SEND Refoms – ‘Independent’ Supporters

This is all a bit vague for me, let me get this straight.

So the Government are spending 30 million on a system of independent supporters that are expected to deliver professional and competent advice on Education, Health and Social Care having just carried out an online training course which will become available only one week before the first face to face interview takes place.

I read somewhere that the ‘independent’ supporters are supposed to work ‘closely’ with the Local Authority and in some circumstances actually take the side of the LA therefore the sceptic might worry that this isn’t really being independent.

And between now and the 1st September all Agencies have to come together to agree a local memorandum of understanding which in normal circumstances might take months or never because everyone and his dog, (popular reference due to the Pudsey effect you know), are trying to avoid any semblance of responsibility for anything that might require the spending of money they don’t have and because the memorandum is local there is no best practice standard to argue against therefore we could end up with a dog’s breakfast (I thank you), with families having to just accept what has been cobbled together to meet the deadline whilst making absolutely sure no one has to, you know, actually worry about spending any extra money or anything.

Lastly, when you consider the implications of the Children and Families Act plus the Care Act will our ‘Independent’ supporters have enough of their allowance left to spend on fulltime legal advice I wonder?

I can’t see anyway that all this might go wrong.