From legal battles to a chip shop classroom, the right to a suitable education has become a traumatic and exhausting fight for parents of children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities in Sheffield.<\/p>\n
A mother of three SEND boys in years eight, six and four of school, who wished to remain anonymous to protect her children\u2019s privacy, detailed a catalogue of failings concerning the provision of her children\u2019s education by Sheffield City Council.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cIt\u2019s been about eight years since we\u2019ve been dealing with the SEND department in the local authority and it\u2019s been nothing but the worse thing I\u2019ve ever had to do in my life. It\u2019s been really traumatic and time consuming and energy consuming.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t describe, I just can\u2019t understand, how they can get away with it and have no accountability. I\u2019ve never known a service that can just do nothing and get away with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says the process is exhausting, but as a parent who simply wants the best for her children, to not fight for their needs is not an option.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou think \u2018how long can I do this for?\u2019 But you have to because you can\u2019t have the boys out of school. And that\u2019s the motivation, you just want them to be stable and happy and able to attend school every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family from South West Sheffield are in the process of going through their fifth tribunal, after the council failed to name any secondary school for one of their sons on the legal deadline of 15 January, despite having the necessary information since June 2020.<\/p>\n
In the end, the family found their own school, which the department took as an opportunity to enforce the parental preference loophole. This means they are now not entitled to funding for things like transport, despite the family\u2019s increased involvement resulting from the department\u2019s own failings.<\/p>\n
The boys\u2019 mother said: \u201cIt\u2019s just another stab in the back.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey put on his plan that we\u2019ve agreed to pay things above and beyond his fees. We\u2019ve never even had that conversation, the last time someone was in touch was February, so yeah, they\u2019re liars as well. It\u2019s just blatant dishonesty, there\u2019s no other word for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re there like \u2018that conversation has never taken place and you\u2019ve put it on legal documents.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
She added that the issue with the department meeting deadlines extends beyond this single incident: \u201cIn the eight years, they\u2019ve never met a legal deadline. Ever. Ever. Nothing has ever come on time and you\u2019re always left chasing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2019\/20 annual review for one of her sons, which was due in January 2020, is still in the draft stage, with the department admitting that a delay of this length cannot be blamed on the pandemic.<\/p>\n
She also claimed there was a culture of aggression within the department when they are speaking to and about families.<\/p>\n
“When it does get sent to the Head of SEND or to the lawyers, they then become really aggressive with you. You just think \u2018you\u2019re meant to be working in partnership with families and you\u2019re just being really aggressive.'”<\/p>\n
A second mother from Nether Edge, who also asked to remain anonymous, described a five-year cycle of council failures that resulted in her son, now in post-16 education, being taught in a disused chip shop.<\/p>\n
At that point, her son had been walking the streets with his tutor as no indoor space had been provided.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI had been asking and asking and asking for them to provide somewhere indoors that\u2019s dry and warm and somewhere where he has access to a toilet. And they agreed to fund the chip shop and at the time I was so grateful.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking back at it, it\u2019s appalling, he should not have ended up in a chip shop, it\u2019s disgusting. There was still fat in the fryers, they were all turned off, but the smell it permeates everything. And there was no heating, it got to the point where I had to send him in a dressing gown.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eventually, she went to an ombudsman who found serious failings with the way the case had been handled. In 2020, she received \u00a320,000 from the council in compensation, but for her, the money cannot cover the true cost of this debacle.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cI feel like we\u2019ve lost so much because [my son] has lost his self-confidence, he\u2019s lost his friendships, he\u2019s lost his childhood, he\u2019s lost his educational chances. I mean, how do you make up for five years?<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t imagine myself what it must be like to not have been in high school for five years, because that\u2019s your memories going forward, isn\u2019t it? Like when you meet friends and you talk about \u2018oh what school did you go to\u2019 or whatever, he\u2019s got none of that. He\u2019s got none of that to come.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just think the effect this is going to have in years to come, and it worries me. It’s life limiting. Now he doesn\u2019t want to catch up, it\u2019s damaged him, it\u2019s damaging. He just sees himself as worthless.\u201d<\/p>\n
For her, the impact has been just as bad. She was in the process of completing a degree at the time and considered throwing it in more than once because she could not cope with the strain of it all.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just drains you; I don\u2019t think people realise how much it drains you. You think you can just ask for help and it\u2019s there, but it isn\u2019t, it\u2019s not there at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a parent, it does scar your relationships with services, you do lose your trust in professionals. It does damage you and I never thought I would be like that because I\u2019ve always been very trusting of organisations.\u201d<\/p>\n