Are SEN case workers to be trusted?

Ah you know every I have been through with my kids, from a couple of sentences on a Mumsnet post.

Nope I have been thought all sorts over me at years. I don't think it gives me a free pass to take my frustrations out on individuals.

Then that’s the point at which the argument “incompatible with the effective education of others” comes in.

But the point is that the Tribunal will direct the LA to apply the law. If the LA was following the law in the first place then they wouldn’t be at tribunal, would they?

But what seems to happen is that specialist or independent specialist (ie section 41) only get named after the parents have appealed. The LA kick it into the long grass. It absolutely is not the case that the tribunal is there to make a decision, it’s there to ensure that the LA makes the right one, and that nuance appears to be missing from your understanding of it from your posts.

This is a slightly changed examples for GSPR, but very realistic of what happens most years.

Our maintained SLCN/ASD/MLD school has a Y7 intake of 60. Over 100 parents named it their preference. 3 of those who didn't get a place were squeezed in following tribunal. A couple of others accepted independent specialists after the tribunal listed to the school's witness statement saying they could not take them. This is manageable. Squeezing an extra 40 isn't.
There are other laws around ratios, fire regs, number of kids in a physical space of certain sizes that would be broken. It would be completely unworkable.

This is the difference in perspective of looking just at your own child, or a couple you are advocating for. The fact that 2 or 3 kids could be squeezed in because of tribunal (not enforcement, do you think you're a bailiff?!) does not mean everyone could if everyone went to tribunal. That's does not mean I'm judging the parents who went to tribunal negatively, we all want the best for our kids. But it does not mean that all of those kids could have gone to that school.

You've already described your EHCP dealings and compared to many, you got away lightly. So no, you don't know what others have been through.

Stop defending outright lying! These lies have been caught out but indisputable paper trail.

Other example; telling parents their parental preference said cannot meet need, when a) they hadn't got back to the LA until a month later and b) they actually said they could meet need (with stipulations). Again lies caught by paper trail.

Another; parent makes formal complaint they had not been told vital information (LA told current school SENCO child was no longer allowed to attend at 3pm, beginning the following day, because they had named a school child was unable to attend instead and expected child to start there the following day with no transition and no way to actually get there. No contact with parent whatsoever). Senior manager tells parent they don't contact parents directly. Which is absolute bollocks! Imagine not telling the parent!

Another: Caseworker telling parents not to include anything about work commitments or other children's schooling on transport application because it won't be considered. Then LA representative telling tribunal parents have given no logistical/work/childcare reasons to not facilitate the journey themselves.

Do you need more examples?

Yes, for one you called my lived experience ridiculous and you tried to say that LAs never lie - it’s just stupid parents not being happy with what the reports say.

That’s just in the last 10 minutes or so.

I called your assertion that people write the plan after deciding what the provision will be ridiculous. Not you as a person.

Can you please give some examples of when I have done these things?

I will remind you that the thread is asking about the personal trustworthiness of SEND caseworkers, I have pointed out repeatedly that they system is failing a lot of people, but my point is that this is not because of character flaws caseworkers. And that name-calling them and abusing them out of frustration with the failings of the system is unacceptable.

Being a frustrated SEND parent doesn't absolve is from being decent people.

You called me ridiculous and I responded.

Well over 20 both as a SEND parent and education professional... Does that qualify me to have an opinion? Or only if it is in agreement with yours?

It can be successful for all cases.

Yes You’ve said that you have disabled children multiple times. That doesn’t absolve you responsibility from dismissing, gaslighting and looking down on those of us who are talking from our own personal experiences.

Yeah in that handful of cases, not for the whole system.

Ah well, if you can't make a difference that makes it ok to namecall and bully individuals 🙄 that will definitely sort the system out...

nobody can make this achievable in the current climate.

Except it is achievable once parents take enforcement action. Parents should be supported to do that rather than accept unlawful behaviour.

You’re the one calling me ‘childish’ when what I said was a factual retelling. And you’re the one being attacked?

If you bothered reading my post you would know that I both work in an LA role supporting the education of children in care and am the parent of three disabled children. Why do some SEND parents think they invented having disabled kids and that nobody who worked in education could have experienced this?

There is nothing wrong with calling out an LA on its performance, there is something wrong with name-calling staff as liars, who 'can't be arsed' etc because they have a bigger workload than they can get through.

The use of this language absolutely is childish as it suggests it is a character flaw of individuals not a broken system. The most frustrating is that our SEN team, like my virtual school team, are mainly made of up people who have always worked with children, have their own kids with needs etc and feel drawn to this work to make a difference.

Your posts aren’t coming across as though you have an ounce of respect for the parents of disabled children.

If you want to take my lived experience as a personal affront, maybe you should reflect upon the fact that working in a system where quite a number of people are expected to be disingenuous on a daily basis as part of their job, may start to grind you down after a while. You can’t make a difference in such a system. It’s impossible.

I'm a SEND parent too actually. Do what you like with your records (I do the same) but just don't personally attack individuals because of the system they work in.

Some genius up thread suggested that the caseworkers have the option to leave. Imagine if they all did,that would really help the backlog.

