Birmingham SEND improvements 'hampered by council politics'

The latest report into Birmingham services for children with special educational needs was highly critical of the political culture at the city council

Improvements to Birmingham's services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are being held back by politics at the city council, a report says.

There had been significant progress since May 2022, government-appointed commissioner John Coughlan found.

But he added that a culture of "political adversarialism" in the city threatened overall advancements.

The council said it was not complacent over the need for further progress.

Mr Coughlan was appointed to oversee the council's SEND services in a bid to raise standards, the government said in 2021 following criticisms that including pupils making "weak" academic progress.

His latest report found the culture within the authority focused "more on challenge than support" of staff.

He said attempts after a critical review to reform the council's SEND Information Advice and Support Services - known as SENDIASS - had encountered "significant resistance" through "political denial".

A failure to manage or reduce the effect of a relationship between the leader of the council, Ian Ward, and the former head of SENDIASS "contributed to the current malaise", Mr Coughlan explained.

The councillor responsible for children's services said the authority was "not complacent" about the improvements still needed in SEND services

The report recommended the council should still run SEND services and the authority should agree to reforms of SENDIASS.

The recommendations were accepted by the authority, which said it would launch a SEND strategy with schools in July.

Councillor Karen McCarthy, cabinet member for children, said the council was "not complacent" about the progress required.

"We have said all along that we are on an improvement journey that will take a number of years," she added.

Analysis

By Rob Mayor, BBC political reporter for Birmingham

The report is highly critical of political culture in Birmingham and the commissioner says at a number of points he has felt "concerned the director of children's services may resign because of some of the political challenges".

The commissioner adds that "political behaviours in Birmingham are some of the poorest I have encountered across several failing authorities".

It comes in a week in which the ruling Labour group was plunged into chaos, with the party preparing to select a new leader, despite the current leader, councillor Ian Ward, refusing to step down following an internal message describing a "dysfunctional climate" at the authority.

Mr Coughlan's report said there had been "very substantial" improvements in the rebuilding of children's services in general in the city.

Progress had also been good on assessing the support individual children needed, with more stable leadership in place, the document ruled.

The report added that services including home to school transport and school placements had improved.

Other areas of progress included the number of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP) for families completed within 20 weeks, which rose to 66% in 2023 from 53% in 2021.