abracadabra

Silence from Haringey’s Children's Services has greeted the much lauded (no blame) AMAZE Report into parent engagement that was commissioned and paid for by Haringey and the charity Contact. The AMAZE Report has become  just the latest in a long litany starting with the 2018 OFSTED report into the failure to meet the needs of disabled children by Haringey Children's Services, as well as a great deal of other reports regarding how the families of disabled children are mistreated by the officers and managers of the Haringey SEND department.

To paraphrase both Mister Justice Hayden (the judge in the May 2020 child protection case) and Zina Ethridge (Haringey Chief Executive), the Amaze report demonstrates how the local authority has been 'dilatory in meeting a raft of statutory obligations' to co-produce services with families that meet the needs of disabled children for the last six years and this has resulted in thousands of families 'pitching further up the needs pyramid'.

From paragraph 1.1 the Principles underpinning the 2015 SEND Code of Practice

Section 19 of the Children and Families Act 2014 makes clear that local authorities, in carrying out their functions under the Act in relation to disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs (SEN), must have regard to: the views, wishes and feelings of the child or young person, and the child’s parents; the importance of the child or young person, and the child’s parents, participating as fully as possible in decisions, and being provided with the information and support necessary to enable participation in those decisions; the need to support the child or young person, and the child’s parents, in order to facilitate the development of the child or young person and to help them achieve the best possible educational and other outcomes, preparing them effectively for adulthood.

In January 2020, a review of SEND services by the Children’s and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel, said ‘Co-production with parents and carers and a collaborative approach should now be being followed in the design, planning and development of services’. The Children’s Service’s response to the review was presented to Cabinet on the 10th March 2020, and said that the service would be ‘Using the grant available from Contact and further supplemented by the Local Authority to commission a charity called AMAZE to undertake outreach work on developing a strong and active parent/carer forum in our borough’. For those who don't know, paragraph 1.13 of the 2015 SEND Code of Practice states: Parent Carer Forums are representative local groups of parents and carers of children and young people with disabilities who work alongside local authorities, education, health and other service providers to ensure the services they plan, commission, deliver and monitor meet the needs of children and families.

The AMAZE report finds that ‘a lack of continuity in leadership, repeated movement of the SEND team between portfolios, staff turnover and inconsistent practice, which have hampered Haringey’s attempts to deliver the systematic cultural changes that have been needed over the last six years’. Remarks that echo the words of Mister Justice Hayden, who found the department to be dilatory in meeting statutory obligations. Haringey doesn't have the internal and external structures and processes in place to take parental feedback and turn it into co-produced output. The culture is described as defensive and the attitude of the staff towards the parents who are involved in strategic level meetings is  ‘divide and conquer’, it is within this arena that parents have been forced to fight tenaciously for services, leading to an ‘adversarial atmosphere’. All of which has arisen as a consequence the previous forum being substantially underfunded and without appropriate governance structures and policies within the forum and the council.

Reading how upset officers report they are with the current status quo, is it not curious that the then Head of Integrated SEND Services annually recommissioning the forum during this period of time through approving it's Department of Education funded grant application (administered by the charity Contact)? in light of the great malcontent staff have with the current situation, as  divulged to the AMAZE researchers, why was due diligence not carried to ensure the necessary policies, structures and governance where in place at the forum and in co-production meetings? How and why was this situation allowed to persist for so long? Sadly, answering these questions did not fall within the scope of the 'no blame' AMAZE report. However, it is even more curious when it is taken into account how unhappy parents have been with the situation as well, especially parents who have attended 'strategic meetings' and they have been reporting this to senior officers for years. 

We are reminded of the remarks of Mister Justice Hayden in the recent child protection case involving Haringey's disabled children's team, who not only found the case riddled with mismanagement and a lack of rigour in social work practice, but also pointedly remarked that the behaviour of the local authority towards the parent was petulant to the point of being discriminatory. AMAZE report comments from local authority officers that they find parent's behaviours in meetings to be inappropriate, but when read alongside of the rest of the AMAZE report, it appears that staff are victim blaming parents who have been put in an impossible position of needing the local authority to properly act upon their duty to co-produce services that meet needs, but who haven't been listened to over a great many years, and are being put into an unsupportive and hostile environment because the local authority have failed to put in place appropriate systems and procedures to carry out this statutory duty.

AMAZE report that parent’s feel that there is an imbalance of power when dealing with professionals and a lack of openness, honesty and transparency in the slow and exhausting SEND system, fraught with difficulties and staff who lack empathy and understanding. Communication issues are numerous and exacerbated by the lack of a disability register to enable making contact parents or to use to efficiently share information or invite parents to events (All local authorities are required to have such a register by the Children's Act 1989). 

The departments own report from the 5th February 2020 SEN Transport event acknowledges problems had been identified to the Local Authority (LA) over a sustained period but had not been acted upon and issues were systemic and ingrained. On the 16th June 2020, the Cabinet Member advised Cabinet that, ‘the Council had enlisted an experienced external organisation [AMAZE] for consulting with parents and carers on development of the service going forward.’

The AMAZE report backs up warnings and experiences in lockdown recorded in this blog and the Markfield SENDIASS ‘Lockdown’ survey, that Covid-19 has had a huge impact on the SEND community and families’ experiences during the pandemic underlines the absolute necessity and pressing need for greater parent participation in the borough.

