A mother claims her disabled son is missing out of his education due to the college he attends not having properly "trained" staff. Julie Potter-Tate claims the council don't have adequate support systems in place to allow her teenager to attend higher education, reports Derbyshire Live.
Julie's son, Daniel Franklin, has a tracheostomy and autism, and, as a result of these conditions, has a legally-binding education health care plan (EHCP) in place. The plan details the long-term goals for the 16-year-old, which include: accessing education; to be included in social activities at school; preparing for all aspects of adult life; and to develop the ability to live as independently as possible.
Prior to enrolling at Portland College, Daniel had achieved those goals by attending primary and secondary school in Derbyshire. However, during the pandemic, his mother says he couldn't attend classes due to being clinical vulnerable, and this is when he start to begin to lose out on his education.
Julie said: "During Covid, I had to fight for every scrap of education that he had due to being clinically vulnerable to begin with but then his health declined. It was only March 2022 when the council put in a tutor, but they took it away in July because the company doesn't deal with post-16 education."
After hearing this news, the teenager signed up to attend Portland College, which is a centre of excellence for autism and also specialises in helping people with disabilities lead more independent lives. However, he has been unable to attend the facility due to inadequate support systems, claims his mum.
Julie said: "He was supposed to start college on September 5. However, the council did not make the necessary arrangements, so he is still not attending because there is no one trained to care for his medical needs, and the council will not employ a nurse to go with him.
"As he has a tracheostomy, which is an incision in the windpipe made to relieve an obstruction to breathing, he cannot go anywhere without a trained adult, so he is isolated unless we go out as a family. I have been asking the council when they will have something in place for him to attend college for months and still, we are no further ahead. Daniel is a very social boy but now he is only having social contact with people online or family."
Derbyshire County Council said in a statement that they could not comment on individual cases. It read: "In general, where a child or young person has specific medical needs, then the school or college they are attending has the responsibility to ensure that their staff have the necessary training and experience required.
"If the child or young person has an education health care plan, then the council would be responsible to ensure that the school or college has the necessary funding in place to support this and would be responsible for checking that the provision in the EHC plan is delivered. To assist with this, the council’s officers would work with the school or college and health colleagues to support this in order to do all they can to ensure that provision in the EHC Plan is in place."
Julie responded to the comment stating: "The law states it's the local authority's responsibility to ensure the child receives suitable education. It is also their responsibility as they say to ensure the EHCP is being delivered in full and it isn't.
"My son is currently in hospital and every morning the hospital school come and see him regarding schoolwork, so it appears he can get an education in hospital, but not in the community. It's ridiculous.
"The local authority won't contact me - they never do unless I contact them first. The college has told them what they need, and the local authority ignored them like they do me. That is the response I expected but it's not true. Portland College cannot train Daniel's staff because they do not have the knowledge to do so.
"He had a complex operation this summer and just wants to get back to some sort of normality, which includes interacting with people. It's been the same struggle really since he started school and the council know he needs funding because they have been doing this since he was three.
"We have had some home tuition since September which was not the six hours a week as the council claims. One week he had nothing because the teaching assistant was off sick."
Following the furious mother's complaint to the county council, which was partially upheld, she received a response which stated: "The home education will remain in place until the completion of the tracheostomy training and the availability of qualified staff. The purpose of the interim education arrangements was to ensure that the absence was not detrimental to Daniel’s progress or well-being.
"This complaint is partly upheld as whilst there was a delay regarding the availability of tracheostomy trained staff both the school and local authority acted quickly to provide alternative arrangements during this period to ensure there was no detriment to Daniel’s progress or wellbeing."
Julie added: "I really feel that the county council has no intention of my child having a suitable education. We are going into the third month of Daniel's college years, so I will do the training because if I don't, it will still be like this in two years."
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