Legal Eye
completed within the statutory
We were promised the mother of all
SEN reforms in 2014, with a better
deal for society’s most vulnerable.
Dr Mitzi Waltz unveils the enormous
disappointment felt by parents who now
battle SEN cuts. So what can parents do?
Special education
promises have
slipped away
Remember the 2014 reforms to
special education? The revised
Children and Families Act and
Special Educational Needs and
Disabilities (SEND) Code of
Practice were heralded as the start
of a new era. They stood for putting
pupils at the centre of planning;
more accountability for student
achievement; and Education,
Health and Care (EHC) plans to
ensure joined-up thinking.
But just four years later, families
of children with special educational
60 Au t i s m | e y e I s s u e 3 0 2 0 1 8
needs say the reforms have not
been delivered. Instead, services
are actually being rolled back.
And across England, cuts to
local councils are having a
disproportionate impact on
children with autism and their
families. While families and
schools are used to ‘doing more
with less’, there comes a point
when ‘less’ becomes ‘not enough’.
And all too often, it’s the
services that give SEND students
an equal playing field that are for
the chop, seen as extras or even
as money wasted on low achievers.
The result is seen in children
with special needs finishing
primary school but not being
offered a secondary place; cuts to
SEND transport services; shorter
school days or four-day weeks;
and a refusal to list or provide
services such as classroom
assistants or adapted curricula via
EHC plans.
Although SEND cuts affect all
children with special educational
www.autismeye.com
needs, autistic children have been
particularly hard hit.
From Greater London to
Yorkshire, the situation is so dire
that parents have banded together
to fight back. “We would simply like
the 2014 reforms to be properly
funded nationally and locally,” says
Gillian Doherty, parent of a child
with Down syndrome and an
activist with Hackney Special
Educational Crisis.
“We’re in an absurd situation
where disabled children’s legal
www.autismeye.com
rights are being undermined
because there isn’t enough money
to provide what’s set out in the
SEND Code of Practice and
Children and Families Act.”
Views from the trenches
Hackney council has cut services
severely, including halving the size
of its SEND inclusion team. This
has had a rapid knock-on effect.
“It’s more difficult to get EHC plans
and takes longer – only 37 per cent
of Hackney’s EHC plans are
20-week timeline. As a result of
this, underfunded schools are
telling us that they cannot afford to
take SEND pupils,” Doherty says.
More worrying, official and
unofficial exclusion of disabled
children has spiralled. “There
appear to be increasing numbers
of children being forced into what’s
recorded as ‘homeschooling’ but is
effectively school withdrawal,”
Doherty adds. While mainstream
schools were the first to see their
budgets slashed, Hackney Council
has now told special schools they
must also reduce their budgets: its
initial demand was for huge
reductions (13.5 per cent), and
negotiations continue.
For children whose parents
manage to battle their way to an
EHC plan, quality can be poor. “In
Surrey, if children are assessed for
an EHC plan, the Local Authority
reports are often not worth the
Official and
unofficial
exclusion of disabled
children has spiralled”
paper they are written on,” says
Alicia McColl, parent of a child with
autism and Surrey SEN activist.
“They talk about ‘access to’ and
‘benefit from’ provision, but don’t
actually specify what provision the
child will receive, where or how
often. Without those specifics, it
simply doesn’t happen.
“This is particularly a problem
for children with autism,” she says.
“Without speech and language
support or occupational therapy
support, etcetera, many children
Like sand with autism find it more difficult to
through our learn. It can also result in behaviours
fingers: the which, if they are in mainstream,
promise of can lead to (illegal) exclusion.” In
better special addition, changes to special school
education pupil numbers or locations can be
has turned to stealth attempts to impose bigger
disappointment class sizes, she warns.
as services
have been cut Fighting back – what
can families do?
While councils always seem to
have enough money to fight
individual parents, families are
Au t i s m | e y e I s s u e 3 0 2 0 1 8 61

