Warning it will take time to deal with immense pressures on Solihull service

Education chiefs have warned it will take time to deal with the problems which have hampered Solihull services for children with special needs and disabilities.

The intense pressure on SEND support is seen as one of the single biggest issues facing the council and its “risk rating” is now at the highest level.

In an attempt to tackle delays and improve communication with families, an extra £430,000 was pumped into budget earlier this year and staffing levels have been increased to cope with the heavy workloads.

Louise Rees, director of children’s services, said the extra resources were having an impact, but she has warned parents it will take time to get a proper hold on the issue.

“It’s slowly starting to make a difference,” she told a scrutiny board last week.

“What I said to the parents’ group when I met them is that this is a situation that has built up over a number of years and sadly it’s not going to be something we’re going to be able to turn around within the next two or three months.

“What they said was that they appreciate that honesty, because they don’t want any more promises on commitments that we can’t make, they would rather hear the detail of what we’re going to do to put it right.”

Aside from allocating extra money and staff, the council’s SEND strategy is also being reviewed and plans to open a special free school – to ease the burden locally – are moving forward.

Ms Rees said that, following discussions with fellow officers, it had previously been agreed that the risk rating would be increased to ‘Red 9’ – the highest level – in light of financial pressures and problems meeting targets.

She hoped the steps being taken to tackle the difficulties would allow the risk to be downgraded again.

“It’s not the only ‘9’ risk the local authority has, there are several others and they probably would be rated very similarly, I would suggest, among many local authorities.”

Cllr Alan Rebeiro (Ind, Knowle) said he was concerned that some of delays in the process were due to a similar backlog in organisations such as the NHS.

“This is quite a complex area of course and there are several partners … it’s quite unfair that the council is carrying this rating in isolation.”

Amid growing concerns about the problems being reported nationwide, the Education Secretary Gavin Williamson announced a major review of SEND earlier this month.

Read more: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/warning-take-time-deal-immense-16926421