Derbyshire mum forced to work part-time as council says son with special needs must attend mainstream school that ‘can’t keep him safe’

Kelly Green, of Tibshelf, has been forced to work only two days a week after her son Dylan, 12, could not get into special needs school due to lack of space.

Derbyshire County Council said Dylan needs to attend mainstream Tibshelf Community School – but the school says they are unable to fulfill the requirements listed in his EHC plan.

Kelly said: “What the local authority is doing is not fair. It's morally wrong, and absolutely disgusting. He is a vulnerable child, who has got additional needs, and has not gone to school for one day since September. He's falling further and further behind.

"Tibshelf school’s response on the consultation was they couldn't meet the needs in his EHCP plan and keep him safe. The council is now sending me snotty letters about him not attending school. But how can I as a parent send him to a school that have openly said they cannot keep him safe and cannot meet his needs?”

She said: “I've tried to contact the local authority numerous times by email by phone. They've now removed the contact numbers from a public funded service. They have not responded to any emails. I've also written a complaint letter to the executive director of children's services and the council – but they ignored the letter as well.

"I've then ended up sitting in County Hall at Matlock refusing to leave until somebody from the SEND department comes and speaks to me. Somebody came down and but wasn't in the right department so couldn’t help me.

"On October 24, I had an online meeting with a SEND officer who promised Dylan would have three hours of home tuition a week. We're now in February and I haven’t heard anything about the home tuition at all.

“Instead the council is taking me to court for not paying fines for failing to maintain my child's education when I took him for a holiday for a week last year. I took him away only for a week and my son hasn’t been in school since September because of the county council. How can I be accused of not maintaining my children’s education when they're the ones not maintaining my children's education?

"How they can expect me to pay a fine when I've lost £1500 a month income because I've had to go from five days to work to two to facilitate being at home with him? His dad works three days to be with him when I’m at work."

Dylan has no road sense or stranger danger and the mainstream school can't restrain him on school grounds – if he wanted to climb a fence or walk out of the school gate. The school said that due to not being able to restrain him they wouldn't be able to keep him safe. He also has ADHD.

Kelly added: "They are refusing my son the right to education in a school that can keep him safe, they are making me and my partner work part-time, putting us in financial hardship and they are threatening us with fines.

“I've applied for a tribunal to fight the council and to put him into a special needs school. I was told that because of the backlog of cases there is a 12-month-long waiting time. He is already six months behind – with another 12 months he will be a year and a half behind.

"This is how children with special needs and their parents are being treated by the local authority. How dare they fail vulnerable children in the county like this?

"Parents have to fight for their children’s rights and education every day and they are being failed over and over again. The authotirties have rules to follow and they are not following them with my child. How many more children are they not following the rules with? How many parents and vulnerable children are they failing?"

A spokesperson for Derbyshire County Council said: “We make decisions on school places based on the best available and most suitable option for each child, according to their needs as assessed in the EHCP, and hope that Ms Green will reconsider her decision not to take up the allocated school place for her child.

“Fines for taking children on holiday in term time are triggered by schools and administered by the council. We understand that these fines are for when Ms Green’s children were in another school last year, rather than for the school where her child currently has a place.

“We apologise that Ms Green has struggled to get in touch with the council. This has been highlighted with the service involved who will make contact with her to discuss this situation.”

This comes as thousands of children with special needs across England have been waiting for their Education, Health and Care plans (EHCP) for a year or longer as local authorities say they struggle to meet their deadlines due to the increasing number of applications.

Freedom of information request by the Guardian has revealed that across England more than 20,000 children with special needs were waiting longer than the 20-week limit, and 3,000 pupils had to wait for a year or longer fot their plans. Derbyshire Council said that they are planning on investing a further £1m to improve its processing of EHCPs.