Today marks the last working day of Learning Disability Week, an opportunity for all of us to learn more about the world of SEN and understand what can be done to improve the lives of those impacted by it. In recent years more and more parents are raising the alarm about the lack of support they receive from Local Authorities in raising their children with special educational needs.
Independent Provider of Special Education Advice (IPSEA), the leading SEN education charity, has recently published evidence in response to the Education Select Committee’s ongoing inquiry into the state of SEND.
In their response to the inquiry, Georgina Downard, Senior Solicitor at IPSEA, made it clear that the the issue lies not with the law itself, but with the frequent failure of local authorities to apply it properly. This ongoing neglect results in many children and young people missing out on the support they are entitled to. Key to the issue is the need to ensure that local authorities are effectively held to account when they fail to comply with the duties placed on them.
To achieve this, Georgina suggested several measures including a zero-tolerance approach to local authorities that fail in their duties with consequences for those doing so.
She also called for research by the Department for Education into the reasons preventing local authorities from complying and routine checks being done by the regulator to ensure that Local Authority policies comply with the existing law.
Other measures recommended included Ofsted inspections of individual schools and SEND provision to specifically assess whether schools and local authorities are meeting their obligations.
Georgina supported a request by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman to be granted wider powers to investigate complaints about schools which is, something they have been asking for years spanning political administrations.
In response to a report commissioned by local authorities that the SEND Tribunal takes no account of the financial constraints they are under, Georgina said that it is wrong to suggest that it does not factor this in when making decisions. Further she acknowledged the practical reality of the financial pressures inflicting many local authorities but stressed that, under the existing process, people are not given more than they need, either in their EHCP or by the Tribunal. As such any proposed solution that isn’t based on the evidence and the law should be robustly resisted.
Currently, the onus is on parents to fight for what their child is entitled to and to incur the time, expense and stress of a lengthy appeal process. Furthermore, many families are effectively excluded from being able to engage in this process. That can be for various reasons, be that financial constraints, unstable housing situations, lack of access to appropriate IT equipment or other family members with SEND.
Georgina supported that, ultimately, it boils down priorities, with policymakers needing to decide whether the education of children and young people with SEND is important enough to prioritise and fund. Any decision to the contrary is equivalent to a public endorsement of devaluing children and young people with SEND.
The Select Committee continues to take evidence and we will continue to provide updates when more information becomes available.
How we can help
Enable Law has a specialist SEN Education team supporting families facing struggles in getting the right education provision for their children to secure it. That can be from helping them get EHCPs, making sure they are correctly updated and accurately depicting a child’s needs but also challenging Local Authority decisions and making Appeals to the SEND Tribunal. If you are hitting a wall when trying to do what is best for your child we may be able to help you. Call us for free on 0800 044 8488 or fill in our contact form so we can call you back at a time convenient for you. We do not accept legal aid for education advice but have flexible payment terms we will explore with you if you decide to take things forward post our initial discussion. You will never receive a bill from us that you were not expecting.
