Michael King

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a minimum of 5,000 children seeking special educational support (Send), are tested for their cases to London council landed a stinging rebuke from The Local government ombudsman.

concerns about the "systemic deficiencies" in Richmond-asked to Send Department to take the watchdog, the highly unusual step of ordering the full-scale test.

The Ombudsman to the missing documents, cat skins ignored files and logs, in search of three complaints.

Richmond accepted the findings in full.

The Council agreed in General, in the upper end of the education league tables, has to undertake the review of the determination, operating by an external company, achieving for children (AfC).

Other affected?

The watchdog's action, the decision reflects the seriousness of The Situation , which revealed The Investigation .

Michael King , The Local self-government and the social care Ombudsman, said the cases raise serious gave concerns that there may be systemic failure within the processes operated by Richmond, The Council and the AfC.

"I have published this report because other families affected may. be of the issues, similar to those that I have raised I have now been asked to undertake The Council , a full review of its educational provision, and report to me about what he finds," he said.

"If The Council other children have been affected, it should take steps to ensure that you do not miss out on the services that you are entitled to receive by law. "

in The review, the focus is on the 1,500 children, which is currently On Education , health and care (EHC) plans is first. However, other 3500 on the plans outside The Council area, or are on some kind of special needs support.

your determination will need to be checked to see if the others were the services to which they were entitled is denied.

It could cover hundreds of other families in need in The Process of searching for special support, emotional and Mental Health needs, learning needs, as well as the disability, their cases must be reviewed.

Richmond has three months to complete the exam and six months for the submission to the Ombudsman.

Poor records

If the Ombudsman investigators visited The Council to inspect the case files, they found documents that are missing, submitted or incorrectly named, and protocols are not followed.

The secure storage of documents is important because families can take months, you get to justify the reports and ratings by professionals, the special needs support that you are looking for.

The Investigation , The Council found had three separate IT systems for the management of information, can only be accessed by a single employee.

And in one of the cases, the Ombudsman's inquiry was only able to discover what had happened, because The Family had kept thorough records.

Not only the support is delayed and not for The Children and Young People in the Ombudsman cases, statutory deadlines have been missed and was. In addition, the education and welfare of Young People suffered, and in some cases, children from the school were for long periods of time.

communication and case management was poor, with the help of the records to be incomplete and vague, and a large amount of stress caused to the affected families.

A Family received More Than £9,000 for the loss of a year's training, inadequate provision of, and compensation for time, trouble, and stress. to pay

And in the third case, A Family had, for its own educational psychologist report at a cost of £4,400.

'Titanic struggle'

Many communities have ushered in difficulties with the changes in the new legislation in 2014 that changed the way that special needs are assessed and met.

The Commons education Select Committee said in its report in October, children will have to face the "day to day" like your parents, get a "Titanic struggle" to get the support you need.

Ian Dodds, director of children's services for Richmond Council, said The Report shows that there are significant deficiencies for some of The Children and Young People .

"This does not necessarily mean what I want to see in place for Every Child and young person," he said.

"Our sincere apologies were extended to the families of The Children and Young People reported to the Ombudsman. "

He added that a lot has already been achieved, and significant investments are being made locally and it was the new leadership to The Council .

Richmond said it had improved their record-keeping system, was the investment in a single system and had increased investment in Send in recent years.

He added that it was the processing of the EHC accelerated plans and determines the internal cross-Council auditors for the implementation of the review of cases.

The Council is also seeking feedback from the new parent forums on The Process of attracting special support.

richmond, schools, mental health, richmond upon thames, children, disability

Source of news: bbc.com