Thank you to everyone who has provided feedback to Plymouth Parent Carer Voice regarding the PIAS Consultation. We have read every single response that you have sent our way via email, private message and social media.
Although we have been unable to respond to every message individually, we have done our very best to collate the information you have shared and have put it in this blog post for transparency. Some themes were repeated a number of times, so although you may not find your exact wording below, we think we have included everything.
PPCV will be meeting with PCC soon and we will raise all the points below on your behalf. Please take a few minutes to check the points we are going to raise. If we have missed anything (or misunderstood anything that you have told us) please get in touch via email to KatieR@PlymouthPCV.co.uk by 10 am on THURSDAY 30TH JANUARY 2025.
Get ready for the long read…
What you told us about the service hours and service quality with the proposed plans.
- If the number of enquiries and requests for support have more than doubled, it doesn’t make sense to halve the number of caseworkers. This is going to affect the service we receive even though we are being told it won’t.
- In the shockingly bad PCC OFSTED report, services such as PIAS were praised. So why would you decimate it by halving the caseworkers? Especially as other services have been regarded as ‘failing’ by bodies such as OFSTED/CQC.
- It is dismissive to assume that a ‘slight increase’ in response times won’t have negative impact and just because ‘other services have a wait list’ (as stated in the meeting). If anything, it creates a bigger strain on already struggling, vulnerable families and children.
- Waiting 10 working days or more (instead of 2) for a response when you are already in crisis can mean the difference of my child going to school or not; the difference between me going to work and getting paid or not; the difference between a situation spiralling out of control or not; deadlines being met or not; a child being excluded or not; my family being forced to deregister from school or not.
- Due to my own difficulties, I would not be able to leave a telephone message on an answerphone if there are reduced telephone service hours. It was not clear what type of arrangements have been considered to support others who feel the same and are likely to be working between 9 and 3.
- It is difficult for me to leave coherent messages due to anxiety and answering a call back during school hours is also problematic. We need to maintain current response days and at least two days a week where access remains until 5pm.
- As a parent carer you need to be able to get hold of someone quickly. I am sure I’m not alone when I say that as a parent of children with SEN, you suffer sleepless nights, excessive worry, anxiety and illness over having to constantly fight and battle for your children’s basic rights. We need more IAS workers not less! Having to wait a week or more for a call back will be torture!
- I will be deterred from accessing support for my child.
- I am concerned that the reduction in caseworkers will mean reduced access to advocacy. This type of support for my family has been a lifeline and I can’t loose it.
- Very little consideration has been given about the minimum standards from the Council for Disabled Children.
- It feels like reducing service levels to “minimum standards” is something to be celebrated and considered good enough for our children.
- I worry that PIAS will be unable to do outreach work such as Step by Step groups, Friends and Family of Special Children, Family Hub engagement sessions, SEND Conferences and Transition to Adulthood conferences with their reduced staff level. It was only through such work that I learnt about them and what they do.
- Even though many families have their own difficulties to deal with in this area, many raised concerns about the health and wellbeing of PIAS staff (pointing out the difficult situations they deal with on a day-to-day basis and how their work will be made harder and more stressful with increased workload/less caseworkers).
What you told us about moving courses to OnCourse SW
- No consideration appeared to be given to the statutory courses that PIAS run relating to legal requirements (which are in line with minimum standards set by the Council for Disabled Children.) Only parenting courses appeared to have been taken into consideration.
- There didn’t appear to be an understanding of the minimum standards set by the Council for Disabled Children with regards to courses. When this was raised in a meeting it was not addressed.
- If OnCourse SW run the statutory courses, will courses such as “Applying for a Seconday School with an EHCP” continue to be independent based on the law, or will the nature change (ie, pushing towards mainstream and not giving all legal options)?
- Consideration as to how difficult it has been for my family to build relationships with those running courses had not been given – building a relationship with course providers takes time and respect.
- Booking courses through OnCourseSW is very difficult and complicated for some families.
- OnCourse SW already have waiting lists.
- I don’t want on-course southwest to be the provider – they have already shown a lack of support towards me.
- During the meeting, we were made to feel like we should be grateful for having parenting courses provided because they are not a statutory requirement.
What you told us about Costs
- During the meetings, we were constantly told how lucky we have been to have an IAS that has been funded better than every other area as if it were a privilege to have support to get what is right and humane for our disabled children!
- Although there were lots of statements about how well PIAS is funded compared to IAS services around the country, there was no data available to compare the service user satisfaction. PIAS is around 99% in all areas – how do the less well funded ones compare?
- Some IAS services have volunteers plugging gaps. I don’t think this is a particularly reliable way to work if PCC is planning to plug the inevitible gaps in services this way by replicating what others are doing on smaller budgets.
- Now is not the right time to reduce costs through this service. At least wait until there is evidence that some of the other actions PCC have implemented have worked/showed a reduction in the need for legal support/tribunal support.
