To go nuclear about this and to hell with the consequences?!

[RamblingAroundTheInternet]

To accuse a government legal body and local government organisation of corruption. I have been advised by 3rd parties this is what it is and it's pretty blatant. I will voice as 'concerns' but it will be obvious what I am accusing them of.

I am aware it won't change the outcome as we will lose the case anyway (final hearing still pending).

Slightly concerned about legal consequences to myself (can I be sued?) but I haven't got any money anyway so it's not like they will be able to get anything out of me.

Case is related to my DC and I have fought so long. To lose at the final hurdle because the case had been deliberately delayed is so unjust.

Planning to contact government ministers (from both parties) and related government organisations so at least it will have to be investigated.

AIBU or do I sound nuts?

None of what you've posted sounds like corruption to me, OP, more a case of lack of resources both in funding SEND provision and at the tribunal service.

If the bit of HMCTS that runs SEND tribunals is anything like as stretched as the bit that runs benefit tribunals, there will be massive delays in getting cases heard. They've been under-resourced for ages, so never had enough staff, and it's getting worse because staff are leaving for better paid jobs elsewhere. LEAs have had real-terms cuts in funding for years, and they can't provide what they can't pay for.

Is there a complaints procedure for HMCTS? If so, I'd start there but the advice to get your MP involved is well worth following, especially as this is a matter that involves both central and local government. In local govt, they really leap into action when an MP is involved and I would hope that HMCTS are the same.

I sometimes think that the agencies involved with children and young people use delay as a way of avoiding providing a service, as they know if they can string it out for long enough, the child will be an adult before they get round to dealing with them. I'm convinced that CAMHS do this.

I appreciate your frustration, and that this system seems very inefficient and the provision underfunded, but I don’t see corruption.

Unless you have evidence that rival families have been offering bribes to get their child in.

The independent provision itself is saying it's unsuitable OP. They won't be directed to take. They're an independent provision.

You say adult DS? Is that a typo maybe?

I very much doubt that it's corruption.

It's a broken system, appallingly funded and run by demoralised overworked LA and health and education staff. Add in a similar situation in the courts and the shortage of court time and officials.

When you have four separate appallingly underfunded government agencies involved with one case, you have a recipe for disaster.

To be honest, none of those people are likely to have the time or the headspace to engineer and carry out a nefarious plan.

Planning to contact government ministers (from both parties)

You won't find any government ministers from the Labour party.

Is this in England?

An EHCP can run up to the 26th birthday.

If your child is under 16 the local authority has a statutory responsibility to provide full time education, and even if he isn't, it has a statutory responsibility to provide the support set out in his EHCP, if necessary by means of home tuition. Have you looked into threatening judicial review to get it?

The LGSCO won't touch cases that are already in the tribunal.

OP hasn't said the provision is independent.

Her child may well be adult, as EHCPs can stay in place till people are 25.

LAs do have discretion to keep education programmes going beyond the 26th birthday if that is needed in order to get a qualification.

By all means complain but this isn't corruption-it's just a poorly implemented system with massive flaws. I've had a hearing postponed before - it's got more common. Delays and rescheduling are now nearly the norm. LAs don't do things in the child's best interest and have little regard for what parents think is best. Keep highlighting the law to SENDIST, keep going. IPSEA and SOSSEN for advice if you can get through to someone.
Realistically going nuclear is unlikely to achieve what you want and will take your energy and time which could be better spent. Good luck OP.

Not fully independent. Section 41 approved which means it can be ordered to admit.

I wouldn't have wasted my time if it wasn't.

If this is Cambridgeshire then yes, it is a disgusting deliberate attempt to protect a principle of not paying. Not about the money, it's about the principle.

The thing is though, I bet a lot of people on this thread who would think it was outrageous and all children deserve the right kind of support would also repeatedly vote Tory because they don't want to pay more taxes (they'd dress it up as 'for reasons of the economy' or 'because I prefer their stance on local issues' but we know the real reasons).

The Tories may say they are tough on waste or they run things on commercial lines. But what they really do is cut back on services. I know because I've seen how the consultants they use work. They don't analyse an organisation and work out where it's inefficient on an employee level. They just cut out a group of support workers or a whole service, making everything run a bit less well and putting intolerable pressure on those in the front line. Funnily enough they never recommend getting rid of the people who repeatedly commission their services the top management.

You never completely make something run efficiently, because you need to carry some slack in case of emergencies - for example you need additional GPs in case of something like Covid. Cutting something down to the bone, means you have nothing to fall back on in tough times - you can't just magic a GP overnight, it takes ten years to fully train one.

