Written evidence from Anonymous (SEN 94)
Education Committee
Solving the SEND Crisis
Support for children & young people with SEND:
Support for children & young people with SEND is entirely hinged on sufficient staffing in schools. This is a chronic issue that needs fixing ASAP. The schools need more funding for more teachers & more teaching assistants. Teachers & teaching assistants need wages that entice them into the profession & motivate them to remain in the profession.
The main way to support parents & children before the EHCP process is to address the above so that schools can offer support early; before an EHCP is granted as this can take a long time due to the LA’s requirement for significant evidence to be provided else they refuse to assess.
The main way to support parents & children during the EHCP process is to ensure the LA’s are being held accountable (financial or otherwise) for purposeful lawbreaking in order to stall / disconcert parents or education settings from trying to secure an EHCP.
Personally I had to wait a year for my youngest son’s case for ‘refusal to assess’ to be heard at court; which was overturned in a matter of minutes with an appalled & annoyed response from the Judge at the way the LA had behaved with regards to the law, however, there are no repercussions of this for the LA. Moreover, I had to wait until after the legal deadline had passed for a response from the LA that they were not refuting my appeal for my eldest son’s case for ‘refusal to assess.’ This appears to be a time-wasting & money saving tactic that is employed by the LA a great deal, yet, again there are no repercussions of this for the LA. Note, both of these legal cases are concluded & therefore can be mentioned as per the guidance on evidence.
The main way to support parents & children after the EHCP process (& presuming they have secured an EHCP since 98% of appeals are legally won by parents) is to:
Personally just one short year after finally securing an EHCP for my youngest son the NHS commissioned occupational therapy plus speech & language therapy services were attempting to remove the provision we had battled so hard for & that my son evidently still required for his stammer & fine motor skills. My understanding is that NHS commissioned services are overstretched & wholeheartedly underfunded for this task &, therefore, understandably are trying to pull back on provision. NHS commissioned services need better funding, training & support to provide the essential provision they do for SEN children & young people. This includes NHS occupational therapy, speech & language therapy, physiotherapy etc.
As a Mother of child with an EHCP that contains NHS commissioned services (occupational therapy plus speech & language therapy) I now have anxiety proceeding an annual review & am having to get prepared for a ‘fight’ each & every year to re-secure this provision. This is not fair.
On another note, the waiting times for appeals to be heard at court are hugely long & it is disheartening that parents can have to attend court up to three separate times (refusal to assess, refusal to issue, appeals for section B,F or I) with three separate & lengthy waits before a worthwhile, accurate, helpful EHCP is in place. Increasing the capacity for SEND cases to be heard to reduce these waits would be helpful.
As a Mother of two SEN children, the level of stress that the fighting, appeals, submitting court evidence etc causes is colossal & has been detrimental to my health.
There are no alternatives to the EHCP process; it is a legal, fair process that should be continued; however SEN needs to be better funded & furthermore made more robust with reference to accountability for lawbreaking by the LA’s. If the Government decided to ‘scrap’ EHCPs (as per the rumours that are being vocalised in SEND parent support groups etc then it would completely undermine the work that parents & education settings have done to date to secure EHCP support for children & young people with SEN. Moreover, it would create a sentiment of complete distrust that the Government has the promotion of the well-being & education of SEN children at the true heart of this enquiry.
Finance, funding & capacity of SEND provision:
The Government’s safety valve initiative has created a worrying widespread fear amongst parents, educations professionals & SEND advocates that the Government are trying to make securing an EHCP more difficult & further rationing this (legal) support tool for SEND children & young people. I am in complete disagreement that this is a way forward or a solution & it is fostering a ‘us vs them’ sentiment which is unhelpful & further fractions relationships between LA’s with education professionals & parents.
January 2025