cent of SEND tribunal hearings were won by parents, carers and young people in 2021-22.

The report called 'wasting money, wasting potential’ found more than 11,000 SEND tribunals – contesting decisions by local authorities – were registered in England in 2021-22, an increase of 29% on the previous year.

A freedom of information request to Devon County Council did not give an accurate local figure but 68 complaints made against local authorities in Devon were upheld by the local government and social care ombudsman last year - and Devon County Council topped the chart with 28 of the 38 investigated complaints upheld (74 per cent), compared with an 80 per cent average for similar authorities. Eleven complaints between April 2022 and March 2023 related to special educational needs, where fault was found in the way the authority dealt with children’s education, health and care plan assessments, and delays in SEND provision.

One parent has told Greatest Hits Radio they spent £1,700 (£800 on speech and language test, £600 on Ed psych and £300 for an advocate) over concerns their child was sharing a 1-2-1 support worker with a child that had very different needs. The case was settled three weeks before the hearing and support agreed - with the parent's original £1.5k help package increased to £16.5k after the two-and-a-half year challenge process.

Across Devon, at support group meetings, Greatest Hits Radio has heard cases of parents saying 'you have no idea' when new members join and say they are trying to get help.

(GHR) has learnt of parents in previously well paying jobs having to leave them to look after their children full time due to a lack of support.

Parent Elaine Davis-Kimble is considering whether she has grounds to bring a judicial review against the county council, saying: "I've just had a second tribunal fighting for my son's provision. My tribunal back in 2017 cost us as a family £6,500 and some parents pay more than that."

She's spoken at county council meetings and claims her almost 1,000 strong SEND support group in Devon are not having their concerns listened to. She says they have offered a 'round table' with officials to sit down and try to discuss solutions - while the council says it has a process of listening to parents' concerns.

Another parent Jenny McJohnston told us that after going through the process to get support she was disappointed with the result, adding: "I had to do my own self referral to the autism assessment service, I thought it was going to open up doors for support - it didn't."

Mike Summers, who successfully battled for a local provision which he describes as 'excellent' told us he feels guilt that not everyone is getting what they need, adding: "You have to become that expert, you spend hours pouring over the internet and legislation and policy and law - and you find yourself locked in this battle with the schools where you are quoting law and you are quoting legislation.

"My son is now getting this fantastic education but that money is coming out of a pot so what he's getting - paid for by the taxpayer - someone else's child is losing out and that's terrible. If that was me and I was seeing someone else getting and I wasn't I would be heart-broken."

Holly Greenberry-Pullen is parent and campaigner and Lib Dem parliamentary spokesperson, who said: "It tends to be that you get the support at the point of absolute failure.

"What happens until that point is that children seem to be experiencing extreme difficulties in education - the staff are experiencing difficulties because they are not trained necessarily to meet some of the SEND needs - and ultimately we have to accept that we live in a society where educational needs and disabilities have to be met."

Councillor Julian Brazil, the Lib Dem opposition spokesperson for children at the county council said: "We're into a bit of a spiral really, we've got a massive backlog of young people that we've got to assess and when we do asses them we can't actually give them what they need."

Councillor Brazil believes the rise in academies has made the problem worse, suggesting: "We've got different academy trusts doing different things, we've got the educational authority at the county, and all that just means that it's all a bit of a muddle."

What does the council say?

It has now been more than a year since an improvement notice was issued to Devon County Council in regard to SEND and an apology made.

In November 2022, a Special Education Needs and Disabilities task group report was issued, which detailed a number of actions that councillors on the committee wanted to see progress on. Greatest Hits Radio did contact the Labour councillor who chaired the report to see if she wished to take part in an interview.

At the start of the month the council said 'children in Devon and their families will see a new model of support services, in line with national Government guidance' as it unveiled plans to develop 'family hubs'.

Greatest Hits Radio has asked to spend time with the special educational need department at the county council to understand what changes are being made . In sit-down interviews with us the council leader and Improvement Director for SEND say they've take wide ranging actions to help them make improvements.

Kellie Knott the council's SEND Improvement Director, who only started in the role in August, said: "We are looking at a long-term three-to-five year transformation and obviously along the way we will be making progress and showing impact.

"The first things that we are looking at as a priority are the education health and care assessment and review process - because we know that families are telling us that's the thing at the moment that's one of the biggest challenges for them."

Council leader John Hart added: "In the current budget we've put an extra £18 million into the budget and we have changed the management structure in children's services and brought in people including some from DfE (Department for Education) all of whom are skilled in what they are doing.

"We've got a cabinet member responsible for special education and we focus completely to the best of our abilities on it."

In September, the council posted online that 'the partnership responsible for services supporting children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) has listened to families and expanded its SEND improvement plans to create ‘system-wide’ change. The statement said it followed a recommendation by the Children’s Scrutiny Committee SEND Task Group and 'reflects what families have told us about the current system of SEND support'.

Last month it was reported Devon’s decisionmakers are hoping to get grants of between £70 million and £100 million to help tackle a cash shortfall for the county’s special educational needs. The county council is to submit an application to the government’s so-called ‘safety valve’ support scheme, aimed at helping local authorities tackle SEND deficits.

Based on current projections, Devon could have built up a £162 million deficit against the service by April next year, although governments have allowed councils to keep these deficits off their balance sheet until 2026. That means the council isn’t breaking the law in spending too much money, as they are usually obliged to balance their budgets every year.

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