Council suspects it has ‘failed’ more children
Authority Was told to make changes after child had to remain in primary school for an extra year
A DERBYSHIRE council has branded its support of a child with special educational needs a “failure” – and suspects there may be other children it has also failed.
Last month, Derbyshire County Council was told to apologise and pay £1,000 to the Swadlincote youngster and his mum after causing him to remain in primary school for an extra year, without his friends.
It was also told, by council watchdog the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, to make major changes to avoid a similar scenario from recurring.
In a cabinet meeting last Thursday, Jane Parfrement, the authority’s strategic director for children’s services, said a series of significant improvements – including changes in management – have been made since the 2019 failure of the boy.
She said the council is on the right track to a better service. However, she warned: “It would be misleading to say we are there, because
we still have a lot to do.”
She said support for children in special education was a national challenge with rising costs and dissatisfaction, saying “We needed to do something, it wasn’t acceptable”. The council, she said, “was not meeting the needs of families as well as it could”.
Cllr Alex Dale, cabinet member for education, said: “Can I put on record how deeply, deeply sorry we are to the family of the young child.
“The standard of service fell well short of what we would expect and I accept that there were failures.
“We have carried out a high amount of activity and work since then and it is improving but there is certainly a way to go, but we are taking the necessary steps.
“We cannot categorically say this will not happen again, there are other historic cases that we know are out there and are aware of from a similar time period that have not yet been decided.”
“We do know we still have more work to do and will continue to strive for a better service.”
The Local Democracy Reporting Service spoke to the mum and child involved last month.
We have renamed them Jane and Michael Smith in order to protect their identities.
Michael was due to start secondary school, aged 11, with his friends in September 2019. However, the county council did not update his EHC Plan (Education, Health and Care) in time to allow this to happen.
An EHC is a legally-binding document agreed between the council, school, parents and the child which lays out all of the specific support the child is entitled to and how it will be provided.
The lack of an EHC meant he stayed at his primary school for an extra year, without his friends, with some oneone-one tutoring at a Year 7 level, with the rest of the time spent in a Year 6 class.
Michael did not start secondary school until September 2020, joining his friends in Year 8, then aged 12, with his mum distressed over the amount of time with his peers he lost and the lack of a full Year 7 education.
Ms Smith had told the LDRS: “He felt like he had been forgotten about, he felt like nobody wanted him.
“It gave him a feeling of shame that he was the child in the class that he felt nobody wanted.”
We have carried out a high amount of activity and there is certainly a ways to go.
Cllr Alex Dale