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

@lavenderlou Too many LAs think a good EOTAS package includes a bit of tuition and maybe a small amount of time at an AP, with maybe some therapies thrown in if they are feeling generous. It isn’t. That would be an incredibly poor package. A good, comprehensive EOTAS package is not the cheap or easy option. LAs do not like comprehensive EOTAS packages because they are very expensive.

Obviously, parents shouldn’t have to if the LA was following the law in the first place.

Breach of statutory timescales is unlawful behaviour. Demand is not a get out of jail card. That is why enforcement action works.

Thankfully no new safety valve agreements can come into place under the new government. Those that are in place need to be ended. But again this is an example of it being a systemic issue. The caseworkers are not entering into safety valve agreements, this is done at government level.

@lavenderlou i should explain further. Many have to appeal because even if the LA agrees to EOTAS/EOTIS (and they often don’t), it is likely B&F will be inadequate. This is incredibly important for EOTAS/EOTIS where the provision making up the package must be detailed, specified and quantified in F.

The original question in this thread has been a bit lost.
It was whether caseworkers are trustworthy people.
The discussion has understandably broadened to look at a range of wider issues in the very broken SEND system. However this is being conflated with individual caseworkers who are not in control of these huge national issues.

I know of a caseworker who took their own life earlier this year. We all know if the headteacher who took hers last year. Please remember that these are people you are talking about.

Omg, EOTAS has been the bane of my life for last few years. Actually got my LA to agree to a comprehensive EOTAS package (pretty much everything I asked for) and then it just kept falling through due to provider issues. Over and over again. I ended up asking to go back to standard tuition, therapies, AP because although still provider problems at least the package doesn't keep imploding.

@SomethingInnocuousForNow sorry you are struggled to find providers. If you did want/need the other provision (and it is still in F), it is the LA’s responsibility to ensure it is provided. I hope you still have things like professional time, equipment/tech, resources/subscriptions/memberships, a budget for things like accessing the community, etc. It is very rare for LAs to agree to comprehensive EOTAS packages these days without an appeal - even if they concede part way through.

Oh for god's sake. What would happen if all the caseworkers left their jobs. That would help the situation?
You don't have access to the people in power who make national policies and set funding. So you are kicking off at the only people you have access to because they are front line, even though thet can't change these big issues.

It's bullying and the fact that you are a SEND parent (as am I) doesn't mean you can mistreat people and still take the high ground.

Yes our LA agreed EOTAS straight away and then issued an EHCP that was completely useless so put in an appeal. I was asking for a modest package, LA wouldn't agree any providers going so far as to refuse a Textiles tutor and asking an equine therapy service if they could teach d Textiles instead. They wasted the whole wait for Tribunal pulling such stunts making no assessments gathering no evidence.
I had independent assessments made.
2 weeks before hearing when somebody, Tribunal head honcho was supposedly dealing with my appeal,must have looked at the evidence and realised they had messed up they asked for an adjournment. I had had enough by then and secured an advocate (Sean Bowers fantastic!) who fought off the adjournment pointing out we had waited 10 months by then and it wasn't our fault LA had sat on the appeal for 9 and a half months.
LA then ended up conceding to a package costing £40k more than the one they had refused and subsequently paid me just over £10k in recompense for making no provision during wait for Tribunal.
They used the wait for Tribunal as a money saving measure not for any other reason. D was 20 by the time of Tribunal they could have funded the modest package until she was 25 now they have funded the extensive package for 2 years for more that that. Of course because LA still haven't discovered a way for her and all the others with EOTAS packages to sit external exams then the packages are running without any end in sight. More money in our LA won't change a thing when such incompetence abounds.

But that goes both ways and statistically it’s blatantly clear that when talking talking about attempts on lives it’s far far more likely to be children and families dealing with SEN and fighting for an education. When you throw ND into the mix the numbers are even more stark. Case workers can walk away from a job they don’t like parents and children can’t walk away from a fight for an education.

It would be nice if schools, county councils and case workers remembered this.

Often families are fighting for other provision too.

you forgot to mention the young people you end their lives due to unmet need.

@hiredandsqueak a clear case of strategic incompetence. One thing LAs are good at.

Exams are another example of this. EOTAS DC can sit exams. The LA just doesn’t want to spend the money.

This is what I mean about bullying.

You have just used the first person to accuse me, personally, of ending young people's lives. I have spent my entire working life choosing to work in roles that actively help young people. My own experience as a SEND parent has been a key motivator to specialise in this. I have not always had the resources to do as much as I would like, either for my own children and those I worked with professionally, but I have always gone above and beyond to do as much as I can with what I have. To the detrimental of my own health and wellbeing at times.

To go from that to being accused of causing people's deaths?

Having had a tough ride in the SEND system does not give you the right to be abusive to others.

I'm sorry you feel that way.
I'm not kicking off nor am I bullying or mistreating people.

I did not bully anyone. I just pointed out that people working in the system aren't the only ones ending their life over it.

I did the same and my post got removed. It's bizarre

If the comments on this thread are anything like what the caseworkers receive in their jobs then I'm surprised that there are any caseworkers left to do the job.

It's a mixture of the situation being chronically underfunded, increase in diagnosis, and also increase in expectations.

Dd2 has a physical disability.
She went through school without an EHCP, never needed one. I know lots of people with the same disability, and the only ones who had extra help in any way had other needs on top of the physical disability.
But in the last couple of years, on the groups I'm on I've noticed an increase in people wanting to apply for an EHCP before the child has started school. They're assuming they need one, and when us who have been through have given advice how to handle (which has worked for us) and normally said that one isn't needed, they still want to go through with the application. I've certainly seen ones that think they should be having a 1-2-1, which really isn't needed.
Tbh it's a stressful and normally fruitless operation for them - but it's still one that takes up caseworker's time.

Right, so a report which is nothing to do with any LA. An external organisation working for the government. But hey, we can't have access to these people so let's kick off at the caseworkers about something else.

"I have lost track of the number of times I’ve been screamed and shouted at."

As a parent of a young person with SEND who has many years experience dealing with the SEND team I have experienced being shouted out by a LA case worker. I have also experienced attempts at deliberate winding up to try to provoke a reaction or to try to deflect from LA law breaking. These appeared to be deliberate tactics designed to intimidate or provoke. It isn't my experience most of the time but it certainly happens.

you forgot to mention the young people you end their lives due to unmet need

This is a reply to me. You literally accused me of killing people. Because I work in a sector you organisational level concerns about.

I did not accuse of of anything. I just pointed out that the system drives young people into suicide. There is something wrong with your reading comprehension 🤷

I have copied your words in bold. Read your own post.