The move has been announced as the council received criticism this week from the local government and social care ombudsman Michael King for a raft of failures over the last 18 months to provide suitable alternative education for children.
“I will be offering local SEND leaders a continuous second opinion about the quality of SEND services across Suffolk,” said Douglas, who was chief executive at Cafcass for 15 years and is a former director of social care and health at Suffolk council.
“SEND services nationally are under phenomenal pressure and Suffolk is no exception. That is why I will only be looking at what can be done better.”
The council’s cabinet member for education, SEND and skills Rachel Hood added: “There are some areas, especially those lived experiences of families, where improvement is not being clearly felt.
“This is where Mr Douglas, an experienced and much respected professional in children’s services, will add significant value and strengthen the existing work of the SEND team.”
The latest case looked at by King involves a primary school-aged girl, who was suffering from anxiety, coping with a bereavement and subject to a referral for an autism diagnosis. She had been denied alternative education due to Suffolk council errors after her attendance declined.
The local authority had a legal obligation to provide alternative education for her and responsibility to oversee her attendance.
But King found that the council failed to provide suitable alternative education for the girl for six months.
He also found that the council “did not have a way to check attendance” and had relied on the school to make a referral for alternative education.
“It therefore missed numerous opportunities to intervene, assess the girl’s needs and provide her with suitable education,” said King, who said that the case is the latest in a series linked to Suffolk council’s failure to provide alternative education over the last 18 months.
“Over that time the council has agreed to make a wide range of improvements to its services,” he said.
“We are disappointed to have to again highlight our concerns about the council's SEND service, having made many previous recommendations for improvement."
He added: “While I acknowledge the council is making wide-scale changes to its service, I have issued this report to highlight that alternative provision needs to be improved as a priority, and those changes should have a long-term impact.”
The council has agreed to apologise to the mother of the girl over its delays and failures. It will also pay her £1,500 for her “time and trouble and her daughter’s missed education”, said King.
In addition to drafting in Douglas for advice, the council will review its policies and procedures around alternative education and issue guidance and reminders to its staff to ensure services are coordinated.
Managers and staff responsible for arranging alternative provision will also receive training around their duties.
“We regret that failings in the system led to this child missing out on education,” said the council’s corporate director for children and young people Allan Cadzow.
“We apologise for the distress this has caused to the child and the family. In addition to the recommendations made by the ombudsman, which have been implemented, we have also introduced our own reforms in this area to strengthen the way we do things.
“This situation is far from acceptable, but we continue to work with urgency and commitment to reform the way we deliver SEND education.”
