Mother demands to know why Lancashire children have been let down by the county council

All five candidates at the Hustings event in Preston. Photo: Kelvin Lister-Stuttard

A mother has demanded to know why some Lancashire children – including one of her own – were let down to such a degree that they began self-harming while waiting for support with special needs.

Cheryl Semple told a debate ahead of the Lancashire County Council elections next month that she had started advocating for parents and carers who had found themselves in a similar situation to her family when their youngsters “weren’t getting the help that they needed in school and at home”.

She said: “Some of these parents actually suffered breakdowns, because they were trying to get…help for their children, but were being turned away and, in some ways…treated with disdain [by] Lancashire County Council – because funding was being withdrawn or withheld for months…and years, sometimes.

“Why is it that you have treated some of the most vulnerable…children in Lancashire that way?” Ms. Semple asked.

Responding for the authority’s ruling Conservative group, County Cllr Scott Smith said there had been an explosion in demand nationwide for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services – and that the authority had invested an extra £5m this year to help to speed up the process of obtaining education, health and care plans (EHCPs) so children receive the support they require.

“We know that once a child gets that EHCP, it’s like a key that unlocks those services – it makes such a difference to that child and their family,” he said, adding that SEND provision was “a partnership” between the county council and the NHS.

The question came against the backdrop of a damning Ofsted report into SEND services in the area, which described “unacceptable delays” in the EHCP process, along with other “systemic” failings.

Liberal Democrat John Potter said the situation had reached “rock bottom”.

“We’re not talking about a couple of isolated cases – we’re talking about hundreds upon hundreds…of families let down.”

County Cllr Potter accepted that the reasons for the failure were complex – including the fallout from the pandemic – but said there was currently “no slack in the system”.

“We’ve got to have more flexibility. Any school that is expanded or new school that is built should be thinking…[about how it can have] SEND provision added to it,” he said.

Labour opposition group leader Matthew Tomlinson condemned what he said was the absence of any apology from the Tories in the wake of the Ofsted report in February.

“We’ve committed to getting the waiting list down by 90 percent. There are some families who are waiting four times the legal limit to get an [EHCP].

“Then, when they do get assessed…we don’t have the provision to look after these children – we’ve got children being bused all over the county, traveling two hours a day to get to school and back,” County Cllr Tomlinson said.

Green Party group leader Gina Dowding said SEND services needed to be “responsive to local people”.

“You need to be listening – and you need to work together to find solutions,” she said, adding that all political parties on the authority should co-operate on the plan for the future.

“We know that staff are really working hard, that they are trying their best there [and] they are up for improvement,” County Cllr Dowding said.

Meanwhile Reform UK’s Stephen Atkinson – who does not currently sit on the county council, but is standing for election – said it was wrong that parents were going through “hell on earth”.

“They love their children and they can see [them] suffering and getting more withdrawn and…frustrated – so the damage that’s done takes far more to undo because of these delays,” said Cllr Atkinson, who is the outgoing leader of Ribble Valley Borough Council.

He added that some parents were having to pay to put their children into private schools, because they “can’t get” an EHCP assessment from the county council.

The ‘Lancashire Decides’ debate was staged by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Lancashire Post, Lancashire Lead and Blog Preston – and held at the MacDonald Tickled Trout Hotel on the outskirts of Preston.

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