Concern over Bristol’s SEND crisis amid mounting pressure on case workers

People would rather “stack shelves at ASDA” than endure the stress of being a case worker for children with special educational needs, Bristol’s cabinet member for education told a public meeting.

Deputy mayor Asher Craig made the comment as it emerged council case workers for children with special educational needs (SEN) manage “upwards of 200 cases each”, contributing to unacceptable delays in children getting the support they need.

One Bristol mum said she felt the situation for families was no better than it was three years ago when watchdogs condemned “extensive delays” in children getting special educational support plans.

Bristol City Council is still failing to meet its legal duty to issue all education, health and care plans within 20 weeks of a request, despite changes put in place in the wake of a damning 2019 report from Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission.

Along with other local authorities, it is coming under “unprecedented” demand for the plans while facing a growing black hole in its schools budget.

Only a third of plans produced in Bristol in the first nine months of this year were issued within the statutory 20-week timeframe, a report to the council’s people scrutiny commission on Monday showed.

The council expects that figure to worsen over the next three months due to a “continued exponential rise” nationally in new requests for the plans, which is  thought to be partly related to the “prolonged period of fragmented education” during the Covid pandemic, the meeting heard.

Jen Smith, who has spent years fighting for SEN provision for her child, shared an excerpt from an email from the council stating that: “Officers [in the SEN team] manage upwards of 200 cases each, all representing families and children with their own needs and priorities.”

Smith told the commission: “If a case worker has upwards of 200 children with complex needs, each one requiring the same level of communication between services, legal, school and parents, I wonder why anyone would choose to be a SEN case worker at all.

“The system is damaging for families, traumatising for children, and stressful for council employees.”

The council’s education director, Alison Hurley, said the council had taken steps to make the case worker role more appealing, including increasing the pay “slightly”, after “a lot” of resignations earlier this year.

“We are now back up to full numbers,” she added.

Craig said: “I had an opportunity of meeting all of the SEN staff online last week. I know that a lot of people who resigned would rather go and stack shelves in ASDA. It’s a stressful job.”

Hurley said the SEN department had recruited extra staff, “increased strategic management capacity” to support them, and was asking for more money in next year’s budget.

It was also recruiting extra educational psychologists, amid a national shortage, she said.

“Of course, the [SEN] team itself are reliant on assessments from a whole host of different professionals whose services are also under significant pressure,” Hurley said.

Craig agreed, saying it was one of the reasons the council was failing to achieve the statutory 20-week timeframe.

She said: “We can’t hit the model 20-week when you have to rely on the rest of the system to actually do their bit before it gets to us.

“Let’s just be realistic. We’re trying our hardest, but to get to that 20-week, it may not happen overnight, but we’re doing everything we possibly can, including asking for additional resources so we can up the team.”

Amanda Cameron is a local democracy reporter for Bristol

Main photo courtesy of Bristol SEND campaigners

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