SEND families 'frustrated and helpless'
Parents, carers and professionals looking after young people with special educational needs are being left "frustrated and helpless", an inspection has found.
Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission said both Wirral Council and the local NHS were failing young people who needed support.
The inspectors said that despite some progress having been made, urgent action needed to be taken.
Wirral Council said some improvements had been made but that not all families were feeling the benefit yet, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported.
The inspection in January looked at both the services provided by Wirral Council as well as the NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care Board.
It came after a highly critical inspection in 2021 and a government notice issued last year over a failure to make progress.
The council has invested more money in its special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) teams, and the Department for Education described the improvements as significant.
The January inspection, published recently, said there were long-standing failings "all too frequently characterised by waiting lists, and delays and failures to identify children and young people's needs".
The inspectors said: "Children and young people bear the consequences of weak systems for education, health and care (EHC) plans.
"Furthermore, many EHC plans are rarely, if ever, updated to reflect the reviews that education settings carry out.
"Consequently, these plans no longer reflect the needs of the children and young people concerned and their needs sometimes go unmet."
Wirral Council leader Paul Stuart, a member of the Local Area SEND Partnership Board, said: "We have made progress in recent months, which has been recognised by the Department for Education.
"While we continue to work across the partnership board to make large scale improvements for SEND children and their families, we recognise that these improvements are not yet consistently being felt by families themselves."
He said there were still changes needed to improve the services and provide positive outcomes for all children and young people across Wirral.
"We have a lot of work to do, but we're committed to our young people," he said. "There are a lot of dedicated and passionate staff across the partnership working hard to continue to drive that change and I'd thank them for their commitment to our borough and our young people.
"The momentum that Wirral's Local Area SEND Partnership has already built and the pace of work will continue to ensure that families feel the benefits of these changes and the needs of all children and young people with SEND across Wirral are met – and exceeded."
Simon Banks, place director (Wirral) for NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, said a recovery plan had been endorsed to improve wait times for assessments.
He added: "Wirral is an early adopter in the North West of a new neurodiversity profiling tool that will ensure that neurodevelopmental needs are identified early and support put in place across all areas of a child or young person's life."
Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
Parents of SEND children accuse council of 'neglect'
Care Quality Commission
Ofsted
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Free school meals extended for all pupils of families on Universal Credit
Free school meals will be extended for all pupils in England whose families claim Universal Credit from next year. Hundreds of thousands more children across the country will be able to access means-tested free school meals when the provision is extended from September 2026, the Department for Education (DfE) has said. Currently, households in England on Universal Credit must earn below £7,400 a year to qualify for free school meals. But the Government has announced that every pupil whose household is on universal credit will have a new entitlement to free school lunches from the start of the 2026/27 academic year. 🎉 We've won Free School Meals for 500,000+ more children! This is an incredible breakthrough. But the fight isn't over — means-testing still leaves far too many behind. We won't rest until we win #FreeSchoolMealsForAll so every primary pupil can get the best start in school.… — No Child Left Behind (@NoChildBehindUK) June 5, 2025 The move comes after campaigners and education leaders have called for free school meals to be extended to all children whose families are on Universal Credit to ease pressures on young people living in poverty. Nearly 2.1 million pupils – almost one in four of all pupils (24.6%) – in England were eligible for free school meals in January 2024. The DfE has said more than half-a-million more children are expected to benefit from a free meal every school day as a result of the expansion, and nearly £500 will be put back into parents' pockets every year. It suggested that the expansion will lift 100,000 children across England completely out of poverty. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: 'Feeding more children every day, for free, is one of the biggest interventions we can make to put more money in parents' pockets, tackle the stain of poverty, and set children up to learn. Recommended reading: DWP Winter fuel payments to return for more pensioners 2025 £360 April price rise officially hitting Brits as inflation hits 3.5 per cent Millions to receive up to £70 each in Mastercard compensation case 'This expansion is a truly historic moment for our country, helping families who need it most and delivering our Plan for Change to give every child, no matter their background, the same chance to succeed.' The DfE is due to release data this morning (June 5) showing the number of state school pupils in England who are eligible for free school meals.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
