Sheffield Council 'still failing children with special educational needs' claims charity

Sheffield Council recently agreed to pay £1,800 to the mother of a teenager with special needs, after a government ombudsman found he had been left without sufficient support for 18 months.

The council accepts mistakes have been made but this week insisted it was learning from those errors and 'working hard' to improve.

However, Sparkle Sheffield, a charity supporting children with special educational needs, believes there is still far too little being done to make sure children get the education they deserve.

Liesje Dusauzay, the charity's chief executive, says many children are still waiting too long for assessments and either being placed in schools which are unable to cater for their needs or missing out on an education altogether.

"The council has previously accepted its failings, said it had learned from what happened and given assurances things would be addressed and the abuses would stop," she said.

"They have not stopped since then, nor since the ombudsman report. Every day we are battling to support children and families who are being ignored, bypassed and harmed still by the local authority."

Ms Dusauzay told how Sparkle had worked with the Sheffield-based organisation Equalities and Human Rights UK (EHR UK) this year to represent nearly 400 children and young people with special educational needs who they believed were being failed, and dozens of those cases had yet to be resolved.

She said one boy had waited more than two years for the council to complete his education, health and care (EHC) plan, setting out how his needs would be addressed, and remained in a school which is 'harmful' for him and which he can only attend for three hours each day.

Christine Meleady, children's advocate at EHR UK, said many children were still being denied assessments to which they were entitled, and mainstream schools were 'buckling under the pressure' of having to take pupils who were ill-suited to such an environment.

"It's going to take a concerted effort and an increase in staff and resources for things to improve, and the council needs to listen properly to parents and children," she added.

Cabinet members considered a report on Wednesday by Jayne Ludlum, the council's executive director for children, young people and families, responding to the ombudsman's criticism.

They heard how extra staff had recently been recruited and training had been carried out to improve communication with parents and schools and speed up the preparation of EHC plans.

A council spokeswoman said: "We are working hard to bring about improvements in assessing, supporting and implementing the right provision for all our children with special educational needs and disabilities across the city.

"Whilst we haven’t always got this right in the past we have put in a place a number of plans to make sure all our children and young people get the support they need."

She added that cabinet members had recently approved a review of SEN provision with the city and would work with parents, children and groups including Sparkle to help shape future services to meet people's needs.