Are SEN case workers to be trusted?

The system needs a wholesale change, starting with education provision. As many children as possible are made to attend one narrow type of provision that cannot meet all the different needs. Lack of teachers means that accommodations are harder to make. Blanket strict behaviour policies are widespread because there aren't the staff to deal with individual needs. There aren't sufficient pastoral staff. Cuts to local authority funding from 2010 onwards means the idea of needing to save money has become entrenched across all sectors.

It now seems to be ingrained in all local authorities that all SEND provision must be the cheapest that can be offered. I have seen this as a teacher and as a parent. My autistic DD who is barely attending school has a very well-written report by the EP but the LA are refusing to include the wording from her report which specifies exactly what provision she requires. The only reason they give is that they believe the provision should be "flexible", which is absolutely not what the professional report says. It is obvious that they just don't want to put in something that might cost more. It's not individuals who work there who are to "blame", especially those who are lower down the hierarchy, but it is an all-pervading attitude.

It's all a complete mess. It doesn't look like either schools or local authorities are going to get an increase in funding any time soon, so it will be more children who continue not to get the education they deserve. In the long run it will mean there are more children who grow up ending up unable to work because of their experiences in the education system so it won't be saving any money at all.

You can't keep squeezing kids in. So there has to be some sensible decision making and you make an exception for tribunal, what else can you do. If a school is built for 60 kids per year, you can squeeze a couple extra in, but not the extra 100 who have asked for a place. So a couple extra get squeezed in through tribunal. That doesn't mean the LA could have just chucked an extra 100 kids into a year group. You have to draw the line somewhere. This is where it's frustrating to deal with people who know what the law says but have never had to apply it across a whole cohort of kids.

Thank you. I only ever do personal SARs if I absolutely have to because it's so fucking upsetting. It's not just lies but the horrible, sarcastic way they talk about parents. With lies it's not just disagreements but literally like written examples of professionals admitting something is wrong and making decisions not to let us know in writing.

I feel so upset for my children.

something that the LA can't give (e.g. a place in a full school) that tribunal can

Legally, this isn’t the case. If Tribunal can Order it, the LA can agree to it. LAs don’t have to force parents to appeal to SENDIST.

It isn’t just a matter of parents disagreeing. Sometimes LAs outright lie. I have seen thousands of SARs over the years - it really isn’t a tiny %. If LAs don’t want to be accused of that, they shouldn’t do it. Often when parents say the LA is ignoring them, they are talking about far longer than 1 day.

Well I am sure that I can find isolated examples of someone backtracking from a meeting in just about any industry, and yet we don't start character assassinations of all those who work in the industry.

Also, as a manager in the LA I have seen plenty of times that people will twist what an officer has said to their own ends. Again this is such a source of stress, having to choose every single sentence that leaves your mouth in case it is misrepresented.

Either way, my point is that the attacking language on someone just because of the sector they work in is unacceptable.

"Sometimes because the parent wants something that the LA can't give (e.g. a place in a full school) that tribunal can." LAs are legally authorised to do this.

But sometimes they do actually lie, in a recent case of mine a Case Officer said something in a meeting to me with an independent witness and then said she never said that. I gave her manager the independent witness write up and the whole thing was just never spoken of again.

Hopefully it's not very often, but they do sometimes literally lie.

It's the childish language...

E.g. taking info a parent disagrees with from a report= writing lies.
Not getting EP reports back in time to issue the plan within 20 weeks = the caseworker is choosing to break the law.
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.

People would take these concerns more seriously if they were process focused and not personal attacks on caseworkers (accusing people of lying is an personal attack, accusing an LA of producing an inaccurate report is not ...can you see the difference?...)

I try not to get wound up because some of the people using this languages just don't have the life and professional experience to understand this, but it feels relentless to those in the service.

How many SARS requests have you viewed? My LA has 13,000 EHCPs under management. Wecn if you have seen a few, it's a tiny percentage.

Same with tribunal. Hundred of EHCPS are written by an LA each months a handful go to tribunal. Sometimes because the parent wants something that the LA can't give (e.g. a place in a full school) that tribunal can. It is what it is.

The caseworkers will be as pissed off with EP reports etc lacking specificity as much as anyone else. They still can't overrule what's in the report and make up their own version.

This is what I mean about people treating the caseworkers like verbal punchbags for their frustration with a broken system.

Inaccurate for your area maybe, not inaccurate for mine.

I would never think a Caseworker could approve a placement on their own, but (having worked in other industries like yourself) cannot understand why they aren't allowed to make decisions up to a limit. In a different industry, we were allowed to make financial decisions according to our experience/ pay band, e.g. on relatively low salaries ourselves we could sign off over £10,000 per case.

