Parents of special needs children in Rutland concerned about how long it takes to get support plans

Parents of special needs children in Rutland have told us they're very worried about their youngster's education because targets for completing support plans are often missed

It's as a new study shows Rutland county council is often failing to draw up the plans in the 20 week timescale.

We've spoken to Charlotte a Rutland Mum to 4 special needs children.

She told us:" For the first 8 weeks I was singing their praises - they were very quick."

It wasn't clear enough so I didn't sign it

"But from then onwards nothing ever happened - I was just waiting and waiting when it could have been completed weeks ago."

"I wasn't in any way annoyed with them - the process was good."

"By week 8 I had all of that in front of me but the report was written really badly."

"It wasn't enough - it wasn't clear enough."

"So I didn't agree to sign it."

"We had another meeting - we're still in the process - 24 weeks in it's not fully written."

"It's better now but not fully written."

Let the parent know - we are working on this

"As parents we understand it's not going to be a 5 week thing - we know there's going to be a 20 week wait timeline."

"No one's expecting rocket speed but be in touch more - let the parents know - we are working on this."

Rutland County council has issued a statement:

Education Health and Care Plans take time to prepare because they involve a range of different professionals and are carefully tailored to the specific needs of each child.

Some parts of this process are also outside of the Council’s control.

Rutland County Council’s Children’s Services were recently judged as ‘Good’ in all areas

The demand for EHCP assessments has risen significantly over the past year. Despite this, Rutland has consistently completed 65-90% of these assessments within the 20-week target period.

The recent drop has been partly due to case officer shortages and difficulty gaining access to support from educational psychologists – both issues that have now been addressed.

Rutland County Council’s Children’s Services were recently judged as ‘Good’ in all areas by Ofsted.

This follows a joint local area inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in 2023, which focused on the support available to children with special educational needs and disabilities and awarded Rutland the highest possible inspection outcome.

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