A watchdog is upholding 96% of the complaints it investigates about the provision of special educational needs in England, according to figures shared exclusively with Sky News.
The local government and social care ombudsman is the last port of call for families who have exhausted the complaints process at their local council when they cannot get the right support for their children.
Amerdeep Somal, who heads the organisation, told Sky News the number of complaints they are receiving about Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) has also risen almost 250% in the last five years.
She said: “Some of those children will never reach their full potential. Often children lose years of their education and their development – sometimes at pivotal stages.
“We’re seeing complaints about not doing assessments for Education Health and Care Plans, not doing reviews in good time, support specified in the plan not being put into place in schools – and also poor communication so parents don’t know what is happening.
“There’s been a huge surge in demand for plans. That means more complaints. That means more resources. More children need to be assessed, and that means more specialist input in schools. And that hasn’t been keeping pace with the demands.
“The situation can’t continue as it is at the moment – we need radical and urgent reform.”
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In Sefton, 15-year-old Jacob is one of the children who has fallen through the cracks. He has needs, including autism and ADHD, and has not had a consistent school place for four years.
His mum, Geraldine Pollock, says schools keep saying they cannot meet his needs, sometimes even after enrolling him.
Currently, he has been out of school for over nine months, and Geraldine spends her days trying to teach him at home to the best of her ability.
“Absolutely horrific – that is the only word that I can use to describe it. I never, ever envisaged that, as a family, we would be put in this situation,” she said.
Geraldine says she almost lost her job because she had no option but to care for Jacob herself, and is still only able to work part-time. As soon as Jacob started at his latest school, she asked them to tell her upfront if they would not be able to meet his needs.
“I thought, we cannot go back to the dark place that we’ve been in,” she said. “They reassured me they had put everything in place – and they actually hadn’t.”
“When I think of it now, I think ‘How I could I be so naive?’ I never once thought you would literally be left on your own,” she added.
David Moorhead is another special needs parent in Sefton, Merseyside, who helps run a group called Voice of the Families, which has come together to push for more help for their children.
What started as an informal group for local parents to support each other has now ballooned to more than 500 families. David says he was “gobsmacked” by the number of parents just in his area who all feel their children have been failed.
“Parents have left jobs, left careers just to be with their child. One mother had to cancel her own operation because there was no one to look after her child.
“Going out for a family meal, going on holiday – these aren’t realities because your child needs a lot of attention, a lot support in order for them to flourish.
“They just push you off a cliff and you fall – and when you ask for help, it just doesn’t come.”
Sefton Council said in a statement: “We are working with the Voice of the Families group – we have listened to them and understand their concerns and will continue to feed their experiences into our improvements as a service so we can better support families on this journey.
“The demand for SEND support and the challenges in the system are seen across the country and we are working hard to meet the growing need for SEND support in Sefton. We have, and will continue to, pursue every avenue to expand our specialist SEND provision to meet the demand in our borough.”
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Read more from Sky News:
Report: All teachers need SEND training
Schools hit by spiralling cost of special needs
Parents struggling to access special needs
The Department for Education said it accepts the SEND system needs to be reformed, and is currently consulting on what shape that will take.
The government plans to publish a White Paper in the autumn setting out the reforms, and says it recognises the ‘immense need’ in the sector.
