Sept 17, 2024, Derby Telegraph: Delays helping children with special educational needs in Derby 'unacceptable'
Derby City Council is only processing one in four education, health and care plans (EHC Plans) within the 20-week deadline
Central England
Delays to provide support plans for Derby children with special educational needs have been “unacceptable” for years, with only one in four complete on time, the council says. A new Derby City Council report says the authority has a “poor” track record in processing education, health and care plans for children with special educational needs.
These are legally binding agreements between the council, family and school detailing how a child will be supported with their additional needs. The new report says: “For the last two years the delay for the completion of plans has been unacceptable.”
It shares that just 25 per cent of EHC Plans are completed within the 20-week deadline and that only 51 per cent of annual reviews are completed within the last 12 months. Part of what has contributed to these missed deadlines is the delay for neurodiversity assessments where there is currently a 67-week wait (15 months) and delays for speech and language therapist assessments where there is a current 34-week wait (nearly eight months).
Alongside this is a “significant” increase in demand, with 775 new EHC Plan requests in 2023 compared to 531 in 2021. The report says the council aims to complete 65 per cent of EHC Plans within 20 weeks by 2025, with 100 per cent achieved in the future through the use of AI (artificial intelligence).
It says that “often it appears that we are doing to parents rather than with them” with complaints from families over choices the council has made for their children. The council outlines that it has 3,431 EHC Plans on its books as of July, with 72 per cent being boys, just over 70 per cent being white children and the highest number of referrals relating to four-year-olds (120 in 2023), and the wards with the most EHC Plans are Sinfin, Osmaston and Normanton (over 300).
Of those with EHCPs, 22.3 per cent are on the autistic spectrum, 20.5 per cent have social, emotional and mental health requirements and 20 per cent have speech and language needs. The report says 5.2 per cent of children in Derby have an EHC Plan, compared to 4.7 per cent nationally.
Sharon Buckby, the council’s director of learning, inclusion and skills writes:“When undertaking deep dives in referral requests in Derby city, slower child development in speech, language and communication, emotional regulation and transactional skills, alongside non-SEN issues such as English as an additional language, deprivation, trauma and attachment feature significantly; but also highly anxious children and young people with families not having confidence that their child’ s needs can be met in their current school.
“Although all schools have had training in trauma and attachment, the pressure in the numbers displaying these needs mean that schools feel they do not have the resources to secure services to meet the needs. Additionally, it has become apparent that in some schools the level of demand has been due to increasing pressures on schools brought about by an increased use of agency staff.”
Ms Buckby writes that “the issue of confidence and trust in the local offer by parents has underpinned the majority of complaints and tribunals that come through to the local authority”. This has seen parents prefer an independent school placement that is not supported by the city council, the authority says.
The council says this brings cost issues, with the average current independent special school place near Derby costing £60,000 [$80,000] a year, compared to a specialist place in a local school costing £15,000 [$20,000]-£30,000 [$40,000]. It says that for the 219 Derby children attending independent special schools costs a total of £14.5 million [$19.3M] per year, with costs set to be “inflated” by 10 per cent this year, the council claims.
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