Marvin Rees has denied that Bristol City Council “intimidates, gaslights and bullies” parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The mayor, responding to ferocious criticism from opposition Green Cllr Christine Townsend at the annual budget-setting full council meeting, said the local authority did not have “some great evil subterfuge plot” against families.
Cllr Townsend claimed the Labour administration’s “ongoing contempt” of parents was “beyond measure". It follows a series of crises in SEND provision in Bristol, including last year’s social media spying scandal, massive delays to education, health and care plans (EHCPs) and an order from the Government last month for the organisation to heal its “fractured relationship” with mums, dads and carers.
The row prompted the intervention of lord mayor Green Cllr Paula O’Rourke, who chairs full council meetings, to keep the debate civil. Councillors were debating Lib Dem Cllr Tim Kent’s budget amendment to slash £184,000 from legal defences of SEND tribunals and redirect the cash into employing more caseworkers to resolve disputes earlier and speed up assessments for youngsters.
Read more: Government orders Bristol City Council to fix SEND parents crisis
The chamber voted overwhelmingly in favour, including both Labour and Greens. Cllr Townsend said: “Ofsted has told this administration that it needs to mend its fractious relationships with parents of children with SEN. Everyone in this chamber including those on the Labour benches know they’ve failed to do this.
“This area of legal spend is the only one the administration wishes to raise – other areas of legal spend are having their budgets cut. The level of ongoing contempt this administration holds families with SEND is beyond measure.
“It would rather focus more officer time and more officer resource preparing for and going to court than securing the needed services for the city’s most vulnerable children When local authorities drag their residents through a court process they lose.
“Two out of three times this administration loses when it goes to court, yet it still wants to intimidate, it still wants to gaslight and it still wants to bully individual families and parents in a legal process.” She said the Lib Dem councillor’s amendment was dealing with just £200,000 out of the £450million 2023/24 schools budget, including £86.5million for high needs.
“It’s symbolic, just like when this administration stated it would implement that external investigation into why the highest paid officers from across various departments used their council taxpayer-funded working hours to spy on the parents of children with SEND. You need to vote for this amendment and stop taking parents through courts," Cllr Townsend said.
Cllr O’Rourke said: “We need to be very careful about the language we are using. If we are talking about things like intimidation and gaslighting, if we are making accusations against members, I would really like us to make sure we speak to the amendments and not speak to the people.
“We need to keep the level of debate morally high.” Mr Rees told the meeting on Tuesday, February 21: We do have a responsibility of setting the tone in the city.
“Talking about gaslighting, bullying, all of that type of stuff, there are certain councillors who I have a list of words that I guarantee are going to come out during the course of the debate – ‘catastrophic’, all these types of hyperbole, whatever.”
The Labour mayor said most people who entered local politics in Bristol were grappling with how to meet the needs of a growing population with dwindling resources, including early interventions SEND to prevent crises later on. "To start throwing around some idea that there is some great evil subterfuge plot against people in the city is just irresponsible and does not help the brand of politics that happens in this chamber,” he said.
“We’ve said it before but it just needs to be better.” Cllr Kent said: “All councillors are aware of the difficulties in meeting demand to help children with special educational needs and disabilities.
“We are not unique as a city, but the pressures here are far worse than in many others. We are aware of the financial pressure facing the service and the overspend in the high-needs budget.
“As a council, tackling that issue over the next few years will be a key task for all of us. But lawyering up against parents and their children is not the answer.”
He said the council spent £100,000 last year fighting SEND cases, compared with £5,000 the year before, but still lost two-thirds of cases. “We need fewer cases going to court and more time spent on resolution and ensuring proper provision and intervention is put in place for young people,” Cllr Kent said.
Deputy mayor Cllr Asher Craig said the rising number of cases was linked to increased need. “Our budget proposals include increased investment in SEND caseworkers,” she said.
“We do not have a fixed budget for defending legal claims as we have no control over the number and complexity of claims made against the council. Regretfully SEND cases are at their highest ever across the UK and this correlates with the significant rise in children and young people with special educational needs here.
“I’m very much aware that some children and young people with SEND do not get the support they need quickly enough, and improving the support available is a key feature of the major improvement programmes we have put in place. Labour’s budget includes additional investment of £1million to recruit additional SEND staff to improve assessment timescales, address the increase in SEND cases and the imperative to reduce the statutory wait time of 20 weeks.”
Read next:
Independent inquiry to investigate Bristol council officers monitoring SEND parents
Bristol City Council 'making sufficient progress' on SEND children but still failing parents
Bristol council tax and garden waste charge hike confirmed as councillors approve budget
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