SEND Provision: Derbyshire

Linsey Farnsworth Excerpts

Wednesday 12th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Linsey Farnsworth (Amber Valley) (Lab)]

I am grateful for the opportunity to bring forward this debate. I know that the Labour Government have inherited a broken system of special educational needs and disabilities provision—broken by 14 years of Tory under-investment, mismanagement and chaos. Even knowing this, I was shocked by the number of Amber Valley parents and carers who have reached out to me desperate for help. They have been let down by a national SEND system in measured decline and, in Derbyshire, by a county council demonstrating “widespread and/or systemic failings”. SEND provision throughout the country is in a bad state, but in Derbyshire it is at crisis point. This Government are committed to

“breaking down barriers to opportunity”.

Where previous Conservative Governments failed, we will succeed in rebuilding our SEND system and ensuring it is properly funded. In Derbyshire, however, we must go further. Derbyshire county council is failing our children. That is the story I have heard over and over from parents, carers and educators in Amber Valley.

It was therefore no surprise to read of widespread and systemic failings in Ofsted’s damning report on Derbyshire county council’s SEND provision. By the time Ofsted published its findings in November 2024, I had already heard about those failings at first hand through countless emails and surgery appointments. Wanting to get a true picture of the scale of the issue, I conducted a survey on SEND provision in Amber Valley. The results spoke for themselves, with 88% of respondents rating SEND provision in Amber Valley as poor and only 2% saying it was good. Some 83% complained of long waiting times, 81% said that provision in mainstream schools was insufficient, and 70% said that they had experienced problems obtaining an education, health and care plan, which is the first step in accessing support for their child.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I commend the hon. Lady on bringing this debate forward. I spoke to her beforehand. It is heartbreaking to hear what she is saying about her constituency, and I understand that, but the situation is replicated across this whole great United Kingdom. The number of Members who are here to speak is an indication of how many want to voice their concerns. She is right to talk about those who are waiting. Does she agree that early diagnosis and early intervention are all that really matters? If we can get that done early, we can save a child. It can give a child a future and an opportunity, and it can take the pressure off the parents as well.

[Linsey Farnsworth]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention on a matter that I know is close to his heart. He is absolutely right. The delays are a real concern, and diagnosis at an early stage is important, but that is not what we are seeing in Derbyshire. That is the worry.

[John Whitby (Derbyshire Dales) (Lab)]

Having read the Ofsted report, it is clear that the SEND operation in Derbyshire county council is in complete chaos, with what appears to be a revolving door of senior officers, unfilled posts, consultants and temporary positions. My constituent Claire tells me that the council is completely unresponsive, and that point about nobody ever getting back to people is a recurring theme. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is imperative that Derbyshire county council gets its act together and starts responding to parents who are in such desperate need?

[Linsey Farnsworth]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. I think that every Derbyshire MP will testify to the same thing: that phones are not answered and emails go un-responded to. It is not sustainable for this to be the status quo.

So many people in Amber Valley wanted to talk to me about their experience. What was planned as a small, intimate roundtable event soon became a large town hall meeting full of concerned parents, each with a story to tell. From this, a clear picture emerged. Children and young people are being failed at every step in the process. Families are waiting far too long for the education and health assessments to allow them to access the specialist help that they need. As a result, many children are missing significant portions of their education, with some falling out of school altogether. That is all while Derbyshire county council fails to communicate, just as my hon. Friend said.

[James Naish (Rushcliffe) (Lab)]

As my hon. Friend knows, I represent the nearby constituency of Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire, where the average waiting time for neurodevelopmental assessments is 54 weeks. That is actually an improvement from a year ago, when it was 68 weeks. Does my hon. Friend agree that a lot of what she is describing is systemic, as has been mentioned, and that this Government need to address it urgently?

[Linsey Farnsworth]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. The Government need to grip this issue across the country. Unfortunately, we understand his plight only too well in Derbyshire.

Parents and carers talk about barriers at every stage of the process and about how they are “ignored” by an “unresponsive” council. A big part of our challenge in fixing the foundations of SEND provision is, of course, funding. That made it all the more shocking to learn of the SEND budget left unspent by Derbyshire county council. In a debate in the Chamber on 23 April 2024, my hon. Friend the Member for Chesterfield (Mr Perkins) highlighted that of £17.5 million received since 2019, only £1.5 million had been spent. That is nothing short of a scandal—£16 million unspent. That money was specifically allocated to create new school places for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

Derbyshire county council claimed that it could not rush the allocation of the funds, but we are talking about six years—children will have started and ended their secondary school education in that time. What it has managed to spend, however, is about half a million pounds on two consultants for strategic help on children’s services. The families I have spoken to say that, despite that, they have seen no improvement. They say that had the council just engaged with parents, carers and educators, they would have received a wealth of advice for free.

Our children and their families are paying the price. These children are missing education, being labelled as “disruptive” and suffering from poor mental health. While Derbyshire county council was failing to create the new, much-needed and funded SEND places, my constituent Chris Spencer’s son was missing school. Chris told me that his son had been assessed as needing a place in a SEND special school but that none were available. His son was missing out on vital education, making friends and the support he needed. Without a school place, Chris was caring full time for his son at home, making it impossible for him to go to work. He told me:

“I want a job…I want to work, but I can’t”.

