Coronavirus: Families with SEND ‘struggling’, campaigners warn Town Hall

A collective of campaign groups are sounding the alarm over the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on families with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Independent parent-carer forum HiP, Hackney Special Education Crisis and parent support group As1 have warned that “struggling parents” are unable to contact their social workers and those with conduct disorders left without mental health support.

The groups are now jointly petitioning top councillors to go further in addressing the potential cascade of issues faced by families during the crisis, many of whom already live with significant day-to-day challenges.

Coronavirus Act powers enable the government to loosen the council’s legal duties to disabled people, compounding the anxiety.

Campaigner Amanda Elliot said: “We know council and NHS services are under extreme pressure and are rightly focused on protecting people from the virus.

“But in these challenging circumstances, it is easy to forget SEND children and their families who are really struggling right now.

“Lack of support and access to services is creating huge pressures. No-one is untouched by the crisis but SEND families already live with many problems that are worsening because the support they rely on has dramatically fallen away.

“Families in very difficult situations have been left to fend for themselves.”

It is understood that campaigners met with the Town Hall back in March before the country entered lockdown, with campaigners thanking Cllrs Caroline Woodley, Chris Kennedy and Anntoinette Bramble for “listening carefully” to their concerns around the plight of families with SEND.

Since this meeting it is understood the Town Hall has temporarily relaxed the rules around how families receive respite funding for short breaks, with an online resource hub for autistic children announced last week.

Hackney schools are also now calling families with SEND twice a week, with the Town Hall successfully lobbying the government to ensure free school meal vouchers are available during the holidays.

However, campaigners are maintaining their calls for more to be done for children who would usually require one on one, or two on one, support, and who are now locked down at home.

Campaigners added: “We absolutely appreciate council staff are working extremely hard to ensure SEND children at risk of domestic violence in the home get statutory support.

“But we urge the council to also adopt an explicit focus on families with children and young people with SEND experiencing escalating mental health and behavioural issues.”

The groups pointed to families whom they directly support, living with SEND children in shared temporary accommodation in hostels, with both children and adults in families with complex needs and on the vulnerability spectrum to Covid-19 struggling to self-isolate, often without the ability to prepare food, do the laundry or access the internet or a phone signal without leaving the house.

Others are missing out on access to vital medical care, with the groups concerned that through deteriorating mental and physical health during the lockdown in “overcrowded and pressure-cooker home environments”, there is a risk that children with SEND could “regress significantly” as a result.

Powers made available through the Coronavirus Act could loosen the local authority’s legal obligations to disabled children and adults if invoked, causing alarm among campaigners, who are urging the Town Hall to continue to “take all practical steps” to meet the needs of people with SEND were these powers to be activated.

The collective adds: “We are advising Hackney families that their legal rights remain intact, that education health and care plans (EHCPs) remain in force and that under Section 42 of the Children and Families Act 2014 as it currently stands, there is an absolute duty upon local authorities to secure and deliver special educational provision contained within an EHCP.”

Questions have also been asked as to how funding provided through children’s education health and care plans (EHCPs) has been reallocated, with campaigners pointing out that funding for therapy, equipment and support has already been allocated, with most children not receiving it due to the circumstances.

The groups have now called on the council to use its powers to make direct payments, with a flexible option for families to pay themselves for being children’s carers for the length of the crisis.

An offer has also been made by the campaigners to help with ‘exit planning’ once the lockdown ends, with the vital necessity for families with SEND children already sensitive to shifts in routine to have a process of adjustment and recovery, with additional support to reintegrate into their education and therapy.

Cllr Caroline Woodley, who leads on SEND for Hackney Council, said: “These are extremely challenging times for all of us, and we greatly welcome the constructive correspondence we have received from parents and campaigners.

“As a local authority we are constantly adapting to meet the needs of our residents. Now more than ever our priority is to support our most vulnerable, and our front line staff are working incredibly hard to do just that.

“I fully appreciate that parents and carers of young people with additional needs will be feeling very anxious. We are listening to their concerns and responding as best as we can in the circumstances to reassure and support them.”

Updated information and guidance for the changes to short breaks funding can be found on the Hackney Council website.

The council can be reached on 0208 356 6789.