Are SEN case workers to be trusted?

[Ricecakesaremyjam]

Are local authority SEN case workers to be trusted? Do they work to serve the child, or on behalf of the school who aren’t delivering EHCP interventions?
Can anyone advise?! Thanks x

Oh yes, LAs don’t bother with small time solicitors - they put barristers up against me when I fought them. Not that it did them much good because they lost.

So they can’t be all that cash starved can they?!

Parents should pursue enforcement action rather than a complaint. The timescales of a complaint mean it isn’t a suitable remedy because it takes too long. As I said, it is amazing what enforcement action can do. Other DC also waiting is irrelevant to individual cases. Parents shouldn’t be put off enforcing their DC’s rights just because they have been fed the line ‘think of the other DC waiting’. It doesn’t always result in DC jumping the LA EP’s queue - sometimes it means the LA finds an independent EP to assess. There is nothing limiting LAs to EPs who normally work within the region.

The problem is though some of them are literally shocking, there’s one near us who recommends full time 1:1 support for every. single. kid. I’ve never seen a report from him that doesn’t say full time 1:1 and often it just doesn’t match his assessment at all, there’s no evidence that that’s what the child needs.

To be honest though, the main reason we turned down private EP reports was because they were crap. They didn’t include proper outcomes and provision or just listed endless chat GPT stuff. I worked for an LA that had really quite specific EP reports though so we definitely didn’t turn down for that reason, normally the opposite.

If they can find an independent EP to assess, with a space, should they not see the child waiting the longest?

Theres no area in the UK with EPs sitting around doing nothing. Sometimes they use virtual ones now but that’s got its own limitations.

Yes, I do understand the risk of suicide having worked for many years in SEND, but there is not enough money in the system. People are also dying of late-diagnosed cancers and denied cancer treatments due to NHS cuts.

@AliceinSlumberland I didn’t say anyone was sitting around doing nothing. What I actually said is money talks (because it does) and it is amazing what LAs can arrange when faced with enforcement action (because it is).

Individual parents should not be put off enforcing their child’s rights because of other DC. Other DC are not their concern. Lack of resources or funding is not their problem. Instead those other parents should also be supported to advocate for their DC and enforce their child’s rights.

My experience is the opposite. In my experience, it’s rare EPs recommend full time 1:1. In all of the cases that I’ve seen.

How can you say ‘private EP reports are crap’

That’s like saying that all cars are crap. You go by recommendations, experience and kudos.

There is no incentive for independent EPs to write whatever the parents want if they want to be taken seriously.

So if every parent on that EP waiting list issues enforcement action, what do you expect the LA to do? Offer increasingly high pay to private EPs? I think at this point you’d probably have to go to £2k+ per case. If as an EP, I can make £2k a case, I’d drop down my capacity because I don’t need to work as much, so then you’re back to square one. That’s if the LA isn’t bankrupt by that point because you’re talking £3mil to clear one LAs EP waiting list.

To clarify, I’m absolutely not defending the LAs. I literally left my post because it made me feel sick and there was a complete lack of any action to do anything about it. However, I wish that more focus was put onto actually starting to resolve this EP problem because it’s not going anywhere and there needs to be a better solution than just pay them more. Because the other problem is, why would any EPs then work for the LA if you can get £££ per case privately? Work 2 days a week privately for a full time wage at the LA? So then the waiting list just gets longer the problem gets worse.

For what it’s worth, case worker wise, I met some great ones and some shocking ones. It’s a mixed bag but god I wouldn’t want to do that job, it’s no wonder turnover is so high.

I believe the government is making plans to limit the right to SEND tribunal because LAs lose at tribunals, rather than putting extra funding into SEND.

I don’t think there’s any point in complaining about SENCOs or case officers. We all went into the job with a passion for supporting children with SEND and every complaint leaves us a bit more disheartened.

That’s why there is a high churn rate of SENCOs. It’s why so many SEN case officers are off sick with stress. Trying their best in a broken system and being constantly complained about. Burning out. Leaving with our qualifications and experience because we have gone above and beyond, yet it’s never enough.

