(UK) Notts: Council issuing more SPED plans; parents protest over failed system
- The end of childhood
- Nov 9
- 4 min read
Nov 4, 2025, Notts Live: Families say they feel broken and let down by Nottinghamshire special needs education service
E. Midlands
Nottinghamshire County Council has been issuing more education, health and care plans recently
A Nottinghamshire mum says special needs service failings have left her family broken and her son distressed.
Parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) gathered outside Nottinghamshire County Council’s West Bridgford headquarters on Monday (November 3) to protest over children who have been let down by the authority’s SEND service.
Similar protests took place across 88 local authorities in England and Scotland on the same day, involving parents or guardians leaving a pair of shoes outside a council house to represent individual children who have been ‘failed’ by their SEND service.
One mum, named Jess, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) she has “had to fight” for her nine-year-old son’s autism diagnosis and for him to be placed into a school better suited to his needs.
She initiated the process to get him an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) in October 2024. EHCPs are legal documents detailing a young person’s needs, the support they require, and the progress they want to make. The target issuing time for one is 20 weeks after assessment.
Her son initially got through the first stage of the process and an assessment, but was told there was “not enough evidence” for his needs due to good school attendance and academic performance.
She said there has been a “massive delay” in his EHCP process after putting in for mediation. The family is now on week 56 of the EHCP process.
Her son has been granted an extended half-term from his mainstream school and says he is struggling with burnout.
She said: “He’s now unable to leave the house, he’s an absolute anxious mess, his anxiety is manic and chaotic to the point where we’ve had to ring the crisis team.
“The crisis team couldn’t find his support plan and couldn’t offer any advice because he’s nine and he refused to speak to them – that’s CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services).”
The situation is “completely taking it out of my family”, says Jess, adding: “We’re broken by it, and it’s heartbreaking to see him distressed… I want my boy back”.
Jess wants the council to be “held accountable” for the support delays and says families need to feel they are listened to when engaging with SEND services.
Lyndsey Roome’s 16-year-old daughter has two chromosomal disorders, health conditions and global developmental delay.
Her daughter did not have an EHCP until she was 15. Lyndsey claims she was told her daughter “wasn’t bad enough” to qualify for one during primary school and early secondary school.
She says the first three years of secondary school were “hell” for her daughter, who she claims had her face spat at and had her medical conditions taunted.
The mum was asked why she had not made an EHCP application for her daughter before. She has since started at a specialist college and, for the first time ever, “looks forward to going”.
“I watched my little girl cry every single day while she was at mainstream school, and I still put her through that door – the guilt parents feel for doing that is immense”, she said.
Ms Roome says her daughter was given an “incredible” key worker for the EHCP, but feels her daughter was let down by the council not responding to her needs quickly enough.
Like Jess, she said parents’ voices need to be acknowledged more, adding: “There is some family input, but whether it’s used or not is very, very different… It’s not always included in the EHCPs.”
Responding to the campaign, Councillor Hana John (Ref), cabinet member for Education and SEND, told the LDRS it was “empowering”.
She said: “I’m glad they felt bold enough to come out here and voice how they feel”, adding the council has different ways parents can submit feedback, including a forum, family hubs and social media and contacting councillors.
She said: “We do have a lot of ways we can hear the voice of the parent-carers and we just need to improve on that joined-up working, better connectivity, so that’s one thing we’ll be looking for.
Cllr John said: “It’s important to continue to hear those voices, to be well informed on how parent carers are feeling and also their lived experience – because at the end of the day, who do we serve?”
She added that since July, the number of EHCPs issued in time increased to 53 per cent, but “more work needs to be done” when assessing the suitability of mainstream or special placements.
Cllr Rory Green, cabinet member for children and families, told the LDRS: “We know nationwide this is probably one of the least effective sectors in the country right now where parents are fighting and fighting time, stress, money, to get the best for their child. . . .
Back in early 2023, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out an inspection of Nottinghamshire’s SEND partnership and concluded “widespread” and/or systemic failings and “significant concerns” for the experiences and outcomes of young people with SEND.
From this, two priority action areas were identified, focusing on the needs of young people with SEND, such as assessments, the prompt issuance of EHCPs, and addressing delays and gaps in young people’s access to certain health services. An improvement plan was also launched.
A September 2025 monitoring inspection report – from the watchdogs’ July monitoring visit – found “effective action” has been taken on these two areas since the worrying 2023 report.
At the time of the visit, 47.3 per cent of EHCPs were completed within the 20-week statutory timescale, compared to 28 per cent in 2023 and just 4.5 per cent during 2022. This Improvement has been driven by changes within the service’s structure and the recruitment and retention of more educational psychologists.
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