On September 1st, Ofsted delivered a damning report on RBWM’s provision for children and young people with disabilities and special needs. The list of complaints is simply too long to reproduce here, but we felt this statement sums up the dire state of affairs:
“Parents overwhelmingly report dissatisfaction with their experience of the system and have very little confidence that things will improve.”
We’ve received anecdotal reports of schools suffering from a lack of support, with teachers being signed off sick with stress and pupils — both with and without special needs — facing disruption and uncertainty.
RBWM leader Simon Dudley was quick to describe the situation as “not good enough”. We quite agree — the Tories have been in power for 10 years now, and have no one to blame but themselves.
This is not the first time the Children’s Services department has come in for criticism. In 2015, Ofsted published this report which found the department required improvement in every area. The last time RBWM Children’s Services received top marks from Ofsted was in 2004, when the Lib Dems had control of the council.