Lib Dem response to County Tory SEN plans

The tory Cabinet took a report on proposed changes to the Special Educational Needs system in place at the County Council and the Liberal Democrat opposition group put the following submission in, in the event there was no discussion or debate on this very compelx and important matter.

Given that the consultation closed on 30th March the Liberal Democrat group are disappointed it has not been possible for Scrutiny to discuss the key issues and concerns raised by parents and schools during the consultation and the proposed changes to the criteria.

We believe that the Issues Log, which appears to have been on the Council's website since 4th April, should have been drawn to member's attention earlier, as it raises serious concerns about the new criteria and in particular the higher thresholds proposed for children with SEN. We note with concern that paragraph 16 of the report states that only 2 out of the 16 responses received expressed themselves satisfied with the document overall and in our view further consideration needs to be given to see what can be done to address genuine issues raised by parents.

For many years in Leicestershire, SEN policy has been developed on a cross party basis which has resulted in there being support from all political groups on the County Council. If this is to continue there needs to be a better understanding / justification of the reasons behind some of these changes. Crucially the report contains no comparison between the existing policy and the proposed changes. A simple table would have been useful in setting out clearly the main differences in the new criteria. Nor does the report appear to consider or reflect upon the excellent work and recommendations of the recent SEN review chaired by Don Wright CC. It would have been helpful to understand how the recommendations in the review are affected by the proposed changes to the review of the criteria.

As this new policy being proposed by the Conservative administration could result in a reduction in access for children who could have/have Special Educational Needs, the Liberal Democrat group believes the final implementation should be delayed until the end of September which would allow time for Scrutiny to consider the details of these proposals with any comments to be reported back to Cabinet at its September meeting.

Simon Galton CC

July 2012