A letter to Haringey Chief Executive regarding the Haringey SEND Department

  • By Brian Leveson
  • 16 Apr, 2020

Facebook is awash with rumours of a 'relaxation' of the policy around direct payments / personal budgets for short break. But there is no clear communication with the Haringey SEND community and parents are anxious to spend monies without clear guidance.  And there is upset that some people have been told to spend on what you like - even food, whilst others repeated requests for clarity (mine) have not been responded to

Dear Zina Etheridge,

I have been told by three different parents that the Haringey SEND department have relaxed their policy on Direct Payments / Personal Budgets for short breaks.  

One parent challenged the department as to where this policy change was being communicated to the vulnerable Haringey  SEND parent carer community. The parent was told parent carers need to look on the website because sending letters out to the some 500 parents who receive parent carers was not be practical. 

I wish to note the following:
  1. There needs to be clarity and clear communication about this relaxation of policy to all parents. 
  2. 500 or so parents have been written to twice about SEND Transport 'Annual Application', why is it not practical to write to a similar number of parents about direct payments.
  3. Please can you clearly show where this information is available on the Haringey website. A close examination of the website by myself and other parent carers has failed to find this policy relaxation.
  4. The unfairness of how this has been communicated on a person by person basis to very vulnerable people is an issue that needs to be explained.

I look forward to your response

Regards

The Difficult Parent
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