Parents protest against Devon County Council's SEND failures

Parents have accused a council of "relentless institutional failings" of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

They staged a protest in Exeter against what they say is poor provision by Devon County Council in supporting children with additional needs.

The authority admitted there were "significant problems across the whole system in Devon".

However, it said there were no "quick fixes" in tackling the difficulties.

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission first identified significant problems in the county in 2018 and found improvements were still too slow in 2022.

Nicola Brewin, from Devon SEND Parents and Carers for Change, said parents themselves were "acting in every role imaginable" because of the authority failures.

"Lots of things are not working as they should and, as a result, children are not getting the support they need and parents are having to step into the gap," she said.

"It means they are having to give up work, it means they are forced into a de-facto home educational role that they don't want to be in."

The government has threatened to intervene over the authority's long-term failings.

It works in partnership with NHS Devon to run SEND services in schools and health settings.

Responding to parents' concerns, the council said it was "totally committed" to improving the system.

"We accept that there have been significant problems across the whole system in Devon and that the experience of many parents has not been good," the council said in a statement.

"Communication with many parents has been poor and needs to be improved. And too often our support plans have not been timely or good enough.

"We are asking all services to meet with families to listen to their experiences and get them involved in helping us to improve."

The council suggested issues in delivering SEND services locally also reflected a "national challenge".

"Extra resources have been identified in the budget to strengthen our SEND casework team and to help us compete with other local authorities to recruit and retain experienced staff," it said.

"But we know that this won't be easy and there are no quick fixes."

A Department for Education spokesperson said: "Every child and young person with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) should have access to high-quality services.

"Where a council does not meet its duties, we do not hesitate to take action that prioritises children's needs and brings about rapid improvement, and we continue to monitor Devon council's work to improve its provision.

"We are supporting local authorities with record investment into the high needs budget, increasing funding by more than 50% since 2019 to over £10bn by 2023-24."

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