Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Inquiry Launched Bristol Send Parents Being Failed
EHCP Bristol Failures – Send Inquiry Open
If you are a Bristol parent whose child has special educational needs and disabilities (Send) you will be fully aware how difficult education has become. Securing an EHCP from Bristol City Council is long and arduous for those who even manage to get one. Services such as the Bristol Autism Team have been cut and cut backs in education are meaning children with Send are unable to access education.
In 2014, the Government introduced changes to the Send system which aimed to offer improved help and give families more choice. Now, the Education Select Committee has launched and inquiry into the support offered to review how successful the changes have been.
The Children and Families Act 2014, did away with statements and Learning Disability Assessments, replacing them instead with Education Health and Care Plans.
The change aimed to provide the necessary support for children from birth to 25 years of age.
At Chopsy Bristol, we can confirm that our experience of the EHCP process in Bristol is disastrous. When applying for an EHCP within the family, Bristol City Council did not even bother to send a letter back rejecting assessment, meaning we only discovered this fact via a third party when it was too late to appeal.
Within Bristol Send community groups and Facebook pages the story is always the same. EHCPs from Bristol City Council are just not forthcoming. Parents are having to take difficult and lengthy legal action and go through appeals.
Even when this is done, EHCPs are being produced without clear wording which affects the child’s legal right to have the support implemented. Parents we have spoken to about this talk about frustrating and lengthy delays trying to correct wording, communicate with Bristol City Council, with EHCPs taking more than a year from first application to the initial draft plan in some families.
Early this month, the National Education Union found that 24 per cent of children with Send are not having their needs met in school. It also found that 40 per cent of Send pupils over the age of four years are not even in school full time.
It is Send provision that would make a big difference, with 77 per cent saying it would help their children the most.
Of the research, joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU) Dr Mary Bousted said: “It is appalling that so many children with special needs are not getting school places and are not getting the help they need. Parents of children with special needs have enough of a struggle without having to fight to get a diagnosis for their child or to get a school place. We know that 8,000 SEND children round the UK don’t currently have a school place – this simply is not good enough. The Government needs to get its act together and make sure these children receive the help and support they need.”
Launching the Send inquiry, Rt Hon Robert Halfon MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “One of the primary objectives of the Education Committee is to address social injustice in education. Understanding and addressing the challenges faced by children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities is an important part of this work.
“It has been four years since major SEND reforms were introduced and it’s important we examine whether the Government’s stated ambitions for simpler, improved and consistent help for children and young people with SEND have been met. There are rising concerns about the quality and access to SEN provision which the Committee we will want to explore in this inquiry. The Committee’s current inquiry into alternative provision has heard considerable evidence that children with special educational needs are disproportionately excluded from school and over-represented in alternative provision. During the course of our quality of apprenticeships and skills training inquiry we’ve also heard that with young people with SEN have faced significant barriers in accessing apprenticeships.
All children deserve to access good quality education that meets their needs and supports them to learn to ensure that they are able to thrive and climb the ladder of opportunity. The 2014 Act extended provision to young people up to the age of 25 and the Committee is particularly keen to hear evidence about whether there is the right support available to enable young people to access appropriate post-18 opportunities such as studying at FE colleges and undertaking apprenticeships.”
You can add your own view to the Education Committee’s inquiry but it must be done before Thursday 14 June 2018.
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