(UK) More parents appealing SPED decisions; half have kids with autism

Dec 14 2018, tes: Surge in parents appealing over special needs provision https://www.tes.com/news/surge-parents-appealing-over-special-needs-provision There has been a surge in the number of special education needs tribunal appeals against local council decisions, with parents winning the majority of cases. New figures show that 5,679 appeals were made in the 2017-18 academic year, up 20 per cent on the year before. Almost half of these, 2,458, related to pupils with autism. … The Special Educational Needs & Disability First-Tier Tribunal hears cases where parents or carers have appealed against a local authority decision about their child’s education. Going to tribunal 'cheaper for councils' Parent Matt Keer said one of the main reasons for the increase in cases is the “poor quality conversion of statements of special educational needs". In a new blogpost, on the Special Needs Jungle site he wrote: “Local authorities were supposed to convert all remaining statements over to the new system [of education, health and care plans (EHCPs)] by April 2018 – but by late last year, local authorities still had a big backlog of statements to convert and tens of thousands of statement conversions were hurried through in the 2017-18 period. … “Yes, local authorities are desperately short of SEND funding. But when it comes to tribunal defence, money is always, always available.” Earlier this year, MPs were told that councils were “stringing out” decisions about care plans for children with SEND to save money. The Commons Education Select Committee was told in a hearing in October about one child who had started self-harming because of delays in receiving support. Labour MP Thelma Walker said a delegation of parents whose children have SEND told her that they had decided to home-school them “because they had waited so long to have education and health care plans put in place”.