The number of parents in Bristol taking the city council to court for issues with special educational needs provision tripled last year. The rapidly increasing number of tribunal appeals shows the scale of anger among parents with the city’s long-standing education problems.
Parents can take their local council to a first-tier tribunal for several reasons if they are unhappy with a decision about special educational needs and disability (SEND) provision. These tribunals can take more than a year to settle, delaying children’s education.
Education chiefs at Bristol City Council faced questions about the increasing number of tribunal appeals, during a meeting of the people scrutiny commission on Monday, March 13. The number of appeals jumped from 37 in 2021 up to a staggering 120 appeals last year.
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Green Councillor Christine Townsend, shadow cabinet member for education, said: “We need to keep an eye on the tribunals, because it’s gone up by 300%, which is a lot. That is not good parental relationships.
“I had a case come to me where the local authority refused to go to mediation, despite the parent asking for that. I would like to understand why that might be the case. It feeds into the ‘we’re going to ignore you, we’re going to wear you down’, and it was a year. This child should have been in Year 7 but they remained in Year 6 as a result of this.”
According to council papers, of the 120 tribunal appeals lodged last year, 46 were due to the council refusing to assess children; 10 were refusal to issue EHCPs; 62 were the content of EHCPs; one was a disability discrimination case; and one was not sent to the council.
Bristol’s SEND provision has suffered many problems for several years, notably failing an Ofsted inspection in 2019. Late last year, inspectors revisited the city and found several areas of SEND provision had improved, but one area where the council still struggled was with its relationship with parents and carers.
Some progress is being made with speeding up applications for education, health and care plans (EHCPs). These are crucial documents setting out how children with SEND should be cared for and looked after in school, as well as what extra help they need. But applying for an EHCP can take many months, and often parents are unhappy with the final results.
During the scrutiny meeting, education chiefs said the average time parents waited for an EHCP was reducing, and the average wait time in December last year was down to 33 weeks. However, an increasing number of applications are being made, rising from 728 in 2020, to 850 in 2021, and then up to 1,000 last year.
Labour Councillor Kerry Bailes, representing Hartcliffe and Withywood, said: “I’m really struggling to understand what improvements there are. I’m a SEND mum and I support SEND families. If things are improving, as parents we’re not seeing it. The statistics might be improving, but with the relationships between officers and caseworkers, and communication, there doesn’t seem to be improvements from where we’re standing.
“By the time they get to a tribunal, most parents are really narked off, and that’s putting it lightly. By the time they get to that point, they don’t want to sit down with officers, and that’s perfectly valid. You feel like you’re always being questioned and judged. Parents are trying to be the best parents they can, but there are many obstacles in their way.”
Abi Gbago, who started as executive director of children and education in December last year, promised that the strained relationship between the council and parents was “at the forefront” of her department’s thinking. She said the department would communicate more transparently with parents, and admitted the situation was “significantly challenging”.
She said: “We appreciate that it has been significantly challenging up until now, and I won’t pretend it hasn’t been. It’s right at the forefront of how we want to move forward. It may not be felt immediately, but it’s something we’re wholeheartedly committed to. In time we hope it will begin to show.
“We need to think about how we communicate more transparently and more often. It’s not perfect right now but we’re right at the beginning of a journey. I welcome any kind of conversation and challenge around where we can do it better.”
Labour Cllr Asher Craig, cabinet member for education, did not attend the scrutiny hearing to answer questions. In January, she promised to give an update in early February on when the long-awaited external inquiry would begin, investigating council staff's controversial monitoring of the social media of SEND parents who criticised the city’s education provision.
Now several weeks later, no update has been given, and it appears increasingly likely the inquiry will be scrapped. One SEND parent, whose social media posts over several months were monitored by the council, is Jen Smith. During the scrutiny meeting, she claimed the council preferred to go into tribunals rather than provide proper education for SEND children.
She said: “The council’s choice is to head down the time-consuming route of [tribunals]. It benefits them to do this. Time spent in legal argument is time they do not have to pay for education provision for disabled children. Families aren’t making an Amazon wishlist — they are desperately trying to find a school that will educate, not traumatise, their children.”