Derbyshire county council not only failed to supply Chris’s son with a promised school place but issued him with two fines for non-attendance. The first was withdrawn by the council after I intervened on Chris’s behalf, but the second went to court, where the judge threw out the case. It should not come to this—for an MP and a judge to have to intervene—before anything is done.

I am afraid that that story is just one of dozens. Angie Hardy, another constituent of mine, after years of fighting on behalf of her three sons, each with SEND, was still waiting on an EHCP, an annual review and the much-needed transport that had been promised. As a result, one of her sons has not been able to attend school since February 2022—yet another child missing out on education and the support they need to succeed.

Many other parents talked about resorting to legal challenges. They have found tribunals and judicial reviews not only extremely stressful, but with legal aid solicitors now so hard to come by—another victim of Tory austerity, I am afraid, and one that the Justice Committee, of which I am a member, fully understands—extremely costly. That is a common experience. One mother told me that

“judges are awarding places now, not the local authority”.

[Catherine Atkinson (Derby North) (Lab)]

I have been supporting parents in Derby North who currently face a wait of more than a year for their children’s SEND tribunals, causing agony as they are left in limbo. We know that the historical lack of funding for local authorities, suitable school places and educational psychologists has contributed to the delays. Does my hon. Friend agree that the delays are yet another example of a SEND system that, as the Education Secretary said, had been

“neglected to the point of crisis”?

[Linsey Farnsworth]

I agree. Crisis—a word that I have already used in this debate—is what we are facing right across the country. I am very concerned about that. In Derbyshire we face that very challenge, as well as all the additional challenges of the systemic problems in the county council.

As high as the legal costs for families can be, the emotional costs are still higher. All parents and carers want the best for their children and I found it impossible not to feel for families who, time and again, talked about being exhausted from constantly fighting: for timely, accurate diagnoses and care plans; for the little provision that is available; and even for the transport needed to get their children to school. Many families are at breaking point. They say that it should not be so hard, and they are right.

The Conservatives at Derbyshire county council have acknowledged the failings and issued an apology. That is a necessary first step, but it is far from sufficient. It has been five months since Ofsted uncovered widespread and systemic failings. Although the council claims to be making improvements, the pace of change is far too slow.

Only two weeks ago, fellow Derbyshire Labour MPs and I met representatives of the National Association of Headteachers. The stories that they told mirrored the frustrations and heartache experienced by the hundreds of parents and carers who have reached out to us in desperation. They told us that they, too, face a daily fight to be heard by Derbyshire county council. Too often, their emails go unanswered, they are made to jump through bureaucratic hoops to access the support that should be in place, and the revolving door of leadership has led to confusion and uncertainty.

While the leaders and the plans might change, we were told say that there have been no tangible improvements. EHCPs, which should be processed within 20 weeks—a long time for any parent to wait—can take more than 50 weeks, as my hon. Friend the Member for Derby North (Catherine Atkinson) said. That is practically a year. Not only do educators not feel confident that their concerns will be heard; they fear petty reprisals. More worrying still, they said that the lack of funding is affecting not only their most vulnerable pupils but all pupils, as class sizes increase and teaching capacity cannot keep up.

[Amanda Hack (North West Leicestershire) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for securing this incredibly important debate. My constituency neighbours Derbyshire, and I recently held a roundtable on SEND provision with parents and teachers from schools and colleges. The issue that repeatedly came up was funding, and the disparity in funding not just between schools but across local authority areas. Does my hon. Friend agree that we need consistency of SEND provision across county lines in order to provide good-quality SEND provision for all our children?

[Linsey Farnsworth]

I agree that we need more consistency. One of the concerns in the Ofsted report just for Derbyshire was that there is no consistency, because of the lack of a clearly defined joint strategy. The support is described by parents as a postcode lottery—we have that problem just within Derbyshire itself.

Teachers are working so hard for the children in their care, but they still feel that they are failing them, through no fault of their own. Schools are relying on the good will of staff just to function. Due to insufficient funding, stress and exhaustion, we are losing amazing teachers who give their all every day. That is the real-life impact of widespread and systemic failings.

Many families still feel helpless, as their children are labelled disruptive and parents’ ability to be a good parent and provide adequate care is called into question. Worst of all, I hear from parents of children, some as young as 12, who have become so desperate that they have considered taking their own lives. These children should be thriving in a stimulating learning environment, enjoying making friends and developing their skills. They should not feel so forgotten and lost that they tell their parents that they want to die.

As I have said, we are at crisis point in Derbyshire. We cannot allow this situation to continue. The children of Derbyshire deserve better; their families deserve better; and we, as Labour MPs, demand better.

I am grateful to the Department for issuing an improvement notice on 14 January, setting out the requirements the Secretary of State has placed on Derbyshire county council to ensure improvements. This decisive action appears to have made the council jump to attention, with its priority impact plan published two weeks later. However, Madam Deputy Speaker, you can understand the scepticism of educators across Derbyshire, given that they have seen it all before, with no fewer than eight plans put in place since 2018. This time must be different. If this Conservative county council cannot or will not make these improvements with the urgency they demand, the voters can replace it with a Labour council that absolutely will.

My fellow Labour Derbyshire MPs and I have promised that as hard as teachers, parents and carers have been fighting, we will fight, too. We are fighting for real change, real accountability and a real commitment to providing the education and support that every child with special educational needs and disabilities deserves. That is our promise, and it is one we intend to keep.

[Several hon. Members rose—]