‘Off-loading’ difficult pupils leaves council counting cost
LEADER HITS OUT AT ACADEMIES AND SAYS AUTHORITY HAS TO BUILD SPECIAL SCHOOLS FOR EXCLUDED STUDENTS, WHILE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION SHOULD BE FOOTING THE BILL
Schools off-load them, we look after them and the education department doesn’t give us any money for it
ACADEMIES are “off-loading difficult and disruptive” pupils, leaving the county council to foot the bill, claims the authority’s leader.
Councillor Nick Rushton reckons the problem is so bad Leicestershire County Council is having to build special schools.
He made the claim during a scrutiny meeting as increasing special educational needs and disabilities (Send) expenses were being discussed. He said: “It’s so-called off-loading. “Schools encourage the pupils that are slightly difficult or slightly disadvantaged to apply to be statemented for want of a better word.
“They come along, then there’s the appeals process, we don’t go to appeal often because we lose them.
“The people who sit on the appeals process generally pass them to be statemented and we end up with the costs and the bill should really go to the Department for Education.
“Schools off-load them to be statemented, therefore we look after them and then the education department doesn’t give us any money for it.”
Coun Rushton called on the Government to consider the issue when deciding on future funding agreements.
He said: “Hopefully when they do the Government funding review, even if there’s no more money in the system for local government, they should be able to say to us we can rebill the Department for Education for some of the work which we’re doing and they’re not paying for.”
Parents can ask for an Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) for their child – previously known as a statement. An EHCP is a legal document that involves parents, carers and young people in partnership with professionals working across education, health and social care specialist services.
It details the child’s assessed needs, what provision they need in school, as well as the type of school they need to attend, and any wider social care or health needs. Councillor Alan Pearson said: “How statements a re made in some of the schools need to be reviewed. We’re being left out sometimes and being put in a situation we can’t get out of.
“The most vulnerable deserve it, we’d all agree on that, but in my experience of working in schools and working in special schools some people are getting very good services who actually could manage on different services and I think we have to be very careful, but too often people are getting statements and they shouldn’t.”
He added: “We have academies that are quite happy to off-load children that aren’t getting them the scores and we cop it.”
The process – which is officially known as off rolling – sees students taken off the school rolls using informal exclusions to ensure results are not brought down.
Coun Rushton added: “The schools shouldn’t be off-loading them, it’s bad for the children, they’re better off among their peers with the correct help and care rather than ending up in special schools which we’re having to build because of the off-loading.
“I don’t know what we can do about it.”
More than 2,600 requests have been made for EHCPs to the county council over the last four years and 1,780 assessments have been carried out since 2014.
Figures released in December showed that during the same timescale, 215 parents have appealed the level of support offered to their children. Eighty of the appeals were in the
2017/18 financial year, of which 52 were resolved prior to tribunal, 13 tribunals ordered in favour of the parent, two tribunals ordered in favour of the council and 13 are ongoing.
Scrutiny chairman and leader of the Lib Dems at County Hall, Simon Galton, said: “It’s very difficult but it’s the system that’s wrong.”
Councillor Terri Eynon, Labour party leader, said: “It’s not parents and service users that are the nub of the problem, it’s schools who will allow children to become so difficult that they then fit the high needs block and get excluded.
“The complex needs are being presented by the schools rather than the service users.”
Coun Galton responded: “That’s quite controversial, I expect schools would push back on that.”
But Coun Eynon said she was prepared to be controversial on such a subject. She added: “I would make a point of personal experience and also my experience as a GP with many parents coming to me in tears as until the child has an education, health and care plan nothing seems to get done.”
Coun Galton added: “A child can be extremely disruptive in a class and that can lead to complaints from other parents.
“That leads to significant pressure to remove them.”
Coun Eynon replied: “Having been the mother of such a child myself I have some sympathy with that but children are born with difficulties and if we have sausage machines as schools who are only interested in getting their boxes ticked then we are going to end up with these problems.”