Statement on the Publication of the Decision Notices – June 2024
We note that the investigation into the comments made by Councillors Claire Golby, Brian Hammersly and Jeff Morgan at the meeting of the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 25th January 2024 has now concluded with the publication of the Decision Notices on 13th June 2024.
We participated in the complaints process by submitting formal complaints to the Monitoring Officer on behalf of Warwickshire’s SEND families, met with the Monitoring Officer and with the Independent Investigator.
We recognise that the outcomes on the Decision Notices are not the outcomes that many in the SEND community were hoping for and that these notices have been met with frustration and anger.
We still believe that it is not okay to use disrespectful language to describe children with SEND and their families and we are concerned that without challenge, this type of language will continue to be used in our schools and society and cause harm to children, young people and their families. Whilst it is important that our elected members discuss how the SEND budget is spent we ask them to do this in a respectful and informed way. We call on Warwickshire County Councillors to condemn disability discrimination and stand up and protect their residents from disability hate crime.
Warwickshire Parent Carer Voice were pleased to have been part of the group developing the compulsory training for councillors to support accurate understanding of SEND. We would like to thank all the councillors who attended the workshops we delivered last week and recognise the range of experience and understanding that they have around SEND. We hope that these sessions will lead to more engagement with councillors so that they can further understand what being a SEND family in Warwickshire is like and how they can make a positive difference to improve the lives and experiences of local SEND families.
Warwickshire County Councillors need to recognise that irrespective of the findings, the relationship between councillors and the SEND community is damaged and that more work will be needed to build trust.
Warwickshire Parent Carer Voice will continue to ensure that the voices of parent carers are heard and used to support and challenge services to meet the needs of Warwickshire’s SEND families by working as a strategic coproduction partner within the SEND system.