East Surrey shadow unitary authority has accused Surrey CC of withholding the plans to reform the services for children with special needs and disabilities.
The Department for Education required every upper tier authority submits a Send reform plan by June as a condition for writing off 90% of accumulated high needs deficits.
However children and youth services lead for East Surrey Ashley Tilling (Lib Dem) told the full council meeting yesterday that the shadow unitary authority has not had access to the “big piece of work” the new authorities would be required to fulfil in order to have their Send deficits covered by DfE.
This was in response to a question from Cameron McIntosh (Con), who said “there is cross-party agreement that the support for children with special educational needs must improve” so what does the administration “intend to do different from the county”?
A written response from the East Surrey leader Steven Wotton (Lib Dem) said: “Our administration will be honest about the challenges and accountable for progress. We have called on Surrey CC to publish its Send reform plan, as other councils have done. If that decision were ours, we would publish it, so families could see what is promised and judge delivery.”
During the meeting, Cllr Tilling said: “I’ve repeatedly asked for the Send reform plans… which Surrey CC produced in July this year, I’ve repeatedly been told it’s not to be made public and we can’t divulge that across a wider audience than just the cabinet.”
He said he found it “tremendously disappointing” that the plan has not been made public because “it’s very difficult for us to make much progress on what we consider to be our own plans when we don’t actually know what Surrey is providing to us from April next year… we need to move towards a much more open and transparent council.”
He added: “The government has to respond by the end of the month on Send reviews.. I would hope that everything will become transparent so we know how we can plan for the next three years past vesting day.”
The county said it had shared an “initial draft” and that it would publish the final plan when DfE approves it.
Surrey CC cabinet member for children, families and lifelong learning Helyn Clack (Con) said: “It has always been our intention to publish the plan once the DfE has confirmed the draft plan meets their expectations, and we look forward to publishing the plan when that confirmation has been received.”
She added: “We remain committed to transparency throughout this process and have constructively engaged with the shadow executives since their establishment, and have shared the initial draft plan with them.”