From Isolation to Integration
Don’t suffer
alone: families
have been
successful
when coming
together
to launch
challenges
against
councils
TCES Group’s schools and Therapeutic Hubs across
London and Essex provide specialist education for
children or young people with autism who have
been excluded or for whom mainstream schools
are unable to provide the necessary support.
Uniquely, we integrate pupils with autism
spectrum conditions and social, emotional and
mental health needs. We do not separate and segregate pupils To find out more:
because of their support needs. Instead we educate them together Contact our referrals team on
0845 872 5460 / 020 8543 7878
in specially adapted state-of-the-art autism friendly environments referrals@tcesgroup.org.uk
that work well for both typical and atypical pupils. www.tces.org.uk @tcesgroup
www.autismeye.com
They talk about
‘access to’ and
‘benefit from’
provision, but don’t
specify … without
specifics, it simply
doesn’t happen”
trying to mount serious challenges
without these resources.
In Surrey, “we crowdfunded the
money needed (via CrowdJustice)
to do the investigative work into the
cuts,” explains McColl. “We
believed them to be unlawful as
there hadn’t been any consultation
with the parents.
“Once the solicitors were
satisfied there was a case, they
applied for Legal Aid, which was
granted. The judicial review
paperwork has been submitted,
and our solicitors have now
submitted our response.”
A showdown in court is
expected this summer.
Get informed
The Reverse Surrey SEN Cuts
campaign used social media,
especially Twitter and Facebook, to
get the word out about the action
and update families. However,
McColl notes, they might not have
known about the council’s
proposed changes had a local
journalist not been on the case.
Parents need to make sure
someone is attending and
reporting on council cabinet
meetings, whether that’s parents or
the press, to avoid being
blindsided. Freedom of Information
(FOI) requests can also help.
Lawyer-up
“Sadly, the only tactic that appears
to be effective is resorting to the
law – through SEND tribunal,”
Doherty says. “Unfortunately, this
creates an adversarial system that
only benefits the individual families
who are able to take this forward.
“We’re having some success in
addressing systemic change
through the local government
ombudsman, and hope to do the
same through our judicial review.
But these actions still only have
local impact, and it’s clear that
similar problems are replicated
throughout the UK. The next step
has to be to hold the government
to account.”
Follow the money
The Hackney group successfully
halted its council’s plan to launch
an alternative funding model for
Legal Eye
EHC plans that was not legally
enforceable, Doherty says.
Now, its focus is on where
Hackney’s SEND funds are being
spent. “There’s a lack of
transparency,” she says. “In
Hackney there’s been a huge
‘overspend’ of around £5 million,
which the council has been
covering from reserves. Around £4
million is on independent and out-
of-borough special schools.
“This spending has doubled in
the last few years, and individual
placement costs have increased
by 11 per cent in the past two
years. The Council has little
control over this, and so is
attempting to reduce its overspend
by cutting SEND funding in
mainstream schools (which came
in under budget).”
While private specialist places
are a lifeline for some, “our
concern is that an increasing
number of families are falling
through the gaps, with some
children ending up out of school
altogether for months, and in some
cases years, with little or no
education,” Doherty says.
“Parents are having to give
up their jobs to look after
them, creating a downward spiral
of deprivation.
“Other children are ending up
indefinitely in unsuitable
alternative provision designed for
short-term placements.”
In addition, element 2 funding
based on the number of children
with EHCs, intended to improve
overall services and accessibility, is
increasingly being used to support
high-needs pupils.
That means cuts to early
intervention services and for
learners with lower, but still very
real, levels of need.
Watch for academies
and ‘free schools’
In some areas, academies and
‘free schools’ are pet projects of
well-connected people. They
have served to re-segregate
schools by excluding disabled
children, while also peeling away
much-needed funds.
Activists across the country
have found that some refuse to be
named on an EHC plan, while
others avoid making disability
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Legal Eye

adaptations – despite getting extra Focus on procedure

government funding. “Children and transparency Parents are
from BME [black and minority Often, council decisions are
ethnic] backgrounds with SEND made behind closed doors, having to give
are disproportionately affected, despite laws that require public up their jobs to look
St Mary’s School and College and those on SEND support consultation and scrutiny.
after them, creating
(rather than with an EHC plan) are Many local campaigns focus
St Mary’s School and College offers integrated education,
at higher risk of exclusion,” on dragging councils into the a downward spiral
Doherty notes. light: proving lack of proper
therapy and wellbeing programmes for children with a
Exclusion can leave children procedure can roll back adverse of deprivation”
range of learning difficulties to enable them to access their
with SEN with no services. decisions. For example, Save
education and reach their potential.
SEND Services North Yorkshire service, social care service for
has crowdfunded legal advice to disabled children and specialist
n Age 7-19 RESOURCES force the council to consult with careers service.
n Onsite education, therapy, health, wellbeing and care
lA  lliance for Inclusive Education (ALLFIE): young people about introducing
n Specialist speech and language therapy, occupational therapy
and physiotherapy www.allfie.org.uk transport charges. We’re stronger together
n Residential and non-residential options lF  air Funding for All Schools: “North Yorkshire is the largest Already, parent campaigns have
n Aspire Vocational Centre to develop life and employment skills www.fairfundingforallschools.org county in the UK, covering 30,000 experienced victories. Some plans
n Total communication approach to support the development of lH  ackney Special Education Crisis: square miles… There is a lack of for dropping services or closing
speech and language skills
www.hackneyspecialeducationcrisis.co.uk schools and colleges to cater for schools have been put on hold,
n Ofsted “Good” Education and Care Inspection - Jan 2018
l Independent Parent Special Needs Advice: the needs of our young people in and cuts affecting individuals have
For more information visit us www.ipsea.org.uk North Yorkshire [so] they have no been reversed.
at www.stmarysbexhill.org lN  ational Education Union – Stop School Cuts choice but to travel,” they write. While nothing can be certain in
or call 01424 730740 campaign: https://neu.org.uk/funding In addition to charging this fiscal environment, it’s always
lS  ave Our Schools: http://saveourschools.co.uk disabled students’ families for true that there is more power in
St Mary’s School and College (The Talking Trust) registered charity 307021
lS  pecial Needs Jungle: travel, the council has cut its numbers. So don’t agonise, reach
https://specialneedsjungle.com Inclusion Service, short breaks out and organise!

Safe,

We get children with Special Educational Needs the support, provision and school
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Greenfield, OL3 7NH Call us on 01452 555 166 or email education@langleywellington.co.uk
Tel 01457 820 684 Ltd
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www.educationlawyers.co.uk
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Langley Wellington LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales (registered number OC363475). Authorised and Regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

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