Are you under the impression that I am a caseworker?
I work in a virtual school team, supporting looked after children with SEND to attain in line with their peers. Perhaps I'm untrustworthy too?
I studied IPSEA legal qualifications to level 3 as a special school SENCO, but thank you for sharing your views on the legal situation. Your tone is very patronising.
I think the problem is, and I say this as someone has 3 children with SEND (one of whom has a crisis year, unable to attend for months, delayed EHCP, late decision on secondary school) that a lot of SEND parents and advocates spend a lot of time on social media groups etc which are basically an echo chamber, you can see they are taken back when people outside that context challenge them for calling caseworkers evil and having no conscience, because they are so used to spouting this nastiness unchallenged.
There is someone on here saying that a child should be having hours of therapies per day outside of school because they can demand it under law -which they can-(because a parent commissioned EP has put this in their report). This attitude is causing a lot of issues in capacity. There is no reason why any but the most complex of children could possibly need hours of therapy outside of school and the LA funding travel time for the therapist etc.I'm not saying they wouldn't benefit from it. But we need to make sure everyone gets the basics before anyone gets the bells and whistles. And there are so many kids stuck in the system not getting the basics.
The problem is that the legislation is written on the assumption that people will just ask for what is needed, not the world on a stick. So you have a handful of entitled people with solicitors etc who are getting the world on a stick because they will throw money at private reports etc which say what they want (and I'm sorry this does happen) and then challenge through tribunal.
And I know you won't care about the lack of funding but the LA have to. They're not being tight. They have a finite level of resource. I understand that as a SEND parent and as a professional.
The main reason behind the EP capability problem is that the two part rule for assessment is ridiculously low and vague... Child may have SEN and may need provision through an EHCP. this could describe just about anyone. So previously LAs would expect a school to follow the graduated approach properly, and try to establish what needs there where and then request assessment in it was needed. Then increasingly huge swathes of decisions where challenged, and fair enough because the two part rule is so low, but that means that many more children went into assessment and into the list for EP advice creating huge backlogs, when it was bloody obvious from the start it would be no to a plan for many of them. This isn't the parents fault they are using their rights. And it's not the LA's fault, they are managing levels of demand over 200% of what it was previously. As a SEND parent I would like to see the two part rule changed for a more robust test because it would free up the system for those who really need it.
Because you then have next group of parents who are trying to navigate a broken system for what they genuinely need. And finally the poor sods I work with who are in care and have never had anyone to fight their corner. Thankfully my role exists.
You are not in your little echo chamber here where people will genuinely consider 32k a year caseworkers to be lawbreakers because they are following policies based on the resources that actually exist.