'Communication issues’ reported by AMAZE were a significant feature in the May 2020 child protection case and are also reminiscent of the issues reported by parents who complained to the Local Government Ombudsman in decisions reported in November 2019 and June 2020. One complainant reports a racially motivated and wholly unfounded allegation of theft; rude and threatening letters from the SEND department and a social worker from the disabled children's team barging into her home; the other complainant reports social workers from the disabled children team discussing a threatening text with the person who sent it.

In our experience 'communication issues' quite often happen behind closed doors; on the office 'mobile phone' (which is not recorded like calls to the office landline) or only witnessed by other officers and professionals - who ALWAYS back up one another. 

In March 2019 , the then member responsible said to Cabinet that [the Children’s Service’s] already knew of the failings reported in the 2018 OFSTED report, through their own self-assessment. But in May 2020, Haringey’s barrister in the high court asserted in a child protection case involving the Disabled Children’s Team “that the deficiencies identified in this team are not representative of practice in this local authority's Children's Services more generally.” Mr Justice Hayden replied that he “profoundly hope that is correct.” and “that this team simply lost sight of the most basic of child protection and safeguarding procedures.“

When the lack of candour in the barristers statement was discovered by the judge, Haringey then tried to keep the case out of the press. Their lawyer claimed that "the public in general and local residents, in particular have, via the publication of the Ofsted report, already been told of the failings of their council in this area of children services". Thus, it is unnecessary to name the Local Authority because their failings are already known.

In the 14th July 2020 Cabinet meeting it was noted that the Family Court Judgment was critical of the social work practice in the DCT team, and it suggested that the practice in the team may not have improved since the 2018 Ofsted inspection.  The Cabinet Member remarked that the SEND services was not as poor as it was currently commented to be. The Cabinet Member [said that she] was committed to working with parents and following publication of the AMAZE report would be working with officers to put in place an action plan which would be shared with parents about how the services can move forward.

It’s been more than a week, and the report is yet to be shared more widely with anybody, including SEND parents.  It was due to be published on the 'Local Offer NEWS' pages - it has not been. Some parents, but I can confidently report not all, received an email from the department last Friday.  The email invited parents to HAVE YOUR SAY in the future of the SEND department. The 'survey' asks parents  to rate the service from one to ten and then asks them to select three attributes the SEND service should focus on - the full survey can be found through this link here:   https://wh1.snapsurveys.com/s.asp?k=159559402401. 

Who knew the Principles in the SEND Code of Practice were optional?  In light of this 'survey', it is quite difficult to take ANY of the promises made seriously. We keep being told that we WILL be listened to at some unspecified point in the future. Does the department have the ability to honestly self reflect and carry out the changes in it's own behaviours and practices that it needs to make?

Criticisms of the practice of the Disabled Children's Team by Ofsted, November 2018

November 2018 Ofsted report

https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50044253 

Cabinet meeting,12th march 2019

https://www.minutes.haringey.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=60632#:~:text=Following%20the%20inspection%20of%20Haringey%20Children%27s%20Services%20in,for%20submission%20to%20Ofsted%20is%20marked%20to%20follow. 

Local Government Ombudsman decision: 19004368

https://www.lgo.org.uk/decisions/children-s-care-services/disabled-children/19-004-368

Deputation to Overview and Scrutiny Panel – Outsourcing of SEN Travel call-in (3rd December 2019) -  Meeting minutes

https://www.minutes.haringey.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=128&MId=9324&Ver=4

Deputation to Cabinet by Mrs Marta Garcia de la Vega who was opposing the outsourcing of SEND Transport service

Marta’s deputation: https://www.minutes.haringey.gov.uk/mgAi.aspx?ID=61236

Cabinet meeting minutes: https://www.minutes.haringey.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=118&MID=9155#AI61236

Children and Young Peoples Scrutiny Panel Report

Scrutiny Panel Report: https://www.minutes.haringey.gov.uk/documents/s115038/CYP%20SEND%20Fin%20Rep%20002.pdf/decisions/children-s-care-services/disabled-children/19-004-368

Report to Cabinet: https://www.minutes.haringey.gov.uk/documents/s115037/Scrutiny%20SEND%20Feb%202020%20Cabinet%20report%20-%20final.pdf

SEN Travel Event and subsequent communications though 2020
Summary of communications SEN Travel letters

https://www.difficultparent.com/empty-promises-and-meaningless-apologies

Cabinet 16th June 2020:

https://www.minutes.haringey.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=118&MId=9402

Published Monday 20th July (6 months after the meeting) Haringey’s SEN Travel Report:

https://www.haringey.gov.uk/sites/haringeygovuk/files/send_transport_engagement_report.pdf

Haringey were heavily criticised for their conduct in a child protection case involving the disabled children’s team that they won

Judgement
https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWFC/HCJ/2020/38.html
https://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/format.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWHC/Fam/2020/1162.html
https://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/format.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWHC/Fam/2020/1282.html

The Children’s Services response to questions posed in cabinet 14th July 2020 extracts from the minutes
https://www.minutes.haringey.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=118&MId=9416

Markfield SENDIASS Survey (late May 2020), of parents and carers in Haringey of children and young people aged up to 25 years who have Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND): Haringey SEND failed to meet the needs of families
https://markfield.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Markfield-SENDIASS-survey-of-parents-May-2020.pdf

Local Government Ombudsman decision: 19014008

https://www.lgo.org.uk/decisions/housing/homelessness/19-014-008

Summary of findings from the Difficult Parent SEN Travel Survey results

 https://www.difficultparent.com/haringey-sen-travel-survey

The AMAZE Report

 https://amazesussex.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Amaze_Haringey_final_DOWNLOAD-1.pdf