Minister fails disabled children

Press Release ... Press Release

"Secretary of State for Education fails dismally to protect disabled children against LEA law breakers" claims national charity.

The Independent Panel for Special Education Advice (IPSEA), the largest national charity providing free and independent advice to parents of children with special educational needs, is highlighting the twin scandals of:

Local Education Authorities (LEAs) which fail to fulfil their duty in law to provide for the educational needs of children with special educational needs, and
the dismal failure of the Secretary of State for Education (and her predecessors) to police the special educational needs system -- in effect allowing LEAs to get away with denying disabled children’s rights to special educational provision.

In law the Secretary of State for Education and Skills must investigate all complaints made against LEAs on the grounds of failing to fulfil their legal duty. But IPSEA believes that the Secretary of State is:

failing to investigate complaints promptly, allowing LEA law-breaking to continuing for several months, needlessly damaging children's education
failing to find out what is actually going on at the local authority level and accepting inadequate excuses for LEA law-breaking
failing to take firm action when LEAs admit to law-breaking, accepting instead ‘gentlemen’s agreements’ that it won’t happen again.

IPSEA has now placed its complaint against the Secretary of State and her Department before the Parliamentary Ombudsman via its Patron, Dr Rudi Vis MP.

Speaking today, Dr Vis said:

"I am very pleased to be helping IPSEA bring this matter to the attention of the Parliamentary Ombudsman. It is a measure of success for our society that we have a law which entitles children with special educational needs to receive the extra help they need in order to make progress at school. But it is a disaster if this law can be broken by LEAs with impunity -- especially when the Secretary of State is able to stop this happening. I hope very much that major improvement to the system of policing LEAs in the performance of their duties towards disabled children will result from IPSEA's action. For the sake of the children and their parents I am delighted to be able to help the charity by delivering their complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman."

ENDS

Notes for editors

To contact Dr Rudi Vis MP ring 020 7219 0565.
For more details of IPSEA's complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman and of IPSEA's work, contact Roger Inman on 01394 610023.

To read IPSEA's complaint, download this PDF