'No-one helped when my son couldn't go to school'

During his first two years of secondary school, Lucy's son was diagnosed as autistic, went into the Covid lockdown, had a major operation and his dad and granddad both died.

He found it hard to get back into regular school attendance.

Lucy said she asked her local authority for advice but she felt no one listened to her.

"No one wanted to help. It was a case of: 'He's not coming to school, it's your fault, you deal with it'."

Now Lucy's local authority, Somerset Council, is promising to reduce the number of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) who are not in school full-time by 20% over the next three years.

Last year, 3,192 children and young people in Somerset with SEND were experiencing at least one of: severe absence, not in education, employment or training, permanent exclusion, elective home education, being looked after, missing from education or a part-time timetable.

A council report said while not every child was "impacted negatively" by these experiences, particularly in relation to home education, "for the overwhelming majority, these situations represent significant detriment".

The council says it wants to reduce the number of children with SEND not receiving a full-time education by 20% - 650 children - by 2028/29 and by 50% - 1600 children - over the next 5 years.

Lucy said she asked the local authority for help when he started struggling to return to school after the Covid lockdown ended.

"I contacted the council because he wasn't in education and I needed some help. I tried to get him moved school three times - three times I was rejected.

"By that time, after having gone through what I went through, I just didn't have much fight in me."

Lucy said she put together a home learning plan for her son who was a "very, very bright child" who could have got good GCSEs if the right support had been in place.

A Somerset Council spokesperson said they could not comment on Lucy's particular case.

However, they added that the council is setting out the next steps in its plan to strengthen support for SEND children.

"We are committed to improving support for children and young people with SEND in Somerset and to building a system that works better for families," the spokesperson added.

Somerset Council's ambition for more children with SEND to attend school full-time is part of its overall SEND improvement plan, which councillors have approved to submit to the government later this month.

It outlines how the authority will deliver the government's SEND reforms at a local level.

This includes £9.3m of government funding for Somerset Council to deliver an extra 200 school places for children with education, health and care plans (EHCPs), mostly in specialist inclusion bases in mainstream schools, as well as some extra places in existing special schools.

There is also £3.6m of government funding for 'experts at hand', including educational psychologists and speech and language therapists, to work with schools, colleges and nurseries.

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