In my experience, LAs (and I've worked with several and lived in a couple) are extremely inflexible about what they will consider evidence. You mention teachers, who you point out are not as experienced as specialists like EPs etc, I understand that but they can still provide very valuable evidence and likely know these children a lot better than someone who has seen them for an absolute maximum of 4 hours.

As far as I'm aware,the SEND Code of Practice is not completely prescriptive about the evidence needed for every single intervention / provision. If you are going to say that is inaccurate, please provide me with the SEND Code of Practice quote which contradicts this so I can read it myself.

In my professional and personal experience, I have seen parents pushing it with asking for over the top provision maybe a dozen times, total, out of the hundreds of families I've encountered.

It should be ridiculous. But time and time again, the SARs prove otherwise.

This is absolutely ridiculous.

Your comments have been fine in tone (if inaccurate in my opinion at times) it's that of others on the thread, and some that you see on social media.

In terms of statutory assessment the school's teachers are not specialist professionals. They are generalists and it is beyond the remit of a teacher (I say this as a previous teacher, Special school teacher and SENCO). I know that's frustrating that there isn't enough capacity amongst those who are specialist professionals but it is what it is. The specialists have years of experience on one particular aspect of SEND, masters quals (or doctorates for EPs). And there are still issues with quality of reports amongst these professionals. They were trained to help children not write medicolegal reports that would be picked apart. It's an imperfect system for sure.

In terms of agreeing placements etc, it baffles me that people expect this could be agreed at caseworker level. There are statutory requirements around the management of public money. It's not confined to the public sector. In a previous life I worked in financial services and was involved with underwriting mortgages and business finance. There were very similar safeguards around decision making and releasing funds. And that was in a bank that made profits in the billions, not a cash strapped LA. Yet nobody takes issue with this.

Agency staff are paid more, but anyone can see the link between people being abusive to caseworkers and problems with recruitment and retention of staff. There are no caseworkers on long term 60k salaries. They are sometimes used as a short term measure to clear a backlog etc.

It's like teaching. Everyone who has ever been in a school thinks they know how to run one.

The main problem with SEND departments up and down the country is that their way of doing things is backwards. The laws says that the council is supposed to assess the child and then identify provision to meet need. But what actually happens is that the council look at what they want to provide (ie what is cheapest) and then write lies so that the child can be stuck into it when there is evidence that it wouldn’t be appropriate.

I have never, particularly having worked in the system myself, treated professionals like my "own personal punchbag". In fact, many times on this thread people have said parents have posted nasty things and then not identified any nasty posts.

Some senior Case Managers and locum Case Officers are on salaries over £60k, I've seen them advertised.

I understand it should be evidence based but as someone said earlier, some LAs don't even take school evidence as evidence! I really can't go into details (although I want to) but in my area at least there are examples of Case Officers not even being allowed (so not their fault) to make very obvious decisions based on evidence available but then policies prohibit certain (very high need) children accessing services based on technicalities like what type of school they go to.

The case workers role is what is is under law, not what you think it should be.
Of course you have to have evidence, that's the whole point, it's an evidence based assessment.
That said, schools can be crap at following the graduated approach when needs escalate and change, which is where the evidence would come from. Partly due to capacity issues at school and partly due to a less inclusive culture than I have ever known in mainstream schools.

That doesn't mean anyone can start making it up as they go along.

No case officer or manager is on 60k.
Case officers are on 32-38. Their team manager about 45-50. The overall SEND manager 54k. The service lead (senior management) is on about 65-75 and manage functions across inclusion (perm ex's etc), SEND, Educational Psychology, virtual school. It's a really senior position. Not a case manager. And no they still can't hand out funds on a whim. They are rightfully checks and safeguards around handing out taxpayers money.

In our LA out case officers have a caseload of 300+. That's as well as managing annual reviews for 300, transfers for about 50, movers in and out, placement breakdowns, perm exclusions, consults for school moves, attending mediations, prepping reapons to tribunal, new assessments for about 30 they are also the people answering the phone, responding to emails etc. They aren't 'not bothering ' to reply, they are prioritising. Making difficult decisions.

My team like the SEND team is in crisis, and when. I arrive at 7.30 they are mostly in and when I leave at 6-7 the same.

I have 3 children with SEND, EHCPS, I've had one I crisis and put of school for a year, had to pay for a private autism assessment for one due to waiting lists, had to leva my teaching job because of his struggles to get into school. Had to pick up the pieces of his distress. My life is exhausting with them. Still doesn't mean I have the right to rest people working in the system as their own personal punchbags.

I know what it like I have lived it. The system is in crisis due to underfunding, and increasing mental health needs post pandemic that are being lumped in with SEND, genuine increase in the occurrence of SEN and a serious increase in parental expectations.

