A message from Nick Timothy MP:
“I want to say thank you if you took time to complete my local survey on provision for special educational needs and disabilities. With nearly 100 responses, mainly from the West Suffolk area, you can see the results below.
The results are reminders of the huge challenges facing SEND provision and will be helpful in enabling me to formulate a response to the Government when it releases its proposals to improve the system of SEND provision in its forthcoming Schools White Paper. It’s not too late to take part in the survey. If you would like to do so, please click here.”
Best wishes
- A majority of 94 parents and carers surveyed (56.4%) say SEND provision does not adequately meet the particular needs of the child they are caring for.
2. 91.4% of parents or carers surveyed said the child they are caring for did not receive provision in a timely enough manner.
3. 74% are not satisfied with the quality of support, communication and updates received from your SEND caseworker and others at Suffolk County Council. Around 11% indicated they were satisfied.
4. 75.4% of 69 parents and carers said their child’s Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan was not issued within the statutory 20-week timeframe.
5. 52.4% of parents and carers surveyed said Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan did not adequately reflect the particular needs of their child or the child they cared for, while just under 30% said it did.
6. 92.4% said they did not believe there was adequate coordination on the issue of SEND between the various elements of the public sector, including different local authorities, the NHS and the education system.
7. 99% of those surveyed said there were not enough special school places available in West Suffolk.
8. Just under a quarter (23.2%) said their children had to use taxi journeys to travel to school.
9. Of the options for improving the system of SEND provision, the three ideas which gained the strongest support were a) More training for council staff / teaching staff / social worker / NHS personnel (with 77% giving a rating of 10 for this option) b) More special school places (with 76% giving a rating of 10 for this option and c) More consistency in SEND standards applied across the board (with 71.9% giving a rating of 10 for this option.
