We just want a better future for our kids, mum says | Manchester News

A mum of three boys with complex needs has said the battle to persuade her local authority to provide them with the support they need has left her “drained and exhausted”.

Heather Smith filed a complaint, subsequently upheld by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, about delays in Tameside Council updating care review plans and respite care for families who have children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Ms Smith, from Hyde, said she wanted to give a voice to thousands of other parents who “do not have the energy to fight” for better SEND provision.

Tameside Council has apologised for its failures and set out a plan to “stabilise and improve” its services.

Ms Smith and her husband look after 14-year-old Alfie and eight-year-old twins George and Jack, who are both non-verbal.

Their sons’ complex needs include profound hearing loss and autism.

Ms Smith, who is a speech and language therapist, said: “From the moment I open my eyes in the morning, I’m on duty, to the moment I close my eyes at bedtime.

“My twins are relying on me and my husband for all their care needs to keep them safe, to keep them fed, to keep them warm.”

For nearly three years Ms Smith’s family did not receive the 200 nights of overnight respite care they were assessed as needing.

Tameside Council, which admitted a shortage in respite care space, was ordered by the ombudsman to pay her £4,000.

Last month, the ombudsman upheld another complaint by Ms Smith, which found the council was failing to update the Education, Health and Care plans (EHCPs) of thousands of children, including her own, within legal timescales.

EHCPs are legal documents that set out the extra support – often not met in mainstream educational settings – that local authorities must provide SEND children.

Tameside Council said it was grappling with an “unprecedented” number of children with EHCPs, which had put its resources under “considerable strain”.

More than 3,600 children have EHCPs in the Greater Manchester borough.

A council spokesperson said this was “percentage-wise double the national average”.

Warning that SEND provision across England was in disarray due to red tape and a lack of funding, MPs said the lack of support would lead to a “lost generation”.

Ms Smith said: “I can’t keep accepting this incompetence because it’s my family that’s at risk and I’m worried for the future of my children and their well-being.”

Tameside Parent Carer Forum (PCF) is a long-established advocacy group hosted by local SEND support charity Our Kids Eyes, that represents about 4,000 people.

Zainab Nasko joined the PCF to get appropriate support for her daughter Fatima, who is non-verbal and has speech and language needs.

Before this, she said she had been constantly looking for help while “full of anxiety and worry” about Fatima’s future.

After the PCF helped her navigate the process of applying for an EHCP for Fatima, Ms Nasko started volunteering with the group.

She said the PCF used to receive grants from the Department for Education (DfE) to support its work, but had recently chosen not to apply for them.

This prompted Tameside Council to back the creation of a new Umbrella Parent Carer Forum (UPCF) in January.

A council spokesperson said a DfE-funded forum was needed, and the local authority would work with them to ensure the “voices of parents and carers of children and young people with disabilities or additional needs are heard and valued”.

Ms Nasko said the PCF feels like it has been effectively replaced by the local authority after becoming too critical.

She said: “The original PCF has been here – it represents us. We have concerns. We put these concerns to you and it looks to us like you’re scrapping us for this reason.”

In a statement, the UPCF said it had been created to ensure that Tameside received government funding.

The group said it had and would “continue to work alongside” other forums to represent SEND children and families.