Suffolk County Council apologises to SEND families as it addresses points made in Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman letter
Families and children who have been ‘failed’ by Suffolk County Council have been given an apology by the authority, in the wake of its SEN (special educational needs) service being flagged up by the ombudsman.
The county council (SCC) said it accepted the number of complaints within its education and children’s service was ‘too high’ and it is continuing to work to make improvements to the whole SEND (special educational needs and/or disabilities) system.
SCC was addressing points made in the annual review letter that was issued to it last month by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO), which investigates complaints against councils.
Complaints statistics, obtained by the Campaign for Change (Suffolk SEND) group, recently revealed Suffolk to be the worst county per pupil capita for upheld education complaints to the ombudsman, with the vast majority related to SEN provision.
The annual review letter, for the year ending March 31, 2023, said during the year the LGSCO had received a high volume of complaints about the council’s SEN service and issued two public reports highlighting its findings of fault in this area.
The first related to the council’s failure to secure provision set out in a child’s Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP) and the second related to the council’s failure to provide appropriate alternative education while a child was absent from school for six months.
In the letter, Paul Najsarek, interim Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, said: “I am pleased to note we recorded our satisfaction with your council’s compliance in most of the cases where we made a recommendation to remedy a complaint.
“However, I am very concerned to note there were two cases where our recommendations were not complied with. Both of these cases related to complaints about your SEN service and in both instances we had to open new investigations to consider the council’s non-compliance and to recommend further payments to remedy the ongoing injustice caused.
“Failing to comply with our recommendations reflects extremely poorly on the council and undermines residents’ confidence that it is genuinely willing and committed to putting matters right when it has been at fault.”
Mr Najsarek also said he was ‘disappointed’ to note that over a third of the council’s responses to the LGSCO office were late this year.
“Such delays add to the injustice already suffered by complainants and I am concerned our enquiries are not being afforded the priority they require,” he said. “Given the ongoing issues I have outlined, I would welcome an opportunity to meet to discuss the concerns and to consider any support my office can offer to help improve the situation.”
A spokesperson for Suffolk County Council said: “We welcome the ombudsman's Annual Review letter. Each year, this helps us focus our improvement efforts and plays a large part in the continuous learning of the organisation.
“We accept that the number of complaints within our education and children's services is too high, and we apologise to families and children where we have not been able to provide a better service.
“Some ombudsman complaints relate to older cases when our improvement plans would not have had the time to make an impact. This is especially true of our widespread reform of special education needs and disabilities.
“We continue to work with schools and health partners to make improvements to the whole SEND system so more families, children, and young people receive a positive experience, including increasing our specialist provision.
“We value and act on the feedback the ombudsman gives us and continue to work closely with them to ensure the services we deliver to Suffolk people are of the highest quality.”
Suffolk parent Steven Wright, who is part of Campaign for Change (Suffolk SEND), said: “The apologies are meaningless. Until we see evidence of improvements to outcomes it’s just empty words.”
He added: “If the council could come up with some evidence of improvements the families would be delighted.”
He was keen to highlight that ‘it’s not that these children are not getting a service which is not good enough’, they were not getting a service which meets the legal minimum, adding families and youngsters had been ‘failed’.
“I just think the council are in bunker mode. They are waiting for Ofsted to come,” said Mr Wright, who is based in East Bergholt, south-west of Ipswich.
The county council says it is undergoing widescale reform of SEND services, with 32 activities suggested by the Lincolnshire Review having all been completed.
Mr Wright stressed the problems had been going back many years, referring to the Suffolk SEND inspection in 2016 that found ‘significant weaknesses’ in the local area’s practice, and in 2019 inspectors felt local area leaders had not made sufficient progress to improve the serious weaknesses.
