26 February (Part 1) - Gaslighting Council is not good enough
I found this on Bexley’s website. What could that be all about? (It is
reproduced here because it is the sort of thing that they quickly remove.
Check out the original while you can.)
Which may be summarised as…
• Bexley Council is committed to doing its best but it wasn’t good enough.
• Some inspectors said some things were not too bad but we agree that overall it wasn’t good enough.
• We already knew we weren’t good enough.
• We are going to listen to clients in future because until now we have not been good enough.
• We must try harder because we are not good enough.
What is that all about then? (You may have read
something similar last year, but that was the Local Government
Ombudsman saying much the same thing as Ofsted.)
Ofsted has published a new set of
home truths on its website. No need to copy them here as they will remain on line in perpetuity.
March 2014 (Children’s Services) - Requires improvement.
October 2016 (SEND) - Variable. Too many exceptions. Not rectified. Do not know. Do not monitor etc.
July 2018 (Children’s Services) - Much better than in 2014.
January 2020 (Child protection) - Not too bad overall but too many children go missing or sexually or criminally exploited. Management not robust enough.
February 2023 (Children’s Services) - Pretty good.
December 2023 (SEND) - Widespread systemic failure. Significant concerns. Problems must be addressed urgently. Priority Action Plan demanded.
SEND services are fortunately not something I have ever needed to use but I know a man who has not been
so lucky. I passed Bexley Council’s excuse sheet to him to see if he had an opinion more authorative than mine. (I found he’d already seen it.)
If you read the latest report and Bexley's response you will still never
appreciate the level of gaslighting that SEND families have been subjected to by Council officers.
I don’t really know what gaslighting is but it sounds as if he has a very low opinion of the integrity of Bexley’s SEND team.
Definition: Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in
which the abuser attempts to sow self-doubt and confusion in their victim’s
mind. Typically, gaslighters are seeking to gain power and control over the
other person, by distorting reality and forcing them to question their own judgment and intuition.
Wow! Bexley to a Tee.