Parents in Richmond have spoken out about the delays and emotional turmoil they have faced when dealing with the borough’s children’s services provider, Achieving for Children, and the impact it has had on their families.

Many have spent thousands on private psychology tests and legal fees to help get the right help for their children, including mother Sharon Doughty, who has experienced difficulties getting an Educational Health Care plan in place for her son.

These plans are legal documents that describe a child’s special educational, health and social care needs, what extra help they will be given, and how that help will support the child.

She said: “Believe me I have spent many days crying, it’s so so hard. It’s very very difficult to get the plan in place.”

She has criticised AfC for not intervening to ensure that schools deliver the plans properly, and has spent £5,000 in legal fees trying to get her son’s school to comply.

She said “Everything is weighted against the parents. If you have a plan then the council are supposed to ensure the school enforces it properly. What’s the point having a plan in place if you can’t get anyone in AfC to make sure the school delivers on it?”

Her son did not speak until he was four years old, and is about 18 months behind in his development.

He also has auditory processing problems, which mean that he has to be given very short and specific instructions, and has problems making friends.

He has a full-time EHC plan, of 32.5 hours a week, that provides constant support, including during lunchbreaks.

During his first few years of school, he had “amazing support” and “absolutely loved going to school”, but this all changed when his teaching assistant fell ill and was not properly replaced by the school.

Ms Doughty says her son became anxious and scared, refusing to get out of the car to go to school, and even scratching himself.

She blames AfC for not ensuring the school complied with her son’s EHC plan, that is designed to provide the help he needs at school.

She also claims the school became vexatious towards her for demanding more help.

“It is absolutely one of the worst things that has happened in my life,” she said.

“I really don’t want this to happen to another child.”

Ms Doughty is a former Sky News journalist and runs the Dot Com Children’s Foundation, which helps to safeguard children and help them talk about difficult issues at home and school.

She said despite her training, she felt helpless getting her son the support he needed.

“I cannot even protect my child. It was so bad. He was so ill. They don’t listen to you. They say there’s nothing they can do,” she said.

Luckily she managed to eventually get him moved to another school through AfC, where he is doing much better, but says the service should have done this sooner.

A recent report by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman accused Richmond and Achieving for Children of “multiple failures,” in dealing with children with special needs and disabilities.

The watchdog called for a full-scale audit of 1,495 EHC plans after finding missing documents, mislabelled files, and protocols ignored when looking into recent complaints, which was discussed at this week’s full council meeting [January 28].

The review is currently underway, and is expected to cost approximately £84,000.

If it discovers “systemic” issues in the service, then the council will extend the audit to other areas of AfC.

Leader of the Council, Cllr Gareth Roberts apologised to a large gathering of parents in the public gallery, saying: “This has been a failing of this council.”

He also acknowledged that many parents were shocked to receive letters calling for parental feedback into the review on AfC headed paper, and did not feel comfortable contributing because they feared AfC would see their responses.

He confirmed that letters on the audit will be resent on council headed paper, and that the email address for the review would not be monitored by AfC staff.

The council voted to fully accept the recommendations outlined in the Ombudsman’s report.

Leader of the Conservative Opposition, Cllr Hodgins, also apologised to parents and said he would join the Liberal Democrats in lobbying central government for more funding for special needs pupils in the borough.

Ian Dodds, Joint Director of Children’s Services at Achieving for Children, has previously spoken out about the lack of funding for children with additional needs from the high needs block of the Dedicated Schools Grant.

He said the issue is “becoming a funding crisis” for many local authorities, including Richmond, which currently has a high needs block deficit of £5.8m.

The accumulated deficit since 2014 is £15.8m.

The government has previously said that the dedicated schools grant should be enough, and local authorities should not have to use money from general funds to pay for high needs provision.

However, many councillors went beyond funding issues to describe the council’s “moral duty” to make sure its services are fit for purpose.

Cllr Jo Humphreys gave an emotional speech about what it is like to be the parent of a child with autism, and said the contents of the report were “most concerning”.

She spoke of the “long and frustrating journey” to assessment and said parents have to “fight everyday to make sure your child is given the support they need to ensure they fulfil their potential”.

She thanked “dedicated, hardworking and overstretched staff” but said the council should use the report as an opportunity to “identify and address in full things that have not been working”.

Cllr Rob O’Carroll also spoke about his experience as a parent of a child with SEND.

He said: “The problems AfC has been facing in this area is one of the reasons why I am sat in this chamber and why I took on the role of disability champion.”

He added that the council should aspire to be “the benchmark of excellence,” and said councillors should avoid “political manoeuvring on such a vital issue for our children’s future.”

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Joint Director for Achieving for Children, Ian Dodds, reiterated that he fully accepts the Ombudsman’s report and has apologised to families.

Nevertheless, he believes recent improvements show the council’s “robust approach” and hopes that doubling the number of officers within the SEND service and engaging with parents through the new parent-panel will see further progress.

He also emphasised that a range of children’s needs are still supported within the mainstream classroom under what is known as ‘quality first teaching’.

Children may receive extra help from a teaching assistant when reading and writing for example, but parents and schools can ask for a child’s needs to be assessed if they think more needs to be done.

He said AfC is responsible for co-ordinating assessments, and some health professionals such as speech and language therapists may not work within the organisation, which can lead to delays.

AfC combine reports to determine if a child meets the threshold for a EHCP, which will detail specific help that they need, including how many sessions over what period, with an annual review process.

Parents can appeal these decisions if they are not happy with the results, up to a tribunal.

Mr Dodds acknowledged that “parents and teachers do not always see the same way,” but that assessments are “needs driven” to ensure that children’s needs are met.

In December 2019, Kingston and Richmond Councils both agreed to recommission Achieving for Children to deliver their children’s services until 31 March 2026.

Richmond Council knew about the Ombudsman’s report, but was not allowed to discuss it due to purdah restrictions in the General Election.

Kingston has seen an improvement in its services. It was recently graded ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted after receiving an inadequate rating in 2013.