THE new Staffordshire County Council leadership have been told fixing the process for supporting children with special educational needs must be among their immediate priorities.
Elections last week saw Reform UK sweep into power at the council after winning 49 of the 62 available seats.
But Cllr Jacob Marshall, a Labour member of Lichfield City Council who lost out in the Lichfield City South county council seat vote, said it was important the new administration was quick to address issues that were key for residents.
He said that issues with the assessment process for education, health and care plans (EHCPs) – legal documents outlining support needed for children – should be high on the list of priorities.
“I made Staffordshire’s broken special educational needs system a key focus of my campaign in the election just gone – and I’m glad I did.
“So many parents have written to me with their experiences – all of them bad – and I’m working with those parents to support them in any way I can.
“The real problem is the broken system though. Staffordshire is the fourth worst performing authority in the country for sticking to assessment timelines. They’re legally obligated to assess kids within 20 weeks of agreeing to assess, but they manage to do this in a paltry 26% of cases.
“Before assessments are done, schools can’t provide appropriate support. Without appropriate support, kids can’t reach their potential and in this way, not providing the support now robs them of their future.
“Successful countries invest in their future, their children, and that’s what we should be doing in Staffordshire.”
Cllr Marshall said it was important that new Reform UK county councillors were tackling the issues under their control locally.
He said:
“In the Reform leaflet that came through my door, there wasn’t much in the way of local issues. There was something about them being straight talking though.
“So will Reform commit to sorting out one part of Staffordshire’s broken SEND system by sticking to the 20 week assessment timeline?”
