Medway Council has once again failed its children, this time the most vulnerable, as confirmed by a scathing Ofsted Report on its ‘services’ to children with Special Education Needs and Disabilities, published this week. The report concludes ‘Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI) has determined that a Written Statement of Action is required because of significant areas of weakness in the local area’s practice’. I think that is putting it politely. There are strengths identified; it just happens that all these appear to be down to the health service and not education.
Concerns centre about chaotic management of the ‘Service’, resulting in failure to take necessary action. This can be seen from the following quotes: ’Medway’s education and service leaders do not share one vision and strategy for SEN and/or disabilities…No arrangements are in place to ensure effective joint oversight and clear lines of accountability…Little progress has been made in addressing several of the pressing priorities for improvement identified as far back as 2012… Leaders’ understanding of what has and has not improved in the meantime is limited. I could have chosen many others.
'The collaborative work between professionals and children and their families to plan services and meet individual needs, known as co-production, is weak at both a strategic and individual level' This criticism is underpinned by the heavy criticism of the implementation of Education and Health Care Plans for children with the greatest needs, which are at the heart of Departmental work, and ‘A considerable number of parents shared concerns with inspectors that the needs of their children are not being identified and met sufficiently well’.
There is of course reference to Medway's record exclusion rates: ‘Although improving, rates of permanent and fixed-term exclusion are still notably higher for pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities in Medway than for similar pupils nationally, as it is for all pupils. Lack of specialist provision has brought serious consequences for pupils with severe SEN or disabilities travelling out of Medway daily on long and very expensive journeys.
My own views on the lack of competence of the Education Service at Medway Council will be well known to browsers of this website. However the Council appears conditioned to ride unscathed through all criticism by monitoring authorities, with the changing cast of ineffectual senior politicians and officers making quiet noises of apology in their turn and assuming this will be sufficient. Surely, one day someone senior will be held accountable for the self-serving system which continues to fail Medway’s children – but I am not holding my breath.
Four years later: ‘EHC plans are typically not coproduced in line with the expectation of the 2014 reforms.The varying and often poor quality of EHC plans means that those carrying out the plan do not have to hand key information which could help them ensure that children and young people’s needs are well planned for. EHC plans scrutinised by inspectors contained a variety of weaknesses. In some cases, key information was missing…Where a child or young person has a health need, this aspect is often missing from their plan’. Although I no longer have the capacity to support families through the EHCP process, I am still too often contacted by families desperate for help in the face of an uncooperative SEN Department, or drowning in the confusion created.
One of number of areas where the Report identifies failure to follow the law: ‘The local area’s approach to identifying and assessing children who have autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) does not meet national requirements’.
This all creates a vicious circle with insufficient specialist places creating a reluctance by Council officers to approve EHCPs whose requirements they cannot meet locally.
‘Some parents and school leaders reported that specialist transport arrangements for taking children to special schools and provision were not suitable. There are concerns that the bus escorts are not suitably trained to support children and young people with complex needs. One special school reported that the current transport provider is excluding some pupils from the bus rather than meeting their needs’. Quite reasonably, where there are sufficient SEN pupils travelling to the same destination, the Authority organises buses for transport, but others travelling a distance out of Medway will be sent by taxi. Surely, the Authority has had sufficient warning of demand to provide extra spaces locally and save on what will be an enormous budget.
‘Some mainstream schools are not effectively meeting the needs of children and young people with SEN and/or disabilities. This is particularly evident in the high level of permanent and fixed-term exclusions of children who have SEN but do not have an EHC plan’.
This all adds up to yet another monumental failure by Medway Council Officers, led by Director of Children’s and Adult Services Ian Sutherland, who was previously Interim Director, whose background is in social services, and Cabinet Member Councillor Andrew Mackness whose responsibility this is.
The victims are those Medway children who have special needs and disabilities. Urgent action is needed to provide properly for these vulnerable young people, whose life chances are too often damaged by Council failures. In the past when a Report on Medway failures is published, the response is (1) its not as bad as it seems (2) we will carry out a review and come up with proposals which then don’t turn into action.
Surely this cannot happen again.