Teachers say changes made after Suffolk SEND provision review have supported their work with children

Teachers have explained how the changes made after a review into special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision in Suffolk have supported their work with children.

All suggestions from the 2021 Lincolnshire Review into SEND services are set to have been actioned by the end of the year, and teachers speaking to a county council scrutiny committee today detailed how these have enabled them to give greater support to children.

Of the 32 activities suggested by the Lincolnshire Review, 22 have been actioned and 10 are expected to have been started by the end of this month.

The work completed includes recruitment of around 20 full-time employees in family services and interviewing for further roles; the creation of an advice line for SEND coordinators in schools and the development of a new system to ensure annual reviews for children with education health and care plans (EHCPs) are tracked.

An EHCP is a legally binding document outlining the needs a young person has and the provision they must be provided with to meet these needs.

Annual reviews also come up in the areas to be actioned; many are not being completed in the timeframe expected by national government and families, and the review explains the council is working to recruit additional staff.

Sam Porter, assistant head teacher and SEND co-ordinator (SENCO) at Whitehouse Primary School in Ipswich, told the committee: “I had experienced frustrations in my work as a SENCO before the Lincolnshire Review.

“There had been other reviews before it, so I wondered what would be different this time to effect long-term change.

“One of the key differences I noticed is a sense of strategic leadership. The focus is on moving forward together for the benefit of the children and young people we teach.

“The information sharing from the local authority regarding children with SEND has vastly improved over the last year.

“SENCOS can now access plenty of information and support and I now know where to seek advice.

“I have welcomed the recruitment of more family services coordinators and have noticed a significant improvement in communication and response times to annual reviews, especially since September.”

Alison Weir, headteacher at Howard Community Academy in Bury St Edmunds, said: “My school works in an area of high deprivation and poverty.

“It had significant turbulence in leadership between 2017 and when I became head in 2020. We’d had high staff turnover and low morale.

“Early identification of SEND needs was a casualty of all of that. We had children with high levels of need and a high exclusion rate.

“The council-run whole school inclusion team came to work with us. They helped us to identify what we needed to do and to develop strategies, and provided trauma-informed training.

“All of this helped staff to feel more confident and understand how children’s behaviour is a tool for communication. Although we still have high-level behaviours, our staff are in a much stronger position to manage that more effectively.”

The whole school inclusion team works with schools across the county to guide them in promoting inclusion, and supporting children with SEND and other needs.

However, councillors on the scrutiny committee picked up on the fact that complaints by families of children with SEND were continuing at a relatively high rate – with 225 received so far in 2022 and 186 in total in 2021.

In 2022, 32 complaints were sent to the local government and social care ombudsman (LGSCO) and the ombudsman upheld 26. Due to the delay between a case being sent to the LGSCO and a decision, some of those upheld may have been received in 2021.

Cllr Joanna Spicer said: “I do think committee members should be worrying about the relatively high numbers of complaints. What is concerning to me is the amount that find their way to the LGSCO.”

Cllr Rachel Hood, cabinet member for education, SEND and skills, said: “There is a huge effort by officers to say to themselves: ‘What is this about and how can we resolve it?’”

The recommendations by the committee included a request that Cllr Hood continues to develop mechanisms for resolving complaints.

The committee also mentioned that the council’s children’s services is due for an OFSTED inspection, which they anticipate will be early next year.