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

They could, but from experience these are often inferior to the LA employed EP ones, which are frequently completed via zoom. And several have had to be repeated by a LA employed one, as the private ones contained very little useful information.

The issue is that demand is massively over supply. Our local borough has more than doubled special school places in past 5 years, but still cannot meet demand. Funding is being diverted from mainstream schools to SEN budgets, but it's a drop in the ocean when a special school place can cost up to 100k, vs a mainstream place costing around 6k. It's called a SEN crisis, but it's actually education crisis, as mainstream schools are struggling to meet needs of all children with reduced funding, all children are loosing out. I have no idea how this will be resolved, huge amounts of increased funding have been directed into SEN but it continues to deteriorate.

It isn’t a case of parents not understanding LAs have a whole caseload. It is a case of that not being relevant to individual cases. Despite what LA’s often think, other DC are not an excuse for breaching the timescales (or any other breach), and parents should not be deterred from enforcing their DC’s rights by professionals saying think of the other children and YP.

If the child is CSA and unable to attend school but the LA has refused to provide alternative provision, has the parent emailed the DCS threatening JR for failure to provide s19 provision? If that hasn’t worked, have they sent a pre-action letter? If they have and that has failed, have they looked to pursue JR proceedings?

Similarly, if the LA is in breach of the EHCP timescales, have they followed the same steps? For a comprehensive EOTAS/EOTIS package they will probably have to appeal once they have the right to appeal, anyway.

Apologies if you already know all this.

I've only recently started supporting them but yes, that is all in hand.

We absolutely do not have case workers contactable by email or phone.

But why should they have to? Why can't LAs just follow the law in the first place!

On the contrary, independent reports are usually much better than those produced by LA EPs. Time and again I've seen LA EP reports where they haven't carried out basic cognitive testing, and in some cases haven't even seen the child. If they are OK in terms of describing the child's difficulties, they are almost invariably really vague when it comes to specifying what the child needs to meet those difficulties, and are full of terminology such as "might benefit from", "regular", "up to", support from "adults" etc.

We don't either I wonder if you are in our LA? We now have only one functioning email for the whole department only that isn't functioning and hasn't for weeks as it is full so obviously doesn't have the capacity to hold the number of emails generated for the whole SEND dept.

@thinkingofausername they shouldn’t have to. However, enforcement is the next best thing when the system is as it is, so knowledge is power.

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.

How much lobbying are you and your employers doing and have they been doing over the last, say, ten years,@CleverButScatty? The reality is that they seem to listen to LAs much more than they do to parents. When we get LAs suggesting there should be no right to appeal against their decisions, you do have to wonder whether they really have any interest in doing their jobs properly.

This isn't standard practice though as you will know. In my LA, nobody is picking up the phone. The case workers mobiles are always turned off, when you leave a voice mail, nobody will call you back and all email contact will be ignored.

The only way to get a response is a formal complaint. The LA will usually uphold the stage 1 complaint and instruct the EHCP team to respond. This will then also be ignored so the complaint moves to stage 2. At this point, you get a response, and months will have passed (and it usually does not mean that the final plan is forthcoming, it's just what is needed to get a simple response to an email). I hear what you are saying but you surely know that the practice is your team is far removed from the reality in most other LAs.

@Agenoria A lot. With both hats on.

Which LA has suggested there should be no right of appeal? Could you link to this?

I suspect not, I suspect it’s more widespread. They don’t want to be contacted by parents.

Re EPs they don’t even take state EP reports if not done by the same council. My DD’s was done by one EP in one state school in the same county but had to be redone by another EP who worked for the same council.😳Both state and both same county. So we had an EP pulled out of retirement doing it over the phone to meet the deadline. It’s madness.

Exactly. If I was a caseworker I would be following whistleblowing policy every time I was forced by the high ups to break law. Or lie. Or any other misdemeanor.

In the hypothetical situation that any of our caseworkers were asked to do this, I am sure they would. As would I in my role.

They are. We know they are. Or if not directly, then they know that the higher ups are. And it needs to be reported. If they are ignoring all the lying and law breaking, then they are complicit.

Who is they? Who are we? You don't speak for me as a SEND parent and you don't describe what I see the the LA I work for.

Describe your own experience by all means but don't try and speak for others.

Seriously, when they are breaking statutory deadlines, don't bother with the complaints system. Move straight to threatening judicial review, it's much more effective much more quickly. sossen.org.uk/whats-judicial-review/

You are incredibly naive and have no understanding of SEN law if you genuinely think LAs are acting legally and truthfully.

For a comprehensive EOTAS/EOTIS package they will probably have to appeal once they have the right to appeal, anyway.

Why would this need to go to appeal? My DC has an EP report recommending majority EOTAS and the LA are trying to fudge the wording of the EOTAS part so they dont have to pay for it. Why do I need to waste my DC's precious time taking it to appeal when it clearly should be written into the EHCP in the first place?

https://www.specialneedsjungle.com/send-is-an-existential-threat-to-las-financial-sustainability-junking-the-send-tribunal-is-part-of-the-answer-claims-new-report/

What is the rate of success of appeals in your local authority? How are you doing with LGSCO complaints?

I can only comment on what I have experienced and seen. As can you.

There are significant delays beyond statutory timescales everywhere, yes this is not remaining compliant with statutory duty. This is not thee same as individuals 'lawbreaking'.
There are not enough special school places and the actual numbers of children with SEND is increasing. An increase in right wing rhetoric over the Tories time in power has emboldened those with ableist attitudes to be less accommodating of children with SEND in mainstream schools. This has caused a perfect storm and is causing the demand/capacity issues hence the breaches in compliance with timescales. Getting angry with individuals who are attempting to work within this is what is naiive.

Suggesting that there is some underhand practice that needs whistleblowing rather than system overhauls to address to current issues is simplistic, naiive and to be honest a bit click-baity.

The breaches in timescales are because of demand exceeding capacity not 'evil, law breaking caseworkers'.

@CleverButScatty, I assume your employers are not subject to a safety valve agreement. But have you seen what they entail, and what LAS in SVAs are doing to comply with them? If you don't believe that requires caseworkers to break the law regularly you are, with the greatest respect, being very naive.