Children face 'unacceptable waits' for SEND referral
Children are facing "unacceptably long" waits for neurodiversity services after the number of referrals increased threefold in five years in Sheffield, according to a new report. Meredith Dixon-Teasdale, Sheffield City Council's strategic director of children's services, said an overhaul of the existing system was needed to enable services to cope with the rising demand. According to the report neurodevelopment referrals have grown from approximately 1,500 in 2019-20 to 4,600 in the past 12 months. The issue is due to be discussed by members of the council's education, children and families policy committee on 10 June. Ms Dixon-Teasdale said: "There is a shared view our children, young people and families are waiting for an unacceptably long time and service models that no longer meet need. "There is a shared view we need to work together to develop a radically different model of care and support across the city." She said improvement work had been taking place for three years with fortnightly city-wide meetings of directors from key organisations taking place since last summer. Learn Sheffield is also leading the development of a SEND Manifesto for the city, she said. Ms Dixon-Teasdale said the education committee will get an update of the work taking place in September. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North Increase in wait times for SEND support plans New SEND school planned for firm's ex-HQ Special needs transport costs go £7m over budget Sheffield council
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Yahoo
SEND assessment delay 'prolonged injustice' for mum
"Significant delays" by a council in assessing a child's special educational needs caused his mother "prolonged injustice", a government watchdog has ruled. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman ordered Slough Borough Council to pay her £1,000 for delays and lack of communication. Its report said the council's faults had caused her "significant distress and frustration". The council said it acknowledged the findings of the report and had complied with all of its recommendations. The mother, named as Ms X in the ombudsman's report, asked the council to update her son B's education health and care plan (EHCP) in March 2024. This is a legal document reviewed annually that sets out what a council has to do to meet a child's special educational needs. She wanted the council to update B's EHCP with information from a private occupational therapist's assessment she had sourced, and asked if it could reimburse her for the cost. Ms X then complained "shortly after" about the time the council had taken to update B's EHCP after a review in October 2023, and asked for a personal budget to pay for his occupational therapy. The council replied that B's annual review would take place in April, that she could discuss a personal budget then, and that it might need to take 14 weeks to reassess his needs. The council also said it had "not yet decided" whether to reimburse Ms X for the private occupational therapist's assessment. B's annual review took place in April and the council wrote to Ms X in June saying it had prepared an amended plan, that it would reimburse her for the occupational therapist's assessment and reassess B's needs. In response to her complaint, Slough Borough Council said it would consider her request for a personal budget. It accepted there had been delays in updating B's plan and securing a decision around the private occupational therapist funding. When the council did issue an updated ECHP in September 2024 the reassessment had still not taken place – and was ongoing at the time of the ombudsman's decision in March this year. The council 'said waiting for the outcome of the private OT's review, had delayed this consideration'. The ombudsman ruled this delay was "especially severe" and the the council should pay Ms X £750. In addition, the ombudsman said there was a "lack of communication! from the council in explaining its decision whether to award Ms X a personal budget, and that there was a delay in deciding whether to reimburse her for the private assessment. It said the council should pay Ms X a further £250 for these. The council said: "We are conscious of historic failings and delays within parts of our SEND service and recognise the impact this has had on some families. "In response, we have taken clear steps to strengthen the service — including increasing staffing capacity, improving oversight, and ensuring Education, Health, and Care (EHC) needs assessments are completed in a more timely and consistent way." It added: "We remain committed to improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND and to working closely with families to provide the support they need." You can follow BBC Berkshire on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram. Authority to pay £11,750 over special needs case Council to pay £6,500 after failing autistic child SEND delay 'horrible' for boy, 11 Mother awarded £9,400 over education battle for son Slough Borough Council Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman
