A council is destroying children’s lives through anxiety and depression by denying them suitable schooling, a charity claims.
Autism charity Sparkle Sheffield says children are left suffering extreme distress in unsuitable environments without the support they desperately need.
Liesje Dusauzay, founder of Sparkle: she says special needs education in Sheffield is at crisis point
The parent support charity blames the problems on delays to education, health and care (EHC) plans.
EHC plans replaced statements of special educational needs when the Children and Families Act 2014 came into force.
They are meant to lay out in detail a child’s educational, health and social care needs.
Council issued only 12 per cent of plans
But Sparkle says Sheffield City Council issued just 12 per cent of EHC plans within the statutory 20-week deadline in 2016.
Sparkle has launched a petition on change.org calling on the city council to “stop failing our disabled children to save money”. Click here to see the petition.
More than 2,000 supporters had signed the petition when Autism Eye published this story .
Liesje Dusauzay, from Sheffield, is the founder of Sparkle.
Dusauzay has previously taken the city council to a tribunal. Her aim was to secure the school placement she wanted for her 12-year-old son Jayden Dusauzay-Reid, who has autism.
She said special needs education in Sheffield is at “crisis point”.
She said: “It’s so far gone I think they’re really going to struggle to get on top of things right now.”
Planning a protest
Jayden Dusauzay-Reid, 12, who has autism: mother Liesje Dusauzay took Sheffield City Council to a tribunal over his school placement
Sparkle is planning a protest in Sheffield on 9 September.
Chrissy Meleady is the director of Equalities And Human Rights UK and is an advocate for children in the city.
She said the problems had affected more than a thousand families. There had been “a build up over a number of years” of these difficulties.
In a statement Sheffield City Council said it was working hard to deliver improvements.
The statement added: “We recognise we have not got this right in the past, and despite improvements we still do not always get it right currently. We truly regret this.”
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Published: 6 September 2017
