Herefordshire faces a “crisis” in the care and support it provides for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), a head teacher in the county has claimed.

In a written submission to Herefordshire Council’s children and young people scrutiny committee last week, the unnamed primary school head said: “There is a lack of confidence amongst head teachers with regard to SEND.

“We are concerned about capacity, lack of availability of places in specialist settings and lack of flexibility… There are huge pressures on staffing at all levels within the team which means that excellent staff are overloaded and we will lose them.”

The head’s submission claimed that one family in the county “has waited over two years for support to be organised and implemented effectively”.

“This means the child is constantly re-traumatised (by) having to tell her story to, so far, nine social workers,” it said.

RELATED NEWS:

The submission was made in response to the Herefordshire children’s services improvement plan which the council has now submitted to the Government.

The head claims the county is “at a critical point now where there are no primary SEMH [social, emotional and mental health] places in this county” – a shortcoming which they said the improvement plan does not appear to address.

The submission concludes “We are walking into a crisis with SEND – a strong word, but all heads I talk to about this would agree.”

Interested in political goings-on in Herefordshire and beyond? Why not join our Herefordshire politics and local democracy Facebook group?

Or you can sign up for our weekly Herefordshire Politics e-newsletter, delivered free to your inbox every Friday.

The action plan, a requirement of the council following Ofsted’s rating of its children’s services as “inadequate” in July, was approved by senior councillors at a cabinet meeting also last week.

It also addresses areas for improvement identified during a review in October of the council’s SEND provision by the Local Government Association (LGA).

The LGA confirmed it had passed a draft report of its review to Herefordshire Council, which the council says it expects to publish a final version of next month.

The council’s director of children’s services Darryl Freeman said: “A huge amount of the improvement work is already under way in response to the Ofsted inspection and the LGA peer review findings, and change is happening at pace.

“We will continue to work towards strengthening our services in every area until we have made significant and lasting improvements to the support we offer families.”

Cabinet member for children and families Coun Diana Toynbee told the cabinet meeting: “Some of the structures and foundations that our services need have not been in place for many years.

“We now have an invaluable framework that will enable us to make, and track, progress and to get our services for children and families where they need to be.”

She added: “A lot of conversations and engagement went on with the people and groups we work with to put together this plan. We will keep on building these relationships and having these conversations, even if they are difficult.”

What are your thoughts?

You can send a letter to the editor to have your say by clicking here.

Letters should not exceed 250 words and local issues take precedence.