There are provisions in the legislation, regs and guidance that were written in he expectation that they would be used for very rare cases. The landscape has changed and people are asking for things like therapy packages, AP, EOTIS all over the place. And I get why, we all desperately want our kids to be happy and have opportunities. There is no judgement from me on this.

However there is an increasingly toxic group of parents, who are very vocal who take pleasure in trying to attack those who work in the broke system. It's like listening to the bitchy clique on the playground.

They genuinely think their actions are beyond reproach because they are a SEND parent. Well so am I. And it doesn't mean we are entitled to be bitches to anyone we feel like.

Unfortunately, many SEN are hereditary and there is also the environmental issue. So unsurprisingly the incidence of parents who can't regulate their emotions appropriately or communicate appropriately or see things from other people's perspectives are higher in this group. I say that as a SEN parent who is almost certainly ND. I know that I have to be hyper aware of these things for myself. But there are some parents who feel entitled to be abusive twunts simply because the have a SEND child and that nobody has the right to pull them up on it.

100% with you. The number of piss poor EP reports I have seen is beyond belief. The most recent one I read (private EP LA commissioned) spouted various 'learning theories' and stated the child's school history but said absolutely nothing about the child's learning ability or support needs. They took by far the longest to submit, all therapies got theirs in quickly due to concerns about this child being out of school so long and the hope that if they completed promptly it would move the process along quicker. I asked the Dad if the EP had actually met the child, turned out their 'assessment' was a 20 min phone call with Dad! Our LA employed EP's are fantastic - caring, knowledgeable and thorough, bit the huge increase in numbers of assessments requested means some have to be privately commissioned unfortunately.

@Agenoria and that's completely incompatible with a very clear messaging in the job description that the job means signing up to churn out 2 EHCPs per day, come hell or high water. Volume trumping quality on every level.

I also get very frustrated that our LA rejects recommendations from school, deeming it "not professional evidence". In our case evidence from senior leadership who knows our child very well, has years of experience in teaching and leading a SEN school and a sodding PhD in SEN. But nope, "not a professional". Whereas someone who's never met him writing "not known to our service" is taken as professional evidence that he doesn't need support in that area. It's an absolute travesty.

I've heard quite good (pretty senior) Caseworker say very similar. Unfortunately parents often get ignored or are unable to access these services independently to ask for more specific advice (won't go into specific details as it outs the area I live in).

Also, these very senior Case managers are given absolutely no authority to make decisions on anything, despite being paid sometimes £60k+ One officer refused to write into an EHCP a 10 minute a day free intervention, that is known to cause no harm whatsoever, for a child who already had a 1:1, without "more" evidence. I don't know many other industries who pay such a decent salary where staff aren't allowed to make any decisions themselves, especially as most of the Caseworkers are qualified teachers.

It would be fascinating to know if they are permitted to advise. A conscientious EHCP writer should be saying time and again "I have done what I can with the evidence but this will not be a lawful document unless and until you instruct the EP to advise properly on specific support, and get decent evidence on the child's speech/physical/sensory/emotional/mental health/whatever needs." I mean, I know they will be ignored and probably sacked, but it would be good at least to have that sort of advice clearly on record.

which ones???

Think OP is scared off now. Maybe they had a specific follow up question 😢

I'm really sure (hope?) this is the majority of those working in the system but the problem is some do actively lie and treat families with complete and utter disdain. The things I have seen from SAR documents...

Where? The caseworker telling parents to fuck off has all been deleted?

Some horrible posts on here. Borne of frustration, no doubt, but still horrible.

Absolutely agree, but I think the persons point was that many staff are trying to do their best in a system which is really stressful, not that it in any way compares to the level of stress parents go through, I don't think anyone thinks that. I have absolute admiration for the families i work with. But that doesn't mean it doesn't matter, that it has no affect on us, that our families don't also suffer when we come home emotionally drained from knowing children are being failed on a daily basis and it only seems to be getting worse. There was a short period of hope when the new government came in, which has rapidly turned to despair.

Working in SEN, but as a health professional, I have come home crying many nights that I haven't been able to provide what the children I care for need, due to a system which is so overwhelmed and clunky. Many times my manager has said to me 'you need to distance yourself, you can't hold yourself responsible for everything which doesn't work out, otherwise you will burn out'. And that is what happens, those that care often burn out, leaving behind those who don't care as much. Junior staff join and then leave, with their idealism and good intentions in tatters, and our team constantly has several vacancies. My husband keeps telling me to go private, to double my earnings, but more importantly, for my mental health.

So whilst it may look like many of us dont care, we do, or we would walk away, i am fighting every day to try to make things better for the children we work with, and i know i am failing, and I'm sorry, on behalf of a broken system I am so sorry.