An east London council working in partnership with the NHS has failed children with special educational needs, a scathing Ofsted report has revealed.
A host of issues were uncovered during a lengthy inspection by the education watchdog, which assessed how pupils in special education (SEND) are faring in Redbridge.
The Redbridge Local Area Partnership - made up of the Labour-run council, NHS North East London, local education providers and health and social care services - says it has “refined and accelerated” its plans to improve SEND provision in light of the report.
Ofsted inspectors said the system as a whole is “ineffective, and many parents and carers are frustrated”.
Families also told the watchdog they felt “worn down and unheard”.
In the report, published last week, they listed a while range of issues. They included:
* Children found to have been waiting years for vital therapies
* Families experienced very poor communication
* The method of assessing their needs is “outdated” and “does not reflect” current needs.
* Delays in producing education, health and care (EHC) plans, which are legal documents outlining the needs of a child or young person, up to the age of 25, and any extra support they require. These constitute a breach of statutory duty, Ofsted says, an “eroded trust” between parents and the partnership.
* “Too many” disabled children do not have an allocated worker, and families “must rely on an overstretched duty system”. Once again, statutory duties “are not consistently met, causing widespread frustration”.
The partnership says it “welcomes the report” and “recognises that real culture change and transformation are needed over the next 18 months”. All partners overseeing SEND provision are also “committed to delivering improved services across the system”.
It will make EHC plans “better, quicker, and more accurate”, with input from all the professionals involved, it added.
The Redbridge Local Area Partnership says it will also ensure children, young people and families are “properly involved in shaping the support they receive”, and work to cut waiting times in order to “make it easier to get the therapies and assessments children need”.
Councillor Paul Canal, leader of the Redbridge Conservatives, called the report “as distressing as it is damning”.
He said: “The findings lay bare a catalogue of systemic and prolonged failures that have left some of our borough's most vulnerable children without the support, care, or dignity they deserve.”
Independent councillor Shanell Johnson said she feared the woeful report was “just the tip of the iceberg”.
She said: “Parents and teachers have told me they felt silenced or dismissed. The Ofsted report confirms that lack of leadership and oversight allowed real harm, especially to SEND children caught in a culture of groupthink where questioning was discouraged.
“If Redbridge is to learn from this, we need to empower people to challenge leadership safely, without fear of retaliation, and create open systems for raising serious concerns.”
Cllr Canal has also called for an extraordinary full council meeting to be held in light of the report.
He echoed the inspectors' call for the Redbridge Local Area Partnership to produce an internal action plan outlining how it will improve its services.
He said: “The administration must publicly account for these failings, outline how it intends to restore trust and deliver improvement, and commit to a process of transparent oversight that involves families and cross-party scrutiny.
“We must put party politics aside and put children first.
“Parents should not have to fight for help. Children should not be left in limbo. This cannot be allowed to happen again - not in Redbridge.”
Ofsted did however positively comment on the partnership's “responsive and effective” early years SEND team. The report also stated that multi-agency working is effective in some areas, such as within pupil referral units.
