Birmingham SEND services 'remain under tremendous duress'

The situation over Birmingham services for children with special educational needs is still "deeply worrying", a report says.

Government-appointed commissioner John Coughlan stated services remained "under tremendous duress".

The city had "struggled" for at least a decade to "provide consistent leadership" for services to its most vulnerable children, the report added.

The council said it had increased funding to support an improvement.

Mr Coughlan's report stated of the "10,600 plus children with education, health and care plans" in Birmingham, the vast majority were receiving "to at least some extent a reasonable level of service and education".

But that service "may well be subject to unacceptable levels of uncertainty and inconsistency".

A commissioner had been appointed to oversee the council's SEND services which needed to raise its standards, the Department for Education (DfE) said last year.

Criticisms have included pupils making "weak" academic progress and being excluded more frequently than others.

In the report the DfE published this week, Mr Coughlan said services were still "under tremendous duress with relatively chaotic systems" which were also "fragile in their limited improvements and susceptible to further disruption" from pressures, including staffing.

It was recommended the council should still run SEND services, but the commissioner said it should be for the local authority to "unequivocally commit" to a range of recommendations.

The home to school transport service "experienced a chain of high-profile safeguarding crises largely concerning Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks", the report stated.

In a letter to parents on Thursday, Mr Coughlan said in what were deeply challenging circumstances for SEND nationally, SEND services in Birmingham were "far from good enough and have been severely wanting for several years".

Council leader Ian Ward said while some findings "may make for uncomfortable reading, these are issues we are aware of and have been working on for some time".

He added he firmly believed "we are heading in the right direction".

"Every child and young person in Birmingham matters and deserves the best possible outcomes," he said.

"We have increased funding to support this improvement... we know it will be a three-year journey to become a good service."

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