Suffolk parent who just won £4,000 compensation highlights upheld complaints against Suffolk County Council over special educational needs (SEN) provision

Suffolk is the worst in the country per pupil capita for upheld education complaints to the ombudsman, according to data, with the vast majority related to special educational needs (SEN) provision.

Campaigner Steven Wright, based in East Bergholt, south-west of Ipswich, compiled the figures following a Freedom of Information request to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO), which investigates complaints against councils.

However, Suffolk County Council (SCC) says many of the complaints behind the figures are actually historic and predate the independent Lincolnshire Review of SEND (special educational needs and/or disabilities) services in the county and significant programme of reform that followed.

Mr Wright, 54, discovered that 38 education complaints against SCC were upheld by the LGSCO after being investigated, for the year from April 1, 2022, to March 31, 2023.

This puts it behind only Surrey, which had 42 upheld complaints, but this county has a higher pupil headcount making Suffolk the worst per 100,000 pupils.

Many of the upheld complaints for Suffolk are around a failure to make provision as laid out in children’s Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), which are legal documents specifying the SEND support they must receive.

Delays in issuing EHCPs was also a common theme, an issue highlighted recently by Bury St Edmunds parent Deborah.

SCC says it is undergoing widescale reform of SEND services, and has recently brought in an independent special advisor to support this work.

The damning Lincolnshire Review, published in September 2021, laid out the failings in SEND services in the county, with 32 activities suggested, which the council says have all been completed.

When asked whether parents were noticing improvements, Mr Wright, who is part of the Campaign for Change (Suffolk SEND) group, said: “The answer is no we are not. We listen to the stories [of parents], but the stories are just as bad as they ever were.”

While he said he was sure a lot of work was being done, he added ‘it just doesn’t seem to be translating into improvements’.

He said: “Children have a basic human right to education. It’s a worldwide human right and they are basically being denied it.”

Originally from Ipswich, Mr Wright, who works in IT, said after moving back to Suffolk in 2017 it was like ‘falling off a cliff’ in terms of SEND educational provision.

He said his 15-year-old son had had ‘almost no’ secondary education, adding in the past five/six years they had gone through 12 EHCP appeals regarding both of his children.

Mr Wright, who has made several complaints to SCC and the ombudsman in the past, has just been awarded about £4,000 after the ombudsman investigated his complaint that the local authority failed to provide his son’s educational provision as set out in his EHCP, and about how it handled his complaints.

The ombudsman’s final decision was that there was ‘fault which caused an injustice’, with the pay award issued for: the loss of educational provision; the loss of therapy support; to acknowledge ‘the distress’ Mr Wright and his son experienced as a result of the uncertainty the council’s faults caused them; and for the ‘time and trouble’ Mr Wright had to get the council to respond to and address his concerns.

In the ombudsman’s report, dated April 28 this year, it said: “We have identified recurrent fault by this council in a number of previous decisions over the last 18 months about arranging educational provision in EHCPs, arranging alternative provision, and its complaints handling.”

Through analysing records of upheld complaints over the 2022-23 financial year, Mr Wright found compensation totalled £78,130.

Only four Suffolk education complaints investigated by the LGSCO for that year were not upheld.

Of his work to highlight the council’s failings over SEN provision, Mr Wright, who offers support to other families, said: “We are just trying to hold them to account.”

While the Lincolnshire Review took place in 2021, Mr Wright said the problems dated back many, many years.

“Here we are in 2023 and we still cannot see them [improvements] and us families are tearing our hair out saying ‘it’s just not happening’.”

A spokesperson for SCC said they expect the number of complaints to fall this year due to the reforms being made.

They said: “We are focused on improving, especially the everyday experiences of our children and young people and their families.

“We take all complaints seriously and respond to all recommendations from the LGSCO. SEND improvement and reform is a priority for Suffolk County Council.”

A recent SCC SEND briefing said key areas of progress included an improvement in the staff recruitment gap and three new decision making panels so decisions are made more quickly, transparently and with partners.