A forum made up of parents and carers of children with special educational needs and disabilities has cut ties with Sutton Council, accusing the authority of a lack of trust and not working effectively with them. Sutton’s Parents and Carer Forum (SPCF), which has advised the council and helped shape SEND policy for around 10 years, cites ‘disrespect’ shown to them by Sutton Council as one of their reasons for deciding to cease contact with them as of March 3 this year.
This decision could leave Sutton Council able to make SEND related decisions without any oversight or input from the parents they impact, however the council says it's looking into finding a new independent group to fill the void. SPCF is an Ofsted and Department for Education recognised body that has represented the borough’s SEND families for the last decade.
According to their post, published on X last Friday: “The role of the parent carers on the Steering Group is to lead this work and listen to the views and experiences of other parents in Sutton to make sure they know what is important to them and to feed this back to the local area.”
Read more: ‘Complete lifeline’ Sutton play service for low income families suspends support
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), a member of Sutton’s SEND parents community said: “The parents forum gets funding from central government but only if the council agrees to work with them. Anytime any new website, policy or anything that could affect SEND parents comes through, the council is supposed work with the forum beforehand.”
The SPCF has worked with the council to provide a number of support services, like Play and Stay and the sunflower lanyard scheme. According to the SPCF, their services help families to realise they are ‘not the only one.’
The forum also raises additional funding for local SEND provision from various charities and groups like Trust for London. Since 2013, they claim to have brought in £400,000, which has been used to fund SEND-friendly playgrounds in the borough.
However, according to parents involved with the SPCF, COGNUS, the body responsible for operating Sutton’s SEND program, has frequently failed to meet the demands of parents and has, on occasion, ignored them. In a post published on their X page, the forum complained that the council attempted to infringe on their independence as a group, leading many of its members to no longer feel ‘able to attend meetings’.
Lib Dem Councillor Marian James, Chair of the council's Education Committee, told parents that COGNUS officials failed to turn up to a meeting arranged to discuss SEND issues in the borough. James, who worked with SPCF, said the council representative ‘failed to respond to messages left until two days later with the excuse that life had been difficult’.
The X statement added: “Since 2016, we have gradually become disillusioned with the lack of genuine coproduction and trust between the SPCF and the local area and we feel we are no longer making a positive, effective difference for Sutton SEND families.
“We have worked hard to engage independently and productively with pan-disability SEND families in Sutton, but this is becoming increasingly difficult in a climate where the extent of the lack of parental trust is not acknowledged or understood by the local area’s senior management.
“When we all joined the PCF Steering Group, there was a very different working relationship in Sutton, based on mutual trust and respect and the understanding of the benefit of effective parent carer participation.
“We all used to find the role fulfilling and productive, but we have not felt valued or respected for some time and this has had a negative impact, both on the group as a whole, but also on individual members who feel so upset that they no longer feel able to attend meetings; this has now reached a point where we do not feel we can continue.”
Speaking to the LDRS, SEND parent and campaigner for the Sutton EHCP (education health and care plan) Crisis group, Hayley Harding said: “This is awful for the families in our borough but just shows how little we are listened to here and the lack of respect there is towards parents and their views.
“I've seen firsthand some of the treatment SPF has received and it's made me very uncomfortable and should not have been allowed to take place. In some ways I'm surprised they lasted this long but from a personal point of view, very glad they did. I hope the council and administration are hanging their heads in shame this evening. Somebody at some point should have stopped this.”
Responding to the official statement, SEND advisor Barney Angliss commented: “Credit to Sutton Parent Carer Forum for resigning. Similar happened AforChildren (a similar group in nearby Kingston and Richmond) and in other local authorities. But if no one was resigning from these government contracts, we should be even more worried. Sutton is a shorthand for what's happening in SEND, which is dire.”
This recent announcement is the latest development in what some have called a ‘crisis’ in the borough’s SEND provision. Only two weeks ago, PlayWise, an affiliated group, announced the end of their support fund, which provides SEND assistance to lower income families.
Parents and teachers in the borough have lamented the decision to leave, with many seeing it as a last resort. Despite this, they stil see a healthy relationship with the council as the most beneficial outcome for Sutton’s SEND children. A parent from Sutton’s SEND community told the LDRS: “We need a complete culture change within the council. They need to stop seeing parents as the enemy, we are supposed to all be there to help the children. We don’t want the people who are there to put forward our opinions being treated like this. It’s awful.”
When approached for comment, a spokesperson from the London Borough of Sutton said: "As a local area all partners have really appreciated and valued the work of the Sutton Parent Carer Forum over many years. We recognise that representing young people, their parents and carers and providing appropriate challenge is demanding and important work. We thank the outgoing forum for all that they have done and achieved and we are proud of those things we have achieved in partnership.
"The independent voice of parents, carers, children and young people is important in shaping our services. We must now work with all interested partners to identify a new independent body to take on this vital work."
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