Council criticised over support for special educational needs pupils (BBC News, 11.01.23)

By Sonia Kataria and Victoria Hicks

BBC News

Support for children with special educational needs still needs to be improved in Leicestershire, inspectors have said.

In 2020, inspectors found “significant areas of weakness” in Leicestershire County Council’s Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND) services.

In the latest report, they said there had not been enough improvement of its education, health and care (EHC) plans.

The council admitted “significant improvements still need to be made”.

Plans ‘not updated’

Three years ago in a joint inspection, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found there were problems with how Leicestershire County Council was getting EHC plans ready for SEND children.

During the recent revisit, they found the format of plans had been reviewed and redeveloped to better reflect the children’s needs and provision.

However, the reported stated: “Many plans have not been updated for more than a year.

“Inaccuracies have the potential to significantly affect the education, health and welfare of children and young people with SEND.

“As not all the significant weaknesses have improved, it is for Department of Education and NHS England to determine the next steps.”

However, inspectors did accept the authority had made progress in co-ordinating with other organisations.

Lucy, who is autistic and has ADHD, said she was at her third secondary school because the first two did not meet her needs.

“I struggled quite a lot with the work,” the 14-year-old told the BBC.

“I made friends easily, but when I over-react or do something they’re always like ‘that’s just weird’.”

Plans ‘fundamental’

Her father Robert Martin, who co-chairs the Leicestershire parent carer forum SEND Hub, said the problem was the county council did not carry out education, health and care (EHC) assessments properly or on time, which resulted in Lucy having “considerable problems” at the schools.

“We requested support. First they declined support, then later when they gave a report it wasn’t correct and wasn’t a fair reflection of her needs,” he said.

“Therefore that placement broke down and she went to another school.”

Mr Martin said EHC plans needed to “adequately represent our children”, adding it was “fundamental”.

“The council needs to get these plans right because otherwise the care for disabled children in this county will not be good enough,” he said.

He added Lucy was now enjoying school and was hopeful it was the right one for her.

Last October, parents held a protest outside County Hall after some special needs children still had not got a school place.

Currently, 45 children with special educational needs in Leicestershire are not in education at all, while another 102 children are still seeking a placement more suitable for their needs.

Leicestershire County Council said it accepted the findings of the report, saying: “Significant improvements still need to be made, including the implementation and the quality assurance of EHCP and the improvement in the timeliness of EHCP’s.

The authority added it was determined to continue to make progress quickly despite the overall pressures upon funding for public services.