Complaint to the Secretary of State for Education

[NameChangeMoaningMyrtle]

Has any one complained to the Secretary of State for Education under Section 497 of the Education Act 1996 about their LA acting unlawfully?

Any care to share their experiences of doing this?

I think the idea that we can somehow make them 'civil' to us is such a joke. They treat you like crap whether you stand up to them or not.

IE - I couldn't agree more! I was very nervous about whether to complain or not because I thought they'd be vengeful if I did. But the lies they've told me in their 2nd and 3rd stage responses are staggering. From their responses, I know that I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't.

Maria - I have never met a police force who were en masse as unethical as my LA!

IE
Don't think I've met a criminal as unethical as mine, and I've spent ms of my life in very dodgy areas.

It's staggering how unethical they are from the very bottom to the very top. All toe the official party line.

Wouldn't it be fantastic if someone senior from a LA finally said enough was enough and whistle-blowed on their authority's SEN provision/polices.

Some hope

I didn't know it at the time, but at the height of my battle with my LA their Head of SENs appeared before a Parliamentary Committee arguing against the system of Statements of SENs

What is wrong with these people?

No whistleblowers, no guilt for what they do.... Because they truly believe they are doing the right thing in protecting budgets against pushy middle class families.

That is how they sell it to themselves and the DfE seems to regurgitate this on their behalf.

Poor LAs with their multi-million pound budgets, SEN teams, inclusion teams, EWO teams, lawyers, access to barristers, access to the LGO and DfE for advice, ability to set the terms of block contracts and influence NHS professionals and schools ......

Any against this, a family, already looking after a disabled child as well as working and looking after other family members struggles to find THOUSANDS to instruct lawyers and experts to PROVE what is bleeding obvious anyway.

Yeah, it's an unfair fight alright and I know who has got the massive arse and no legs.....

ditto. We are two weeks from our Tribunal hearing and the cunting LA is not budging. We considered bringing a case of educational negligence but it is damn hard to prove with young children as you have to demonstrate impact, so I am going to be the biggest pain in their corrupt arses through their complaints system, media and politicians. Stand tall everyone, even if you just make them sweat a little bit, it will be worth it.

Thanks Arthur and drowning. It does help to know that people are urging me on to do this. I've been in exactly the same state you're now in - I've done the crying and raging against the system and my LA and then onto fighting them face to face in Tribunal.

Now time to kick butt and wipe the smug look off their faces. Doubt if I'll get far with the LGO but I know that the LA have definitely been sweating over the last few weeks.

Arthur - you know that sometimes talking about something really does help. You don't need to go into detail.

Arthur my strength comes from years of raging against the failure of a corrupt system and seeing the impact that this has had on my entire family.

If my LA had apologised to me or had treated me with even the tiniest bit of kindness and compassion, I would have walked away. But they've treated this entire process in my DS case with cruelty and vindictiveness. And then compound it with their out-and-out lies in their recent letters written in response to my complaints.

To mis-quote my (grownup) DD1's favourite childhood film, I'm right they're wrong. And it's this that keeps me going!

So what if they are Arthur?

They can't hurt you.

People who are quiet and submissive (for whatever reason) are much easier to bully than those refuse to remain silent.

Knowledge is power. Once you are sure of your facts (e.g. by checking things with other people on here) then you become less easy to push around and mislead.

My concern is always that we always end up as a load of isolated individuals taking multiple complaints against crap LAs.

So each crap LA brushes us away with contempt as the 'difficult parent' or the 'parent who demanded too much' etc etc while pointing out how happy everyone else is.

Meanwhile, all involved profit out of the system - lawyers, therapists, educational psychologists all taking their cut whatever side they are on, no matter how much they care or don't care.

The wheels go round and round and every says 'it's awful' or the 'system isn't fit for purpose' but on the wheels go, crushing individual complaints and objections, failing children multiple times in multiple ways.

United we stand - divided we fall.

And we all just keep falling. All the time.

Very true IE
Arthur - don't let them scare you. What will they gain from watching you? Haven't they got better things to do?
I have been threatened after making a couple of totally legitimate complaints. I am not to make any comments on websites,social networks or use pseudonyms that can be traced back to me. If I do they will take action against me for slander/vexatiousness/maliciousness etc.

IE - I totally understand your sentiment and I know that you and your DC have taken a severe kicking from the system. But sometimes even if individuals can still keep chipping away at this rotten-to-the-core system, we might one day get there.

If I stop just one family having to go through what I went through with my LA, then this is worth it.

But, I totally appreciate that I am complaining from a position of strength - I did get the provision my DS so desperately needs, and (for the moment) it is the right provision.

So in the meantime, I will just keep chip-chipping away

rottencarrots - that is shocking and terrible. Bully-boy tactics at their very best!

Nothing will change until we have totally independant assessment of SNs. Nothing will change while the LA has legal responsibility for identifying, assessing and supporting SNs i.e. while the LA is judge, jury and executioner.

Which is why I never campaign for anything because nothing can be done while this grotesque monopoly remains in place.

Depressingly, I have a friend whose father has dementia and is being assessed for social care - by the LA. My friend is experiencing the same issues with the LA trying to minimise support and duck its responsibilities for social care in the same way as we experience in the SEN field.

Very depressing.

Got a new motto

I can no longer accept what I cannot change

so I'm going to change what I cannot accept

Yes why should we suck any of this up? Watch our kids go off the rails then get the blame for letting them fail? I for one will not tolerate it.

I will say what I please on any public forum. It is all provable fact. How is that slander? A holes

do you think there is a timelimit to the time you can lodge a complaint. we were treated dreadfully during our period pre tribunal with LA employees falsifying reports etc. I was all set to complain then we won and I decided I was tired and didn't - now nearly 8 months on its starting to niggle at me that I didn't complain. in a few days time I will come face to face with the woman who made my life hell for a year at my other sons annual review. that review should be fun as im going to challenge the whole of his statement! plus I may also be heading for statementing for my daughter so from a period of quiet I am slowly awakening again. think I needed time out from the fighting but now im starting to have regrets that I haven't seen it all through to the very end. I had other battles ie DLA which is now all resolved so I have the time on my hands to do it but is 8 months passed now simply too late?

Our LA time limit is up to 1 year after any incident/event occurred and I think that's standard. If you look on your LA website it should be shown there.

From my experience it's a slow process with them doing anything they can to delay matters. I do think that the people that act in this manner should be held to account as they just carry on doing it to others. It's not an easy fight and the LA end up making you public enemy number 1 for daring to complain.

Don't be put off though. I did have a LA manager say to me, when I mentioned a certain issue, 'why would you want to put yourself through months of stress trying to sort that out?' despite (or because of) the fact that they were fully aware of the underhand tricks that had gone on . They even put in writing that something had not taken place because it would have been unlawful then refused to respond further when I showed them the evidence that it had in fact taken place. I do think they rely on you being so worn out by everything else that you don't bother complaining about their behaviour .

Good luck.