High Peak mum’s despair as son with special educational needs not getting the help he needs

Alice Womack she says her son, Morgan Daiken, may not get his GCSEs as he is struggling so much at school and not getting the help from the local authority.

She said: “I feel like I’m fighting an uphill battle and no one wants to listen.

“If I don’t fight for my child, who will?”

Morgan is 14 and has ADHD and his mum says he always struggled at primary school but high school exasperated things.

“Morgan goes to Hope Valley College and lessons are tough for him and his teachers so I applied for an Education Health Care Plan.”

Education Health Care plans identify educational, health and social needs and set out the additional support to meet those needs.

Alice, from Hayfield said: “We started this journey of formal assessments in March, he has been seen by an educational psychologist and the report was meant to be put in front of a panel and then the plan approved and sent to the school to get Morgan the best help so he can stay in school.

“The panel never met at the end of October and I don't know when they will but this is getting ridiculous.

“I am worried he won’t finish school. He is capable but he gets frustrated and then you can’t connect with him.”

Alice says she has been fighting for Morgan not just in recent months but for years.

“I’m just so angry with the whole system.

“It’s like no one really cares about the people behind the paperwork but they aren’t just a number they are children with needs that are not being met.

“Derbyshire County Council are the local authority who issue the care plans and I feel they are delaying the reports so they don’t have to pay out more for the educational support.

“But doing that means it's the children who are suffering across the county which is just wrong.

“These children need the help and support which should be available to them.”

A spokesperson for Derbyshire County Council said: “While we can’t comment on individual cases, Derbyshire has had a significant increase in the number of requests for Education Health Care Plans (EHCPs) and for the assessments and advice that go along with these. This is a national issue and other local authorities are facing similar increases in demand.

“As a result of this our performance in completing some ECHPs within the 20 week deadline has been impacted and has led to delays in completing some of them on time. We are extremely sorry for any children, families and schools who are being negatively affected and we are working extremely hard to improve our performance.

“Derbyshire County Council is investing significant additional staffing resources to address these challenges as well as reviewing and restructuring its services to manage the demand in the future. The additional resources are being deployed to both catch up and finalise those that have gone over the deadline and to also keep current and new plans within the 20 week timescale.”