18 October - Lessons will be learned
Following the ignominy of three upheld LGO complaints about Special Educational Needs
in the space of two weeks the big question for me at the Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee meeting was which Councillor had noticed.
It was Wendy Perfect (Labour, Northumberland Heath).
“April to June 2023 there were two findings of fault within Education Services.
Is it correct that there were a further three cases upheld in August? Are there
common themes within these cases and how are we aiming to address any forthcoming inspections of SEN Services?”
It was confirmed by Kevin Taylor, Deputy Director of Education, that there had been five critical LGO reports “and one is too
many but they were not in such a short period of time. One started in 2021.
Officers should be addressing issues more quickly and we have appointed a new Head of SEN.”
It was accepted that Bexley Council is responsible for bad decisions by schools.
“How do we make sure that what is being delivered by schools is correct? We will
do a series of audits starting in the four secondary schools where they are less
than adequate and where SEN has come up as an issue. We have to do something extra.”
Councillor Perfect said she found it upsetting that parents of special needs
children are put through such stressful processes. She was assured that the
issue was being taken very seriously and that the management team is “passionate
about getting it right and strive to always get it right but there will be mistakes. We are disappointed that there have been five cases but five cases coming out in one go make it look worse than what it is.”
The responsible Cabinet Member, Caroline Newton, said the Council had apologised
to the parents and she would “be keeping an eye on it”.
If the Scrutiny Committee discussion was all I had heard about these SEN failures I might go along with the idea that the criticisms had been taken on
board and the occasional mistake will happen but having read the LGO comments from end to end and having heard a little
from affected parties I can only hope that Mr. Taylor has gone further than appointing a new Head of SEN and will have done something about
the attitude of his Team Leaders. That may be the ‘common theme’ that Councillor Perfect was looking for.