When the Whistleblower Spoke: Why Parents Weren’t Surprised

Whistleblower

Victoria Bennion: Hello, and welcome to the Autism Mum's podcast. Today, we're gonna talk about the ITV whistleblower. So if you haven't heard of the story, an anonymous whistleblower who was a serving SEND worker in English council

claimed that senior managers had joked about denying support to children and wanted to deny even more. , she Talked about the tactics she described caseworkers being encouraged to use were

Leaving phone numbers off emails so parents couldn't ring back. Ignoring the first question in a parent's email and only answering the second. Avoiding face-to-face meetings. Not leaving a paper trail. Told not to put objections in writing in case of freedom of information requests. Using Teams chats and back channels they believed wouldn't show up in a subject access request.

Natalie Tealdi: No, I was gonna say I'd like to say that I was shocked, but actually it was more like confirmation.

Because I think a lot of parents and carers out there feel like this is going on in every council, and I think a lot of them when they heard this story, they thought, "Well, it must be mine."

Victoria Bennion: Yes, exactly, and that says a lot, doesn't it? The fact that we've not been surprised by this,

Natalie Tealdi: we've heard similar stories, and we've experienced similar things ourselves too.

None of it. And it was the most frustrating response. But I remember the sense of that you are being pushed off, you are being delayed, this is being delayed. And w- we've had conversations, um, with some of our friends, the community in the same position,

and we knew full well, we worked it out, that if you save a term's worth of fees, that's thousands of pounds, it's a deliberate tactic. So when the whistleblower said this, as you said, it wasn't surprise, was it? It was confirmation of what we all already know.

Natalie Tealdi: Yeah, and I think it's not just about directly having similar responses, it's the energy that you- Mm

get from these people when you speak to them or when you attend meetings with them. It always felt a bit icky.

Natalie Tealdi: And I know I've been in meetings where I've been in tears, and then felt really stupid, and then felt like perhaps they weren't really taking me seriously and I was just being o- an overemotional mother.

And the fact that I'm feeling that, and that it just makes you think, "Well, maybe, you know, I'm feeling it for a reason."

Victoria Bennion: Yeah. Mm.

Natalie Tealdi: So leaving phone numbers off emails I think is pretty standard. Although I did have a phone number, because I did make lots of phone calls. Because I think I went from, I stopped emailing because I wasn't getting responses.

And actually, another thing was there were so many out of office responses. Did you find that? Yes, out of office responses. Absolutely. Like, it, that out of, out of office was on a- so much of

Victoria Bennion: so much of it

Natalie Tealdi: It often said they were on holiday, or off sick And it made me wonder, is that genuine or not?

Victoria Bennion: Mm. Yeah, absolutely. Another thing I remember

It had been missed an annual review that one of my children's placements was actually running out, and nobody had picked this up, and I needed confirmation, was the placement actually ending or had anything been done to extend the funding? Because the funding had been given, say, for I think it was two years, and we'd had the annual review, and it had not been flagged in any way that something needed to happen.

So basically, a whole council office shuts down. I think what I'm saying is it's that doubt, isn't there, that this is the truth? Is this just fobbing you off for another couple of weeks?

Natalie Tealdi: Yeah. Another thing we had was at that really sort of stressful time when mainstream school really wasn't working, and it was apparent that something else needed to be put in place like alternative provision.

When those meetings were happening, so it was like the, the TAF meetings at school, they were bringing in the council. And in order to move things forward, you all had to work together, and we did have a social worker at the time as well. And, we had several meetings where the council representatives didn't come.

They just didn't turn up, and they were expected to, and that meant more delays, and then you miss the panel meetings that they need to go to and all of that.

And I remember being there, and the head teacher of the school fuming, and she was actually trying to get hold of the inclusion officer, and it all had to be rescheduled. And then you miss the slot for the panel meeting because certainly where we live, the panel meetings are always booked up, so it's not like, oh, the next panel meeting is, you can just go in in two weeks.

It might be a good wait, and if you, again, you're pushing towards some holidays, you're running out of dates.

I definitely think avoiding face-to-face meetings is a tactic that's used with some parents. I've had that with schools as well.

I have a chain of emails where I'm requesting a meeting, and it's just ignored. To be clear, though, that was with a school, not with the council ...

Natalie Tealdi: um, heard of that from another parent as well, requesting to see SENCo at the school and just not being responded to.

So again, not an... It was weird to get a phone call rather than an email because most of our conversations were via email. I think what happens to you is that you become so much sharper. I used to be a lot more trusting, and I know we've talked about this, but at the beginning of the journey, it changes who you are.

Mm. Because- You are, you sort of, you are aware that you, people are waiting to screw your child over, basically. That's how you feel, and you have to be really on it, and you have to be making sure that you are covering your back all the time.

He's got a school place. This place has got an inclusion base. He's going to go there. It's gonna be brilliant." And I thought, wow, someone's, like, swooped in and saved the day, and it's all gonna be okay, and then only to be told a few weeks later, well, that was wrong.

Victoria Bennion: Wow. I remember that. I still am puzzled

how can you be told your child has a place at a school, and it's all okay, something you've been waiting for, to then hear no more for weeks, and then, oh, no, that wasn't right. Did, was it never right?

Natalie Tealdi: And not only that, but then the social worker left.

Victoria Bennion: That's right.

Natalie Tealdi: And then we had to start from square one.

Then- Yeah ... then there's still a glimmer of hope that maybe, maybe it could happen, and maybe that will help. And then, no. And then it was, wasn't really until I thought, right, I have to make this happen. No one is gonna come and save the day because there isn't anyone, or they keep leaving. We went through so many social workers.

They just didn't stay in their roles for long. And it was only when I phoned the council and said, "My son is not coming back to this school in September," that they started listening to me. I think they started taking me seriously then.

Victoria Bennion: Yeah. But it takes a lot out of you.

Natalie Tealdi: Yes.

What they didn't know is that I had also done my own research. So I had found three possible places. I'd been in direct contact with them. We had visited one, met them. They met my son. They told us they could offer him one day a week. The council came to a meeting and said they had consulted with, I think it was five or six places, and unfortunately none of them could offer him a place.

And on that list was some that I had directly spoken to who said they could. And so in that meeting I told them so. And, um, they were not very happy. Kind of backtracking.

I

Victoria Bennion: was just gonna say, how did they respond to that?

"Oh,

Natalie Tealdi: really? Oh, it was a bit like that, really. And they said, "Oh, w- well, we'll try again then."

Victoria Bennion: Like you'd even tried ...

Victoria Bennion: So they'd just fully made it up and come to the meeting.

And again- Yeah ... if you'd accepted that, if you'd, if you hadn't done your own homework, .

Natalie Tealdi: Oh. I would've just believed them, wouldn't I? Yeah. And that saves them a lot of money. It's a good... Well, I suppose there's the effort of having to actually ring them, and if it was sorted out-

It's

Victoria Bennion: the time, isn't it?

But that's good time.

So there's the time, and there's the money. You can see clearly the motivation. So again, these are things that we've come across and things that we've put together, okay, we get why this is happening. But I think the whistleblower coming out and saying it has just clarified what SEN parents know is happening.

Natalie Tealdi: Yeah. And it actually does make you feel a bit sick, doesn't it?

It's

Victoria Bennion: about children, and it's the damage that it does to these children when they're in the wrong places and they're just, people are deliberately making sure that their needs aren't met.

It's a really, really horrible feeling.

Victoria Bennion: That's fully sick. Yeah. And I do think that just getting that energy that you were talking about is why so many parents do end up doing SARs, and then end up reading what they really have said.

Natalie Tealdi: It's very cold, isn't it, when you think the children that they're dealing with are very, very broken mentally.