LAs are not the devil. They just have finite resources. They may not always spend money perfectly, but that will always happen. If we don't pay more taxes, the services we have to offer people like the OP's son will always be worse. Blaming the LA or the courts or the schools is a waste of time because someone's son will always miss out when there isn't sufficient budget for everyone.

No idea since you gave us absolutely no details .

My apologies for my first reply . Yes maybe you should , there is a lot of corruption where special education is involved as it involves big money .

OP call your MPs constituency office and get an appointment with them. Do not mention corruption as you won't be listened to. Instead write down the cold hard facts of what has happened and get a friend who is less emotionally invested to proof read it. Ask your MP to raise this issue with the relevant Minister and/or the relevant Secretary of State. Do not assume your MP won't help you. It's irrelevant if it is someone you personally would vote for or not. I work with Ministers/MPs (not in education so I can't offer you specific advice) and if you can get one of them to start asking your local authority questions you would be amazed what can be achieved. No one wants a Ministers office poking around in their business. Good luck

It’s not corruption it’s a broken system. By all means go the the LGO but the amounts they order LAs to pay in compensation are so small it’s probably not worth the hassle. No one in Local authorities or the tribunal service are getting rich off this. The money is all in the private providers hands. The law is written in a resource blind way but obviously there are limits to the resources LAs have at their disposal. So you can be legally ‘right’ but if there is no money or resource available it won’t make any difference. It’s often lot cheaper for an LA to make a compensation payout ordered by the LGO than to fund expensive independent provision. The fees charged by some of the independent provisions are insane and without a massive increase in central govt funding they are not feasible for LAs to fund no matter how entitles people might be to them. The expansion of EHCPs to age 25 was crazy and has resulted in many cases like this. It was I’ll thought out and not resourced and now the whole system is broken.

It’s so stressful, OP, but entirely agree with others that this is the system, a broken one, rather than corruption.

You definitely need to contact your MP. Ours made the most enormous difference in a very difficult case for our child. As others have said, don’t tell them about corruption or conspiracy. They need to represent you on the material issue of the amount of time this is taking to progress, and the impact on your son.

The fees charged by independent schools tend to reflect the very high costs of supporting complex disabilities, mostly because of the high staffing levels required, so few can really be described as insane. Compare them, for example, with care home costs.

The fault mainly lies with the government for failing to fund special education adequately, but I do think some blame attaches to LAs for simply meekly accepting this. It's noticeable that, when parents have brought legal challenges about inadequate funding, local authorities haven't joined in or even provided supporting evidence. If they joined together and told the government, loud and clear, that they cannot meet their legal responsibilities without more funding, it would begin to have an effect. But instead they choose to fail disabled children, again and again and again.

On your reporting it sounds more like a combination of incompetence, lack of funding (local government funding has been cut by more than 40% since 2010- significantly more in some high-needs parts of the country, so something has to give) and pressure on court time (which has been a problem for a while, also due to chronic long-term government underfunding) rather than corruption. Corruption is things like taking money for influencing a decision, for example. Corruption is a specific word and you have to be careful when using it. I think you need legal advice.

I would like to agree with you but like care homes and children’s homes, independent SEN schools have a captive audience and therefore there are many examples of profiting handsomely off the back of the tax payer. It is a wholesale massive movement of money from the state to the private sector. Much like the NHS contracting out to private providers. I also think it’s bizarre to assert that LAs aren’t raising the funding issue with central govt. they do it constantly!

'meekly accepting' funding cuts? LAs have been howling about this for over a decade, but all too often nobody listens until they themselves fall victim to it. So long as the country elects politicians in Westminster who choose to cut LA funding, there is absolutely nothing whatsoever LAs can do about it. That's not an opnion, that's a statement of fact. LAs can demand what they like, but Westminster doesn't have a legal obligation to give them a penny if it chooses not to.

OP, I’m sorry that your DC hadn’t been supported. I have a friend going through similar with her autistic son and I can see how it takes it’s toll.

But I really would be wary of throwing phrases around like “corruption” because it makes you appear unreasonable and you need to take the higher ground here.

You appear to be alleging that the council is somehow colluding with the judicial system - your allegations against the judge could effectively constitute bias which could require him to recuse himself and just lead to further delays.

I deal with (employment) tribunals and it’s usual practice in the ET for judges to request parties availability and adjourn to a future date if need be. Only once have I seen an adjournment on this basis refused, and that was when the other side attempted to adjourn the night before a five day hearing that had been listed for almost a year!

Yes the system sucks and they have failed your child - but it isn’t corruption and it isn’t the fault of the judges on your case.

You just have to go through the process, as shit as that is.