Commissioner criticises 'chaotic' Birmingham SEND services in first report
Nina Jacobs
Monday, May 23, 2022
Birmingham City Council's failure to improve support services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is creating a “deeply worrying” situation that could impact on the wellbeing of families, a report concludes.
The wide-ranging criticisms of the council’s efforts to provide better SEND services were laid bare in the first full report from a commissioner appointed to oversee improvements in the city last year.
John Coughlan, whose findings are outlined in Improving Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) services in Birmingham have been presented to the Education Secretary, said services remained under “tremendous duress” operating under “relatively chaotic systems” that had shown limited improvements.
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Most recent local area SEND inspection reports
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Cautious welcome for SEND vision but campaigners remain sceptical
The government issued a direction notice to the council in October after it was urged to improve 13 “significant” areas of weakness in its SEND provision following an inspection by Ofsted in June 2018.
The direction notice stated that just one of the 13 areas identified had shown signs of improvement after a follow-up visit in May last year.
Coughlan said his latest report indicated there had been nothing to suggest any inaccuracy or changes in the inspections findings that culminated in the joint local area SEND revisit in May 2021.
Systems put in place by the council were “fragile” and susceptible to further disruption from “unavoidable” continuing pressures, in particular staffing and inevitable demand, the commissioner said.
“The situation remains deeply worrying for the wellbeing of the children and their families,” he added.
The report highlights that the majority of the city’s 10,600 children with education, health and care plans (EHCPs) are receiving a reasonable level of service and education despite both these areas being subject to “unacceptable” levels of uncertainty and inconsistency.
“One of the many challenges, therefore, is to ensure that the significant changes required for improvement should cause minimum disruption to those many children and families - to ensure the “cure” does not make matters worse for them,” the report states.
It does praise the council’s staff working in SEND services for their efforts in continuing to work in such challenging circumstances.
“As is the case with most “failing” services, Birmingham’s SEND services are populated by extremely dedicated professional staff and frontline managers.
“It should be clearly understood that any critique embodied in this report is aimed at the strategic and leadership weaknesses over time in Birmingham which have made that work even harder than it necessarily is,” it adds.
Coughlan sets out a number of recommendations for improvement that include the retention of SEND services under the direct leadership and management of the council.
However, he warns such a decision is conditional on the “unequivocal” support of the council and its commitment to the remainder of his recommendations including the continuing roles of an improvement board, a DfE funded improvement partnership, the retained statutory direction and an appointed commissioner.