Long waits continue for parents of SEND pupils
COUNTY COUNCIL PAYS OUT THOUSANDS AFTER COMPLAINTS
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE County Council has paid out thousands to parents of children and young people with special educational needs amid waits of nearly a year for crucial assessments.
The Conservative-led authority had six complaints upheld against it by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman in February, which have collectively resulted in payouts of at least £2,600.
It comes after inspectors found “widespread failings” in services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Nottinghamshire last year in a report which left parents feeling “worried and angry.”
Almost a year on, families are still waiting more than 250 days on average to get an education, health and care plan (EHCP).
An EHCP describes the support needed for children and young people with SEND aged up to 25, with parents and carers able to request that a particular school or college be named.
Councils receiving a request for an assessment to be carried out have to decide whether to do so within six weeks.
If the council eventually issues an EHCP, the whole process from the assessment being requested to the final plan being issued should take no more than 20 weeks.
Yet reports by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman covering February show that one Nottinghamshire family waited almost a year.
A mum requested an EHCP on behalf of her son, who has autism spectrum disorder, at the beginning of March last year. She hoped it would be ready in time for her son starting school in September.
But the county council did not issue the plan until January 2 this year – 43 weeks after the initial application.
The ombudsman’s report says the mother intends to appeal against the contents of the EHCP at a tribunal and that the wait caused her “frustration and uncertainty”.
All the reports are set to be discussed at a meeting today. Delays in preparing EHCPS were one of the key concerns raised in a report by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) last May, which said some parents and carers felt they were having to fight for their children.
SEND services in the county are the joint responsibility of the county council and the local Integrated Care Board (ICB). A full reinspection of their services is due to take place in summer next year. At a meeting on Monday, the council’s director of children’s and families’ services said progress was being made.
Colin Pettigrew said: “I would summarise it as ‘[we’re] making good progress, but a long way to go.’ There will be a...check in October/ November of this year when Ofsted and CQC visit again for two days.
“That won’t change the grading or the finding. It will just have a view as to whether they are in agreement with the Department for Education and NHS England that we’re making sufficient progress on the plan.”
Mr Pettigrew said the council’s actions were “against a tide of continued demand pressure”.
A key issue is a nationwide shortage of educational psychologists, with the partnership in Nottinghamshire previously saying that it can take up to six years for them to be trained. Earlier this year Nigel Ellis, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman’s chief exec, said: “Educational psychologists cannot be trained overnight and so this situation will not be resolved without significant input on a national scale...
“Councils have a clear obligation to complete the EHC plan process within the statutory timescales and, while we do have some sympathy for their recruitment and retention problems, we will find fault where cases are outside those timescales.”
The general secretary of the Association of Educational Psychologists also said that there were “simply not enough” specialists to do the work, with a reported 283 percent increase in demand. The Government announced in 2019 that it was investing £31.6 million in tuition for 600 educational psychologists. Councillor Sam Smith, county council cabinet member for education and SEND, said just 4.5 percent of EHCPS were issued within the required time in 2022, a situation which has now improved to 28 percent.
But opposition councillors said it was “very concerning” that the average wait had risen to 250 days in December from around 170 days last June. Councillor Smith added that the council was aiming to get 55 percent of EHCPS issued within the required time by the end of the year.
I would summarise it as ‘[we’re] making good progress, but a long way to go’
Colin Pettigrew