Special needs assessment took six years, says mum

A mother has told how her teenage son now has depression due to a six-year wait for an education and care plan assessment.

It comes after Lancashire's special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) partnership was told much more work needs to be done to make improvements.

Inspectors found too many children were waiting an "unacceptable" amount of time to have their needs assessed and met.

Julia Cross, from Preston, said her son now attends a school which adequately supports him but the wait had been "an emotional rollercoaster".

The five-day joint inspection by watchdogs Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) concluded that "young people and their families are impacted negatively by the long waits that they experience".

Ms Cross said: "They're failing too many children, it's absolutely disgusting, I'm quite emotional talking about it.

"It took me six years to get whet I needed for my son, but you just need to keep fighting and don't take no for an answer."

She said her son "now has depression because he was that overwhelmed and couldn't cope in the mainstream system".

"He's got depression on top of his autism, his ADHD and dyslexia," she said.

He now attends Westmorland School's Wood Campus in Leyland, which has extensive outdoor spaces where the students can be involved with animals and gardening.

Ms Cross said: "He's at an amazing school, and he absolutely loves it and they're absolutely amazing with him.

"I've had support, but it's taken far too long to get him where he is now."

Professor Sarah O'Brien, chair of Lancashire SEND Partnership and chief nursing officer for Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB), said they accept the findings of the report and will work closely with partner organisations to ensure services are improved and updated.

She added that they recognise that there are unacceptable wait times and they are committed to moving towards a needs-led approach where children and families will receive responsive provisions that support them.

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