My local authority commissioned a private EP to do my DD's assessment, presumably as an attempt to clear the backlog. She wrote a very thorough report with lots of specific recommendations so doubtless the LA won't want to use her again! They have now issued the draft EHCP, omitting the specifications that would cost them money. We had a meeting with the caseworker to ask for these things to be included. She said she had put them in but then didn't send me a copy of the amended draft, I had to request it. When I did, I saw that she had only vaguely amended the report, and had still omitted the specific detail. This is the sort of reason why people don't trust caseworkers.

Now we are in a position where we will probably have to go to tribunal, which we will win as the case law is clear, but my DD is of an age where waiting for the tribunal will probably affect her chances of getting any GCSEs.

Our caseworker is nice and has been polite and friendly. I don't doubt she went into the job with good intentions but I know the pressure from higher up will be to avoid spending money at all costs. I work in education myself and considered a move to SEND work in the past but I couldn't do it because I know I would be pushed at every turn to try to avoid giving the provisions that children need.

what do you expect the LA to do?

Whatever they need to do to fulfil their legal obligations. It isn’t the concern of individual parents.

I wouldn’t do it either. I saw some SEN case workers who had left teaching to do the job and they looked absolutely miserable all the time.

Sorry, some are crap I should have said. Some really are because people are desperate so they know they can get away with writing the bare minimum and still get hired because there’s no one else.

Some private EP reports are amazing. When I used to do EHC panel, I was made up to see some private names, I’d like ‘thank god one less for our waiting list’.

Im private now so I can’t think they’re all crap 😂 sorry I did word that wrong so my apologies. Some of them I just feel awful that someone’s paid for it to be honest.

I’ve seen some crap ones and some amazing ones. The same with dyslexia assessments.

Totally agree, but because there’s such a shortage the crap ones can still get plenty of work.

That’s exactly what happens - there is pressure from higher up to deny provision.

If the government limits the ability to appeal to SENDIST, it won’t solve the issue. It will just move it. At the moment, JR isn’t an option for the vast majority of cases (a very small minority of cases it sometimes can be an option) where the parent can appeal because appealing to SENDIST is a suitable alternative remedy. If you remove that remedy, more will be able to consider JR because there won't be an alternative remedy.

This.

Lack of money isn't an excuse for breaking the law.

I expect lots of EPs leave because they are fed up of the LA pressuring them to write watered down recommendations. We've heard on this thread about how they are told to use words like "might benefit from". EPs who've come into my schoolnhave said the LA won't let then recommend 1:1 support for kids with very high needs who clearly need it. Maybe let them get on with their jobs without so much interference and they might not leave.

I do wonder though what would happen if they didn't toe the line? Could they be sacked? Even if that were legal, surely the shortage of EPs would mean they didn't want to lose the ones they have.

What an utterly ignorant and ridiculous thing to say. I’ve worked in education all my life and latterly became a case worker. I work my arse off for my families but am hamstrung by a system that’s failing at every level. It doesn’t make me, as an individual, evil. The system is fucked and the them vs us attitude means good case officers don’t survive long.

They could certainly be managed out and replaced with more compliant EPs.

@thinkingofausername it is just like when LAs use a lack of resources, staffing &/or funding as an excuse for breach of section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014, isn’t it? Time and again LAs are shown their duty is absolute and non-delegable even if they claim a lack of resources, staffing or funding. Yet LAs continue to use it as an excuse.

I’m sure some do, my LA let me write whatever I wanted so that’s not why people have left, or why I left, but I know some LAs do that and I wouldn’t be able to go along with that so I’m sure some do leave as a result.

No I don’t think they’d be sacked, I think it’s probably quite hard to sack an EP. I’m not really sure what would happen as I’ve not been in that circumstance to be honest.

They could be managed out but I’d be amazed if they’d be able to replace them, it’s literally impossible to recruit LA EPs at the minute.