1,000 signatures reached
To: Cllr Grace Williams, Waltham Forest Council
Stop unlawfully blocking support for children with additional needs and disabilities
Waltham Forest Council must stop routinely and unlawfully blocking essential educational support for children with additional needs and disabilities. They are threatening our children’s education and mental health, and pushing families to breaking point. Join with us to call on the Council to stop fighting families and fight for more funds for children with additional needs instead.
Why is this important?
This affects us all – if a child with additional needs or disabilities is unsupported in a classroom, it can put unreasonable demands on teachers' time, compromising the learning of all children.
The numbers of children in Waltham Forest being REFUSED an assessment for an Education, Care and Health Plan (EHCP), which would provide them with ESSENTIAL EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT, has increased 3800%* in the period between 2015 and 2017. Waltham Forest reject more applications for Education Health and Care Plans than any other borough in London (except Southwark).
This means hundreds of our children who have Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) are being left to struggle alone at school, often with DEVASTATING CONSEQUENCES for the child and their whole family. We believe this practice is being carried out covertly to save the borough money in a time of austerity.
Even those children "lucky" enough to get an EHCP, less than half (47%) got that delivered in the time period required by law. This delay means our children are being left for extended periods without the support that is vital for them to thrive and succeed in school. This can often lead to school refusal, suspensions and have a detrimental impact on both the child’s education and their mental health.
In a time of austerity and education budget cuts, children with additional needs are often the ones who suffer the most. Taking away support that allows them to access an education is denying them their basic legal and human rights.
Families of children with additional educational needs and disabilities in Waltham Forest are also routinely ignored by services, such as officials at the Disability Enablement Service. We often find it excessively difficult to get appointments with professionals, such as speech therapists, occupational therapists and paediatricians. Local community child mental health services are still telling parents to come back when their child is self harming or suicidal. Our families are still experiencing practices that were exposed by BBC Panorama last year.
Families are made even more fearful for their children’s future by the fact Waltham Forest has a forecasted shortfall of £3.8 million by 31 March 2020 in their high needs education pot.
The Education Health and Care Plan processes in Waltham Forest are unclear and inconsistent. They include practices we believe are unlawful under the Children and Families Act 2014. This includes refusing to assess children when there is an indication of need, refusing to name schools on some EHCPs, and the still common belief that schools have to spend £6000 before they can apply for a Plan.
It feels like Waltham Forest Council has gone to war with SEND families, making our children a scapegoat for tightening budgets.
In Richmond-Upon-Thames, local councillors have launched a campaign to fight back against the cuts. They are working WITH parents, and indeed the whole community, to fight austerity. They have launched petitions, letter writing campaigns and pulled together a coalition of local MPs to raise questions in Parliament.
Waltham Forest have remained silent.
Our Council's solution to the cuts is to refuse to grant support to our most vulnerable children. Many of us are being forced through distressing court battles with the Council. Although between 80-95% of parents win these cases, it comes with huge emotional fallout for our families, and unnecessary cost to the taxpayer. Many more will not be able to face the stress of going to court, or simply do not have the resources to do so. These children are the ones who are lost to the system completely.
Tell Waltham Forest Council to stop fighting us. Call on them to:
1. Hold a scrutiny committee on the policies regarding Education Health and Care Plans to ensure they are fair, equitable and lawful.
2. Significantly improve the numbers of Education Health and Care Plans which are issued within the 20 week deadline
3. Stop refusing vital support for children with a clear need and improve access to vital services
4. Launch a SEND Funding Crisis campaign, which will help the Council access the funds that are so desperately needed to support our children
The SEND crisis effects everyone.
If your child is in a classroom with an unsupported SEND child, their education is also compromised because the teacher's time is stretched too thinly.
Even if you aren't a parent, but a taxpayer, your money is being wasted in costly and unnecessary court cases that the Council mostly loses.
It doesn't have to be like this. Instead of blocking vital support and fighting with parents, Waltham Forest Council could join with us to highlight the catastrophic impacts of education cuts and find ways to tackle special educational needs budget deficits. They could emulate councillors in other boroughs who are showing what is possible.
We must work together to ensure that the most vulnerable children in Waltham Forest get access to the support they need.
* Figures are based on stats from the Department of Education between 2015 - 2017. At time of writing 2018 figures had not been released
