SEND Forum meeting notes

www.sendfamilyvoices.org

www.ruils.co.uk

1. Summary of format and objectives for the SEND Forum, Dec 1st Ruils and SEND Family Voices jointly facilitated this opportunity for parents, carers and young people to address their concerns directly to local MPs Sir Vince Cable (Twickenham) and Sir Ed Davey (Kingston). Zac Goldsmith MP (Richmond and North Kingston) was unfortunately unable to attend but a follow up meeting was held, which is also documented here.

Meeting objectives To provide an opportunity for parents and carers of children and young people with SEN to directly address their issues and concerns to their MPs so as enable the MPs for Richmond and Twickenham to understand the extent and seriousness of the issues faced by families as a result of the SEND reforms and changes in education policy and local government cuts.

Meeting Format 12:30 to 1:30pm The facilitators (Penny from SFV & Alex from Ruils) introduced the meeting and promote an informal discussion.

The audience, made up of parents and carers of SEND children and young people, raised their own questions, issues or concerns which broadly fell into the two prepared subject areas.

1:30 to 2.30pm The two MPs arrived to listen to concerns and issues. There were 12 prepared speakers who described their experiences relating to: 1. EHC Plans and their implementation 2. School support and the provision received The facilitators invited the prepared speakers to the floor, and allowed some questions from the floor.

At the end of each section the MPs were invited to respond.

2. Informal notes from the SEND Forum on 1st December 12:30 – 13:30 (Before the MPs arrived) With respect to next steps • This meeting is not an end in itself. This meeting is to bring to the fore this discussion, it’s the start of a process to inform and make a difference at a local and national level.

• On next steps… there will be a summary after the event, sent to all attendees, seeking further comment.

• Let’s hear what the MPs have to say then we can agree action points asap.

•

Attendees who were not able to present their stories directly to the MPs (due to lack of time) were invited to document them and submit them for inclusion in the SEND Forum report following the meeting

Points made during the discussion

there are pockets of children and young people going through the Tribunal System. People understand this is a failing system. We are failing our children and young people. We need to harness many [energies] and create a flotilla to affect change.

there’s so much going on – and going wrong – before we get to EHCPs and Tribunals. SEN Support is going wrong… (gave example of own child)

this elongated process is used for ‘bad’ not ‘good’. …as a way to reduce funding and support. Perhaps all parent carer forums can challenge that?

on paper, the SEND Reforms look terrific. But…. When I complain, as an individual parent, my protest does not register. where is the life-plan for my child? How can I ask for this? Without it, how can I plan for them?

it’s not just about the admin. The costs are horrific. It cost me £30K. The cost, the impact, is on people… The system and AfC manipulate people through ignorance of the law and expectation.

There is a “furnace of anger” from parents. Especially on the Social Services issues.

There are elements of manipulation here from AfC; manipulating parents.

the importance of early intervention. It’s not about lack of money – its intelligence / thoughtfulness / planning

SEND is a lifelong condition. It’s ‘chronic’

there are ill-trained people making decisions about my child.

in this meeting… can we give them emotion? Can we show that we are human? Can we do this in a constructive way?

When things go wrong now… the impact on child is not just now, it is over a lifetime.

the templates / the documentation is different all over the country. How can this work?

AfC are not accountable Where is the accountability? Where is the responsibility for all this?

13:30 – 14:30 Formal part of the meeting with Vince Cable, MP and Ed Davey, MP Introductions, then the themes: • Getting an EHCP and the Transfer process • Implementation of the SEND Reforms Part 1 – EHCP and Transfers A series of case studies were presented (documented in the SEND Forum Report).

Followed by comments from the room: 86% of Tribunals cases won by parents – lost by Councils. What does this tell you about good use of public funds? Inconsistency of process. Opacity. Not an informed ‘NO’ from the LA. Incompetence. “The documentation does not honour the child”

So much stress for a 25K per year placement… [nb mainstream school placement is circa 16K]

“severe quadriplegic cerebral palsy” AfC left stuff out of the EHCP. This was negligent. Took 3.5 years to complete.

Focused on budgets – not the child’s needs. (A strong and emotive presentation). Is all this a cost saving exercise? AfC appear to be routinely deleting ABA provision as they transfer Statements to EHCPs.

comment from the floor… what is it like if you don’t have the wherewithal to take AfC to the courts? Why are AfC spending money on Law instead of provision.

AfC have a consistent disregard to legal requirements. They remove provision and do not reply to e-mails… The Pre-Judicial Review action letters work in 90% of cases – but it shouldn’t come to this. Now the transfers are accelerated – it’s a disaster.

A parent – he has been documenting AfC’s behaviour. Has 5 points.

1. AfC are incompetent. It’s like climbing Everest and they act as through they’re doing you a big favour to attend any kind of meeting.

2. AfC are using the system as a tool to allow out of date, inaccurate reports; as a form of control to parents [and budget]. They are unlawful – daily.

3. Schools are saying to parents “do not apply for an EHCP” 4. EHCPs have poor content 5. There is no respect for need – or even the level of need.

AfC are unseen and unregulated. Lend your voice now…

Comments from MPs on what was presented so far

Ed Davey MP Thank you for the testimonials. “I commit that I will work with you to formalise this.”

We need a well organised campaign.

“I will tell you my story…” Ed has a ten year old son with complex medical and physical needs.

