The newly appointed Shadow Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Families, Cllr Simon Morrall (Frankley Great Park, Conservative), has responded to the Birmingham City Council’s SEND service: commissioner's report.
“The first report of the Commissioner confirms what parents, along with Ofsted and numerous independent voices have been saying for years, that Children with additional needs are being badly let down by this Council. As an Opposition we have consistently tried to give a voice to those children and parents, to shine a spotlight on those failings and demand better for some of our City’s most vulnerable. Whilst the Commissioner has recommended giving the Council one last chance to fix things for themselves, we remain concerned that the promises being made now are all things that parents have been told before. This cycle of failure is in stark contrast to what has happened with children’s social care services, which were taken out of the Council’s control due to their inability to improve. There we have seen sustained improvement since the creation of the Trust, despite objections to the idea from Birmingham Labour prior to government intervention.
This is why we are calling on the Council to adopt the recommendation that all of Children’s Services now move into that Trust, so that children and parents receive the stability and improvements they have been desperately calling for. We cannot afford to waste any more time when so many chances for improvement have already been squandered, for those children in Birmingham right now whose needs aren’t being met the consequences will be lifelong.”
A copy of the report can be found here - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/birmingham-city-councils-send-service-commissioners-report
