Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission first judged Devon County Council Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) children’s services inadequate in 2018.
They found “significant weaknesses” in local implementation of SEND reforms introduced by the government in 2014, four years earlier.
A follow-up inspection last May found that the county council’s SEND improvement strategy was still not being implemented on the ground. Issues with recruitment and staff retention were not being addressed and communication with parents remained poor.
Devon County Council acknowledged its failings but in October the Department of Education found that while there had been some improvement the council was “still failing to perform to an adequate standard”.
The county council created an independently-chaired SEND Improvement Partnership Board, which includes county council SEND officers and its chief executive, NHS Devon, local schools and Department for Education advisors.
The board produced a SEND improvement plan, which it published in April. It followed a protest at County Hall aimed at highlighting what organisers Devon SEND Parents and Carers for Change described as “relentless institutional failings” in Devon SEND services provision.
At the same time an investigation by a small group of county council children’s scrutiny committee members was underway, examining the challenges facing the council in meeting the needs of SEND children and young people and identifying specific actions to be taken.
The task group’s report, which took twelve months to produce, was delivered to the county council cabinet in December but a follow-up meeting of the committee on Tuesday heard that little progress had been made in the six months since then.
Children’s scrutiny committee meeting at County Hall on Tuesday
Jackie Ross, interim director of county council SEND services, told the meeting that improvement depended on recruiting caseworkers, rearranging systems for communicating with families and clearing an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) referrals backlog.
A completed EHCP assessment is key to accessing additional support for children and young people with special educational needs. There are around 8,500 learners with an EHCP in the county but Devon County Council receives around 200 new referral requests each month.
Benchmark data from 2021 shows that the county completed just 38.8% of EHCP assessments within the requisite 20 weeks against a national average of 59.9%.
Jackie Ross admitted it was “a big job and a big ship to turn around” and added: “We are making efforts but we know we’ve got a long way to go. It’s not as fast as we would hope.”
Donna Manson, who took over as county council chief executive in February this year, said it was using “smart targets” to monitor development and was “working with partners” including local health authorities.
However Devon SEND Parents and Carers for Change representatives told the committee that not enough was being done and described the continuing difficulties faced by their families.
Nicola Brewin said: “One of my children has been out of school since 2016, they are one year away from adulthood and have been unable to access any sort of education at all for the last few years. The situation is robbing our children of the support they need and the childhood they deserve.”
Caroline Bolingbroke said: “I have a 13-year-old autistic child who has not been able to attend school for four years. Getting the support we need has been a huge fight. I was an education professional but now I’m at home with my child every day.”
Astrid Harding added: “I feel outrage that our children and young people are missing out on their right to an education.”
(From left) Nicola Brewin, Elaine Davis-Kimble, Caroline Bolingbroke and Astrid Harding from Devon SEND Parents and Carers for Change at County Hall on Tuesday. Photo: Ewan Murrie.
The county council also agreed an additional £32 million of funding for its children’s services in its 2023-24 budget.
However Julian Wooster, who was appointed Interim Head of Children’s Services in January this year, said: “Despite substantial additional investment the system has become financially unsustainable.”
He admitted that “the system is failing to deliver improved outcomes for children and young people with SEND. Parent’s confidence in the system is in decline” and told the committee there were significant issues within national SEND services which made the task in Devon “doubly difficult”.
Council opposition leader Julian Brazil, who sits on the children’s services scrutiny committee, disagreed. He said the wider context did not justify the extent of Devon County Council’s failings in SEND services provision.
Comparing the county council’s Ofsted performance with neighbouring authorities, he said: “We’re surrounded by Cornwall: outstanding, Torbay: good, Somerset: good. Devon: inadequate. So why is it that we’re so bad?
“We need to look at ourselves in the mirror and see that it’s here in Devon county that the problems lie and if we continue to make excuses and try to blame others then we will not make the improvements that we need.”
Special educational needs and disabilities protest at County Hall in February
Councillor Andrew Leadbetter, who is responsible for children’s services in the county council cabinet, said: “We’re doing everything we can, there’s a huge amount of work going in to this.
“We are stabilising things and working to move forward. I can assure you this is a real top priority for the council.”
However Elaine Davis-Kimble of Devon SEND Parents and Carers for Change said the committee meeting had been “just more words”, adding: “Where is the empirical evidence? The improvement plan does not state how they are actually going to change things.”
She said that families were still not being properly consulted: “Devon County Council are talking about working with their partners, and that’s great, but what about asking the people who are experiencing the fragmentation of services?
“We need to get everyone together, we need focus groups, it needs to be a massive action plan.”
Caroline Bolingbroke added: “We don’t have a voice in our children’s future, our children don’t have a voice. When is anyone going to listen to us?”
