07/10/2026
๐ข SEND in Worcestershire - the concerns we raised with the new Worcestershire County Council Cabinet member ๐ข
Families, young people and the services that support them met today with Cllr Dan Boatright-Greene, who recently became Worcestershire County Council's Cabinet Member for Education, SEND and Skills. Collectively, we used this meeting to set out our concerns about the Worcestershire SEND local area partnership: the council, the Integrated Care Board (ICB), health trusts and schools that together are responsible for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
Around the table were representatives of Worcestershire Parent Carer Forum, Worcestershire SENDIASS (the SEND Information, Advice and Support Service), Voices United and its young SEN peer advocates, and SEND National Crisis. Cllr Boatright-Greene had invited us to hear our concerns, what's working and what we want to see change. We had an open and candid discussion. These are the issues families and partners raised:
*How the SEND system works day-to-day*
๐ Decisions only happen at the top. Families who know the system escalate to senior managers to get things done. Outcomes are not equitable and depend how hard you are able to push, which is unfair to families without the time, energy or skills.
๐ A missing operational layer. Attendees said a layer of capable middle managers is missing, so senior leaders are firefighting individual cases instead of fixing the system.
๐ Inconsistent and wrong advice. Examples included families being told a child must fail in three schools before EOTAS can be considered. Better training for caseworkers and coordinators was called for.
๐ Emails and phones going unanswered. Families want calls answered and emails logged so managers can see what is outstanding. With a five-day caseworker reply and SENDIASS four-day turnaround on top, each exchange can take nine working days.
๐ Complaints that should be fixed early. Simple problems escalate to stage two, the Ombudsman and tribunal because no one acts pragmatically. Many tribunals settle in the final fortnight after months of stress and legal cost.
๐ Policies and processes. Embedding lived experience in the system must happen, but alone will not fix things without policies that are lawful, fair, make reasonable adjustments and are co-produced. Health and the ICB
*Health & ICB*
๐ Neurodevelopmental assessment waits. Waiting lists for autism and ADHD assessment run to years. Attendees said the plans to fix them were never going to work because the numbers don't add up.
๐ Health input holding up EHCPs. Long health waits make the 20-week EHCP timescale unfeasible and frequently compromises quality of the advice from health colleagues.
๐ A co-production gap between education and health. Education staff were seen as far more willing to co-produce than health. Newer staff at the Health and Care Trust were acknowledged for their attitude.
๐ CAMHS misinformation. Despite being informed otherwise, all stakeholder spoke of families with autistic young people being unable to access CAMHS.
๐ Cut to SENDIASS funding. The ICB has reduced its funding for SENDIASS. It comes as EHCP numbers have risen exponentially to 9,000 - creating a bigger workload for SENDIASS and increasing the response wait time to 4 days.
*Co-production and Governance*
๐ Co-production has to reach every team. There is willingness at the top, but it is not filtering down. Whole departments, including social care, are not involved. Teams need to be told it is their job to bring in family and young people's voices, with Voices United and the forum offering training and toolkits.
๐ Children's voices are missing. Voices United is piloting a children's survey on inclusion, due in January.
๐ Rushed national deadlines. The SEND reform plan was drafted without co-production because of DfE deadlines. Attendees welcomed plans for a parent carer and a young person on every working group.
๐ Papers sent too late. Board papers often arrive 24 hours before meetings, and dates move. This shuts out disabled members and busy volunteers, and lets decisions pass without real challenge.
๐ Actions not followed up. The same items roll over from meeting to meeting, and presentations leave no time for debate.
๐ Decisions diluted behind closed doors. A request for occupational therapy input to EHC needs assessments came back from joint commissioning as OTs in schools, after the forum was kept out of the meeting.
๐ Challenge families can't see. Attendees rarely see partners holding each other to account. [Dan reassured us this was happening, but behind closed doors.]
*Workforce and Lived Experience*
๐ Recruit people with lived experience. Parent carers and young people bring skills the council is not using. Forum reps include people with PhDs in autism, social workers, OTs and project managers - skills and enthusiasm are there, if captured.
๐ Job criteria shut people out. Rigid essential criteria exclude capable people who have been out of work caring for their children.
*Communications*
๐ A comms strategy built by families. Attendees noted comms has been on the table for two years, but they stressed that communication cannot make up for failing to deliver.
๐ Clear, written messages. Messages need to be plain, direct and written down, not lost in long speeches or one-off committee comments.
*Schools, Inclusion and Funding*
๐ EHCPs as the only route to funding. Schools tell parents they can't provide support without an EHCP. Attendees hoped proposed new support plans could ease this if implemented properly and without diluting children's rights.
๐ The schools that won't engage. At the county attendance conference, school responses were full of parent blame, despite a strong council message on meeting need. Attendees asked how the council will tackle the minority of schools that just don't engage with improving SEND support?
What happens next? Cllr Boatright-Greene has taken detailed notes and plans to reconvene the group in December, to report back on whatโs moved internally and so we can report the same for familiesโ experiences. He is also visiting groups across the county over the coming weeks, including a Parent Carer Forum event in Pershore on Wednesday 7th October.
He was clear that change will be slow: even a small share of the changes he wants would count as progress. We welcome his offer to come back, and we will share what he reports on the partnership's progress.
๐ข What did we miss? Drop your feedback below.