- Reducing costs in this area (help for children and young people with SEND) feels like an easy target that will get no push back. Accessing PIAS support was our last avenue of support due to law failings in so many other areas.
- Some families stated that they would like to know who benefits from a pay rise or bonus from this cost-cutting exercise.
- The figures given in the modelling (in the consultation document) were inconsistent and wrong. I don’t trust anyone to make an informed decision based on incorrect figures and information.
- The only reason given for the changes was that PIAS gets more funding than other local authorities. There was no reasoning such as poor performance, lack of service users, complaints, etc. The whole reasoning was costs and I am sure there are other ways to reduce costs without reducing vital staff numbers.
- Reducing the need for tribunals in the first place will reduce costs – especially when cases are dropped by PCC at the eleventh hour.
What you told us about how the changes will affect your families
- It is not clear how the proposed model will support improvement for children’s outcomes and their families, particularly with proposed call back times being increased from 2 working days to 5 days (level1) and 10 working days (level 2,3 and 4). My view is that it won’t support improvement.
- The effect these changes (caseworker numbers and reduced hours) will have on families has not been considered.
- If the PIAS proposals are carried out, I can’t see how PCCs OFSTED/CQC report will improve with regards to putting children and young people with SEND at the centre of essential services in health, education and social care.
- There has been no consideration for ongoing cases. What will happen if my caseworker leaves and no-one takes their place? Will I have to start all over again from scratch with a new one?
- The amount of people attending the meeting showed great support for PIAS and the importance of the service
- Those attending the meeting were not just parents/carers. There were also professionals from agencies such as speech and language and school support workers, all of whom also seem concerned by the proposals and the affect it will have on families and children.
- PIAS are there to address the power imbalance in the system between the LA and parents/carers trying to navigate a complex system. Reducing access to this (which will happen with a reduced number of caseworkers) will have a detrimental affect on my family.
- We are not legally trained as parents and yet when facing the SEN system many of us have to face lengthy and complex legal battles. These legal battles are increasing in number due to cuts in other areas so there will be no one to help us when the caseworker team is halved. We are not experts in law but have to go through this just to get our children’s legal human rights met! My child’s needs will simply not be met.
- Please can I urge you not to cut the PIAS workers – in an already stretched and broken system they are our only lifeline! The outcomes for our children will be a whole lot worse with a reduction in caseworkers and increased waiting times.
What you told us about how the consultation meetings were run
- It was good to have a choice of dates/times to fit around work/childcare. (Edit added 28/1/25)
- Lack of professionalism with the presentation to parents – the presenter looked like they were working from home with no formal PCC background and we could see people walking around in the background during the meeting.
- Our questions were not answered (verbal and in chat during the online meetings)
- Our concerns were dismissed.
- When concerns were raised, we were told by PCC that they do not envision a problem. With all due respect, not ‘envisioning’ things to be a problem and something becoming a problem because of poor choices made/inaccurate calculations, are two very different things.
- Parents were talked over.
- Answers to questions were abrupt/rude/dismissive/defensive.
- It felt like a “box-ticking” exercise to say that the ideas have been run past parents rather than a genuine “consultation”.
- We were made to feel like we should be grateful for having the PIAS service well funded up til now and parenting courses provided because they are not statutory.
- During the meeting, we were effectively told that we were lucky to have a consultation and not just be told about the cuts they are going to carry out.
What you told us about the consultation process
- Getting hold of the consultation document/information took a long time. (Eg. one parent requested information from piasconsultation.plymouth.gov.uk on 20th December and did not receive any information until it was made available through a second-hand source on 3rd January.)
- There were calculation errors in the original consultation document (only level 3 and 4 support hours were added up – levels 1 and 2 were missed out completely in the original document)
- The consultation document that was made available was different to the information that was presented at the meeting (modelling figures). No replacement consultation document was issued to rectify this even though it was asked for during some of the meeting.
- There was confusion about the modelling figures with regards to where the figures had come from, whether they had been approved/seen by PIAS and which version we were expected to feedback about.
- The modelling figures presented at the meeting looked like the data had been adjusted to fit the narrative rather than the other way around.
- Someone without SEN children or disabled children and no experience of needing to access this service should not have the overall vote on this.
- Parents described the consultation process as raising mixed emotions, but mainly anger.
- There were no polls/votes taken on any aspects of the plans, which I find rather strange in a consultation process. Without taking a poll how would PCC know what people agreed with and the points they were concerned about?
- The whole process has been poorly delivered.
- I am not confident that the views of service users will be listened to, addressed or taken into consideration.
The points listed represent the feedback received by PPCV from parent carers. If you are a parent carer and think that anything has been missed (or misrepresented) please get in touch by 10 am on THURSDAY 30TH JANUARY 2025.
Photo by Polina Kovaleva on Pexels