They're just not coping. They're breaking down their families

Victoria Bennion: And all this delaying- ... ... is pushing them to that absolute full breaking point. It's like there can be no help until you've actually got to that point. We're really gonna push it off that far, and we don't really care about it either, but it saves us a lot of money and a lot of time and a lot of effort.

Natalie Tealdi: But what are they also thinking about us? What, do you think they, think we do this for fun?

I

Natalie Tealdi: No.

You know, there's stuff in the press about There's n- ... no naughty children-

Victoria Bennion: there's obviously a deliberate rhetoric in the press.

You can see it with the headlines it's attacking diagnosis. I think, , it's a very deliberate campaign to turn public opinion about diagnosis,

And it's taking away from people who have real difficulties and, it's taking away the support, which again, doesn't it come back to saving a whole ton of money if you do that? Yeah. So what's the motivation again? Mm.

It's like you're not even gonna be taken seriously unless you push for that. And then we know how far away these tribunal dates are. So even if the council know that they're gonna lose, they're gonna save all this money, aren't they, by making a family go to tribunal. Um, I don't know. Is it 12 months? It could be even more than that in our area.

Natalie Tealdi: Even more, isn't it?

Victoria Bennion: Yeah. It's a long time. But you think a school placement perhaps, you're saving thousands of pounds.

I'll

Natalie Tealdi: tell you another thing you've just reminded me. We were on the list for tribunal, and it actually got sorted out before we had to get to that point, but we had a date, and the council failed to let the. Tribunal know that we didn't need the date anymore, which was their responsibility, not ours, and they were really cross because obviously they've set it all up. I think, I think they let them know, but really late. And, and what impact did that have for another family that could have had that slot-

If councils were making lawful decisions, they wouldn't be losing almost every single time, and that's another reason why tribunals should be protected.

So the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, called the alleged behavior completely unacceptable and said that councils will be held to account. Now, I'd like to know how.

Natalie Tealdi: And that's exactly what I was going to say.

How, Bridget, how? '

Victoria Bennion: Cause again,. this isn't news to us, and I think so much consultation has been done in, in respect of the SEN reforms. They have this information from families. I suppose will it be taken any more seriously now ITV have, put it in the spotlight?

Natalie Tealdi: No, I think they'll probably just look at being more clever about hiding the behaviors.

But

Victoria Bennion: it does feed into the SEND reform debate even further, because if this is what councils are behaving like with legal duties in place, can you imagine what would happen with weaker ones?

Natalie Tealdi: It's so scary.

Victoria Bennion: ISP decisions can't be appealed to tribunal under the proposals. Only SPP and EHCP threshold decisions can

So what can we do when we're dealing with this? What have we learnt over time that's helpful?

Put

Natalie Tealdi: everything in writing. Every phone call, every conversation, follow up with an email summarizing it. Keep your own notes.

Because I was in a situation with a school, and clearly the placement had broken down. They decided not to make any further accommodations, and they were ignoring all my emails, requests for calls. And yet when we were going to have an emergency annual review, they denied that that was the case in a pre-meeting with the council that I was not invited to, unaware of until the meeting.

And it made me realize that actually if I'd copied in all the professionals, there would've been no doubt as to what was going on. So that would be my tip. Maybe we need to be numbering our questions and emails so none can be quietly ignored.

Natalie Tealdi: Yeah, that's a good idea

Victoria Bennion: never accept a verbal no.

Ask for refusals in writing with reasons and the legal basis

Victoria Bennion: Yeah, and know that if you do need to go to tribunal, don't be afraid of that. The odds are hugely in your favor. Exhaustion is the tactic that they're going for, so don't let them win.

There's lots of help out there as well. You can look at IPSEA. SENDIASS.

Natalie Tealdi: And Special Needs Jungle. They've covered this story in depth- on their page.

Victoria Bennion: Absolutely. And I think in terms of a final thought, you were never imagining it, you were never being difficult, and now the country has heard it from the inside.

Natalie Tealdi: Thank you for listening. Please do share any of your stories. We'd love to know what your experiences are with this