A year on: Have Suffolk's special needs services improved?
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Hello, nice to meet you. This is Millie.
00:07In Suffolk, services for children with special educational needs and disabilities, or SEND,
00:12have been under increased scrutiny over the past year.
00:14I travelled to Felixstowe to meet with Leela and her daughter Millie, who is just four and is still fighting to get into school.
00:21You think, OK, your child's got additional needs, but they're going to get additional help.
00:26That's not the case. They don't, to a certain extent they do.
00:31But if you don't have anybody advocating for you as much as you advocate for your child and you shout from the top of the rooftops,
00:39you're going to be left in that hole, and that's where Millie is.
00:44No therapy, no school, no help, no personal budget.
00:49Where do we go from here?
00:52I so desperately want her to go to school, but no units will take her, mainstream won't take her.
00:59One school said that they couldn't keep her safe, and another school said that she wasn't disabled enough.
01:07Then what?
01:08Millie is among many of the children who are still fighting for the care they deserve.
01:12But even for those families who already have a care package, there is still lingering anxiety and mistrust in the council.
01:18My children luckily now have really good packages.
01:22They're both in alternative provision, and the staff that work with them in those alternative provision are amazing.
01:29The children have come on so far, but it's that constant fight.
01:34Every time we get to an annual review and the council get involved, it's that frustration, anger, emotion.
01:42You know it's not going to be simple, and that's not what it's meant to be.
01:46We're all meant to be a team around our children to make sure that they have the best possible future they can have.
01:54It has now been a year since Suffolk County Council was forced to reshuffle after an offset report found widespread systemic failings within its CEND services.
02:03A year later, a needs assessment report published by the council and its partners, like the local integrated care boards,
02:09compared navigating the system to an unplanned journey without a compass.
02:13The council, which has refused requests for an interview,
02:16has repeatedly cited increased demands and spiralling costs as the main reasons for its challenges.