Surrey council appears to u-turn on discussions with mps over send cases

Surrey council has made an apparent U-turn over communicating with MPs on SEND cases. The county's children's service boss has denied they were "closing down channels of

communication" with MPs. While the leader of Surrey County Council pleaded with MPs to not "talk down" children services but work constructively to push for "urgent

national reform" of the system. Liberal Democrat and Conservative MPs wrote separate letters to Clare Curran, the councillor in charge of children’s services, after she sent an email

saying the department would respond to fewer constituent SEND cases raised by members. MPs had expressed their shock and concern in respective letters over Cllr Curran’s statement that the

service “will no longer provide a response to individual cases where a more appropriate alternative route is available”. But at a full council meeting on Tuesday, May 20, Cllr Curran said

she is “not closing down any channels of communication”. The cabinet member said: “I set aside any impression that I may have given that I don’t want to hear from MPs or that any lines of

communication are being cut back, closed or shut down which is absolutely not the case.” Cllr Curran said she just wanted to reiterate and remind MPs that in some cases where a final

decision has been taken, the appropriate route for the family to follow without delay, is to use a formal appeals panel. Cllr Eber Kington, from the Residents' Association and

Independents group, raised the issue at the meeting. He argued it was important that councillors and MPs did not have "communication barriers put in place by children's services”

if their input was “not deemed appropriate or convenient”. At the meeting, Woking's MP Will Forster, who is also a county councillor, asked if Cllr Curran thinks the policy fits with

the council’s “leave no one behind” approach. The Lib Dem MP said he had about 40 active SEND cases. The leader of the county council, Tim Oliver, explained that Surrey has more than 16,000

children with education, health and care plans (EHCPs), one of the highest in the country. In a speech to full council, Cllr Oliver urged MPs to “not talk down” Surrey’s SEND service and

“wilfully mislead the public”. He encouraged MPs to “use your position to speak up for Surrey in Parliament, not to talk down a service that needs urgent national reform and support this

council and government to implement reforms that work for our children, their families, and for all councils across the country". GOT A STORY YOU WANT TO SHARE? EMAIL ME AT

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