The frustrating thing is, if people put this much energy and vitriol into challenging the government we might get somewhere. Calling Sandra in The LA down the road a cow because she forgot to phone you back at the end of a rammed day is not.

I'm a SEND parent, I've. Been through the delayed EHCPs, placement breakdowns, twenty odd consults to find a school, months late EP report. You don't need to tell me what SEND parents go through.

On terms of your experience, maybe your caseworker lied, maybe (more likely in my opinion) they made a mistake, forgot what they said, thought they had said something they hadn't etc.)

I am so sick of the phrase 'breaking the law'. It's like sticking your fingers in your ears and shouting 'la la la'. If a caseworker is meant to issue a plan on 1 June and they don't get the EP report until August what can they do? If the EP can write 3 reports a week and but 10 need to be done this week to be in timescale what can they do? They will probably work late and rush and get an extra couple done but are still behind and the quality might dip a bit too. The LA advertise for locum and addition EPS but there aren't enough qualified in the UK to fill the vacancies. To stamp your feet and say 'its the law' is factually correct, but nobody can make this achievable in the current climate.

I really didn't make clear that the diary demands are what caseworkers diaries look like every day. There is no capacity to be giving updates about each report etc and stuff gets missed. No reply in months is unacceptable I agree. I can see it happening though, I know of a small neighbouring LA that did not have a single perm Casework for about 6 months, and we're managing entirely in agency staff whilst they recruited because everyone left. In their managers situation I would direct my team to focus on getting through the work rather than working back through Comms. I would probably have sent out a massive Comms to explain.
Luckily my LA now have a system that parents can log into and see what's happening. This will hopefully be rolled out more widely.

The use of this language absolutely is childish as it suggests it is a character flaw of individuals not a broken system. The most frustrating is that our SEN team, like my virtual school team, are mainly made of up people who have always worked with children, have their own kids with needs etc and feel drawn to this work to make a difference.

I’m pretty irritated and unmoved by the attempts of LA staff playing the victim on this thread.

You do an awful lot of assuming with your ‘verbal punch bag’ comments. I don’t bother to bandy words with anyone. I keep everything in writing, reminding the LA of their legal obligations and I use the legal process if necessary and stick to what the law says. If LAs did this, threads like this wouldn’t exist 🙄

I recorded our Head of SEND admitting lyingat d's AR in a meeting at my home, she also acknowledged that the school HT had also lied at theAR which my solicitor attended The HT later admitted also lying after I offered her the recording and she had checked with LA whether to admit she had lied.
Tbf by that point I didn't particularly care as it was a meeting to discuss transition to independent specialist that I'd secured through SENDIST so I imagine Head of SEND felt safe to admit lying knowing I'd take it no further. I suspect if Head of SEND was comfortable lying then quite possibly caseworkers felt it acceptable too as attitudes tend to filter down the ranks.
Never been rude or abusive to any SEND staff although was incensed when one caseworker doctored the Tribunal ordered EHCP to remove provision but again an email to Head of SEND asking that I got the Tribunal ordered EHCP before I involved a solicitor to push for JR sorted that quickly.

’Childish language’, eh? I am not at all surprised that you are a council worker because you clearly harbour the same, ingrained level of contempt for parents of disabled children that I have seen time and time again within my own council.

If a parent dares to call out the fact that Local Authorities lie (which they do!) it’s childish now?

I have won 3 tribunals which shows that my proposals were suitable and the LA’s were not. Your attempts at gaslighting aren’t going to go down well.

Sorry, have you been privy to the goings on of councils for the last 23 years like I have? As a parent? Because if not, you have no right to call me ridiculous.

Tribunals are successful because the LA has acted unlawfully. Parents shouldn’t have to appeal to get the LA to comply with the law. There is nothing stopping LAs agreeing to name a school when they can’t prove one of the legal exceptions.There is a difference between when LAs and school claim the school is full and when they can prove the legal threshold of incompatibility. That is why so many appeals are successful. Obviously there is a point LAs can prove incompatibility, but that threshold is much higher than LAs like to claim.

It's the childish language...
E.g. taking info a parent disagrees with from a report= writing lies.

It's not parents disagreeing. It's blatant lies.
Caseworker to SENCO: yes, I can confirm we have received all necessary documents for panel.
Caseworker to panel: School have not submitted necessary documents.

Not getting EP reports back in time to issue the plan within 20 weeks = the caseworker is choosing to break the law.

More the LAs breaking law than caseworkers, hence 97% success rate at tribunal. Ridiculous amount of illegal decisions. Mostly, a known delay tactic because it takes so long to get to tribunal, the LA saves a fortune on not paying for legally needed provision.

Having a day of back to back meetings for perm exclusions/placement breakdowns/ reviews/coproduction meetings plus some time to write EHCPs = ignoring parents and not bothering to reply to emails.

How does 1 day of back to back meetings excuse 6 MONTHS of ignored communication. Phonecalls to office, phonecalls to direct line and emails all ignored. And calling daily because it was desperate so "lost in the big pile of work" excuse doesn't work.

It's not "childish language" fgs. It's what parents are being forced to put up with over and over again.