A mother says she feels “beaten and beaten” after fighting to get her two sons into special education.
Sally Brown, from Norwich, said she has been forced to take legal action after a two-year battle that has impacted her boys’ mental health.
Norfolk County Council had rejected her application for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP) for the boys.
The agency said it made decisions about entering the court case based on legal advice.
Miss Brown said her sons, ages 10 and 14, lived with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and were severely bullied in mainstream schools.
She applied to the Council for EHCPs for her two children, which would allow them access to a specialized school for their needs.
But the authorities rejected the applications in each case, so that she had to go through the court appeal process.
“I felt completely overwhelmed both times,” she said.
Just before each case was due to go to court, she said the council had agreed to provide an EHCP.
“I should feel vindicated because I’ve been successful every time I’ve gone into the tribunal’s process,” she said.
“But sitting here today, I don’t feel very triumphant. I feel pretty broken and defeated.”
Miss Brown said her boys’ education and welfare suffered during the long struggles over the EHCPs, but they were now thriving in an independent technical school.
“They go to school happy and enthusiastic and looking forward to what they are going to do that day.”
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Conservative councilor John Fisher, cabinet member for child welfare, said: “We always prefer to work with families whenever possible to find a solution outside of court.
“Once a case has been brought to court, we make decisions about whether or not to proceed at various points in the process based on all the information we have and legal advice.”
In 2020, inspectors from Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) said there were “significant weaknesses” in the council’s support for children with special educational needs (SEND).
This included how quickly EHCPs that were scheduled to be processed in less than 20 weeks were processed.
In a new report, inspectors said the council had made “sufficient progress” in solving the problem.
The council said it currently delivers 53% of EHCPs within 20 weeks, with the national average being 58%.
“We have significantly improved our performance in terms of timeliness and quality of EHCPs,” said Mr. Fisher.
“However, we know that we are still not providing EHCPs to some families within 20 weeks and we understand this is frustrating.”
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