“I will make this a personal priority” Ed will work with this forum to ensure local services do their best and follow the law. It absolutely IS budget led.

Ed talked about the DSG [designated schools grant] and its overspending… AfC have not taken action early enough. They’ve left it too late to do anything about this [they are reactive]. Its overspent. It’s unlawful and it’s wrong.

Some Local Authorities, including Kingston, are applying to DfE [Department for Education] to take money allocated to schools [generally] to pay for high needs [SEND]. They will use this to pay off the deficit. Essentially, they [the authorities] are playing groups off against each other.

It’s not just the money. It’s the processes.

There is a lot of wasted money; whether that be on tribunals or how it is spent in schools. Some (independent) schools are given a lot of money – it is not clear how they use it. There is not enough control. (“babysitting” cry from the audience – applause)

Ed talked about own experiences with school… teachers had not read the report on his child – yet there are only 4 pupils in the class. No-one is held accountable.

“I am emotionally into this one. We have to plan Long Term and Short Term. We have to build a partnership and work together on this.”

Vince Cable MP Also said a Thank You. “I can essentially reinforce what Ed has said. It’s not my personal experience… or pain.”

SFV came to see me soon after I was elected. I met with both AfC’s CEO and Director for Children’s Services. They assured me that there was / had been a problem and they were aware of it. They acknowledged this. And that they were using money to fix it. I also wrote to Ofsted and I’m not sure if this has made a difference? Is this still a problem? Audience response… yes, this is still very much ‘live’ “When I was first elected, I went around a number of local schools. Schools that had hitherto been proud of their ability to support SEN were now creating barriers” [due to funding?]

I’m aware that there is more money being made available [this is £29 million announced by DfE on 30th November] I am shocked at the figure of 86% of Tribunals being lost nationally. “This is a bad scene” and it’s getting worse. It appears to be a rationing mechanism.

Part II – Implementation of the Plan – provision and support in schools So… even when you have the protection of an EHCP. What is it like?

2 further case studies to illustrate this area were presented (documented in the SEND Forum Report). Followed by comments from the room. A show of hands asking people in the room whether their children had experienced difficulty with getting the support they need even with a plan led to around 40% of the hands in the room going up. A similar show of hands asking whether children had been excluded or had school placements breaking down showed around 30% of the hands in the room going up.

There were further case studies, but due to time limitations, these could not be shared within the forum. The case studies do, however, appear in the full report

Final words from MPs Ed Davey MP In the short term, we must tackle the EHCPs. AfC must follow the law.

In the long term, we can campaign for national and local change. Some questions: • How we organise EHCPs? • How we manage provision for SEND? (noted ILEA thinking)

• •

Health budgets?

Accountability?

Vince Cable MP I would like more basis stats. The figure for lost tribunals is shocking. …ends//

3 A resume of the meeting with Zac Goldsmith, MP, Dec 15th Attendees: Zac Goldsmith MP Penny Hoffmann-Becking – SEND Family Voices Alex Hardy – Ruils Caroline Bern – A North Kingston parent who participated in the SEND Forum …and at Zac’s invitation: Charis Penfold, Director for Education Services, AfC, Cllr Susan Chappell, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services & Schools (Richmond) Zac was already well informed about the national and budget issues and is very much in the same corner that we all are - in that central Government needs to fund SEND adequately.

Zac informed us that he is already working to convene a group of (conservative) MPs across London to attend a meeting with the secretary of state to address the situation.

Zac remarked that other London Local Authorities are apparently not making such a big noise to their MP’s - and consequently he seemed to suggest it has been quite difficult to get MPs across London motivated around this issue.

SEND Family Voices suggested this can be addressed to the London NNPCF (National Network of Parent Carer Forum) reps and ask them to get all the other parent carer forums to get their councils to make representations to their MPs about the high needs block overspend (we would expect that many of them are in the same situation).

The second part of the meeting focused around what can be done locally to improve things in the short term (i.e. with no extra money). We talked about the fact that the EHCP process is not working well for families, with case officers seemingly cherry picking from the current statement or ignoring parental or school input to produce inadequate plans, and then seemingly not taking into account comments made by parents when drafts are sent out. This is something that should be fixable even without extra funding, as it relates more to apparent poor practice.

We also talked about the fact that the sheer volume of transfers seemed to be resulting in fairly superficial or patchy professional reports - on which SEN Case Officers are trying to base an EHCP.

Susan Chappell spoke about her commitment to supporting getting this right. She also spoke about the importance of getting early intervention right.

Charis Penfold agreed that if there are issues then she is happy to work with parents / councillors to understand these and resolve. She was keen to focus on detailed cases to understand what has gone wrong, and is also keen to look at examples of good practice to see where things go right, what can be learned from that. She suggested that sometimes parents are using the transfer process to request additional provision – hence the need for scrutiny from the SEN Team. The parent representatives in the room did not agree with this view for the vast majority of cases.

Actions that were discussed were: • Zac Goldsmith MP to organise a group of conservative MPs to meet the Secretary of State and Chancellor of the Exchequer to lobby for additional high needs block funding • SEND Family Voices to write to the London NNPCF reps to request that they energise their local councils and MPs to lobby around this issue • A meeting in the new year with AfC (Charis Penfold +?) and Susan Chappell and parents (SFV / Ruils) to go through current issues in detail and work on resolving them. …ends//