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

I am deeply worried about quality.

My DD’s is continuously assigned new CWs with no warning. One year we were emailing re her review to somebody no longer her CW even though she was listed as her CW on the computer system. Her new one actually lived and worked the other of the country and was just contracted out. She didn’t even know the schools we were discussing.

This year the new her new CS is somebody we actually know and somebody we had started the complaints procedure about after several professionals raised concerns. She was safeguarding lead at my DD’s old college in a non teaching role with zero SEND experience and a dreadful attitude to SEND and ND. The college’s SEND department was woeful and on the county independent EHCP support schools of concern list. They just get rid of students to help result figures and refuse EHCPs whilst offering little SEND support.She worked hard to get students off rolled, was vile and mocking in meetings and hugely inappropriate in a bullying way in and out of meetings. One professional we dealt with said they’d never come across a member of school staff wanting so much personal information they weren’t entitled to. All were aghast as to how ableist and awful she was in meetings.

Fast forward to now- she’s listed on linked in as a “ data specialist” and is clearly being given EHCP case handling work. 🤔 This raises huge questions re quality for me as in so many ways. I raised my concerns whilst requesting a new case handler which we got. I have asked how we register concerns re quality as regards case handlers 3 times and they consistently avoid answering my question.

This.

They don't! and as there is no accountability, they get away with ruining lives! Why do you think last year 1.3% of tribunals were won by LAs?

Our LA is shocking recent Ofsted inspection was shameful. Local MP discovered they were sitting on £11m ringfenced SEND funding Matt Keer later discovered they were sitting on £28m ringfenced SEND funding and had been since 2019.
I do various FOI recent one showed they paid out more than half a million in recompense for their failings in 6 months, the previous 6 months it was almost £400k, they spent thousands using barristers against unrepresented families and their win rate is less than 1% even worse than national average.
Prior to Ofsted they employed 3 consultants in the SEND dept on £150k plus salaries. They renewed the contracts after they had supposedly met the service level agreements which included being Ofsted ready.They were the sacrificial lambs.
It seems there is money but they don't seem to want to spend it actually supporting children.
Since the inspection they are crowing over plans to spend £3 million on extra SEN places that would be the plans that Ofsted in the inspection said were ill thought out and unlikely to improve matters.
Extra funding wouldn't improve our SEND dept it needs a change of ethos and an overhaul of senior management and competency standards for the admin.

I have 3 dc with Ehcplans.

Oldest is 20 and he was Statemented at 4. So been in the 'system' 17 years.

I have never met a caseworker who worked in any of my dc interests.

I have been misinformed and lied to on multiple occasions.

I have made about 15 formal complaints over the years and been to tribunal (I won).

Just on the EP note - there’s a huge shortage, not just of LA EPs but EPs in general (private and locum). And the govt aren’t supporting the training of new EPs very well - to the extent that one major EP training course has had to close down. It won’t be the last.

No because they work for the LA and the LAs priority is money. Always be polite but wary of anything they say.

"But surely they still have to comply with the law?"

LAs don't which is why parents are forced into not only Tribunals but also Judicial Reviews. And they still lie at those if they think they will get away with it.

'other DC aren't their concern'. This is what people are struggling to understand, for a parent other children aren't their concern, for the LA professionals all children are their concern, not just those with (understandably) vocal parents.

Nobody is screaming or shouting at anybody in our LA as there have been no phone lines in or out of the SEND dept since covid or the SEND transport dept either. Funnily enough every other dept managed to keep phonelines open throughout and operate as normal now.
Likewise they removed all named contacts and imposed generic emails dependent on area, they have now removed all those and there is just one working email for the whole dept which hasn't accepted emails for weeks as it is full. The complaints dept is no longer working either but I suppose 700 formal complaints in six months is some workload when other departments average 10 a year.
I'm long in the tooth been unfortunate enough to be dealing with the SEND dept for 28 years so know my way around but my heart breaks for some of the parents on the local support boards who don't have a clue as to how badly they are being treated or how to alter it. SENDIASS here only support parents with their own disabilities and Ofsted themselves said they didn't meet minimum standards so God knows what sort of support they are offering.

Exactly, you have to self fund to master's level and then there are not very many funded places (I think something like 60 per year for the whole of the north west) and the funding is about 15k.
Bearing in mind you have probably been a top of the pay scale teacher to go into it that's a hell of a drop.

I would have loved to go down the EP route when I left teaching but could not have afforded it.

The EP shortage is by far the biggest cause of delays in the 20 week process. I know from talking to out caseworkers that they have a higher list of cases where they are over that timescale and can't progress then because they are waiting on EP advice.

If people would use half the vitriol they are directing at individuals doing their jobs and use it to lobby government about policy directly, this would be more useful.

If that comment was intended as anything other than blatant hate speech, it completely missed the mark.

You are accusing a stranger on the internet whom you have never met or had any dealings with of a range of specific actions.

I am sorry you have had an awful time, and I am not saying that you have not experienced these things (you are a stranger on the internet, I wouldn't know).

But can you see how irrational it is to accuse a stranger of specific actions just because of the job they do?

How are you being screamed and shouted at? Case handlers are impossible to contact by email let alone phone. Emails are ignored. We aren’t given a phone number( ours doesn’t even work for or live in the same county) and the only time I ever spoke to a case handler was when the latest in a string of case handlers contracted suddenly rang me from where she lived the other end of the country to meet a deadline of getting my DD’s EHCP done by wanting to pull the whole thing together in an hour. There was next to no time to draw breath let alone scream or shout. Never heard from her again.

Yes the Quality, Efficiency and Compliance manager for SEND lives 300 miles away from here. She doesn't respond to parents' emails either despite the exorbitant salary.

I am concerned the deadlines are causing quality issues. We had an EP pulled out of retirement to do my DD’s and a case handler contracted the other side of the country. Both commented frequently on the urgency. Having heard nothing for months I had next to no time to ask questions or think when suddenly it was all systems go. Nobody replied to emails I had needing advice to prepare. it was incredibly rushed. Also it now seems they are contracting “ data specialists” with next to no SEND expertise to just whip up documents that the entire education of vulnerable children rely on. I am concerned re the stance of such data specialists too if this is widespread.

You are claiming that the poster is doing a good job, sticking to time lines and the law even though you don't know them. Who is being irrational?

Where did I say that? You are making things up here.

I asked the poster a question given she appears to be an EHCP case worker. Not sure why you are so wound up by it. Just ignore it if you have nothing useful to say.

Can I just ask how you have experience with the system? Do you have a failed child or do you work for the LA?

I have three children with SEND and EHCPs. One spent the best part of a year on a reduced timetable and then not in school at all. We had a delayed EHCP due to EP waits and his year 7 place was sorted on 31 aug of year 6. I had to change jobs and it impacted us all enormously.

I also work for an LA in a role that supports SEND learners who are looked after (in care). I work very closely with the SEND team and was previously a special school teacher and SENCO.

I know, having seen this from both sides, that there are huge failings in the SEND system, but these are systemic issues not failings of individual people.

In our school age team our case workers have caseloads of 300+ learners. When someone leaves we can't recruit for love nor money (would you do that job for 32k after reading this thread?)

They are hugely behind and all working for more hours than they are paid for to get and keep on top of things. I have documents arriving in my inbox from them on weekends, late at night etc. they can't keep on top of the demand but that isn't because of laziness or failings.

I saw a presentation across the whole directorate looking at demand, and the demands on caseworkers is 238% of what it was pre pandemic. Nobody can sustain that and there is no more money for extra staff.

Is this enough or would you like my CV?