Wirral Council’s Children’s Services branded “inadequate” by OFSTED
Wirral Council’s Children’s Services branded “inadequate” by OFSTED
Cabinet 17th December 2014 vote on Lyndale School closure L to R Cllr Tony Smith (Cabinet Member for Children and Family Services), Cllr George Davies, Cllr Ann McLachlan
I’ll declare at the outset that I was the Appellant in the First-Tier Tribunal case referred to later.
The inspection was carried out in July 2016 and the headlines (these are quoted from the report) are:
“1. Children who need help and protection Inadequate
2. Children looked after and achieving permanence Requires improvement
2.1 Adoption Performance Requires improvement
2.2 Experiences and progress of care leavers Inadequate
1. Leadership, management and governance Inadequate”
The report then goes on to explain the many reasons why and starts with the sentence, “There are widespread and serious failures in the services provided to children who need help and protection in Wirral.” and perhaps even more telling makes this point about senior management and councillors, “Almost all of the deficits identified in this inspection were known by senior leaders.”
And in response to a certain senior manager at Wirral Council who repeatedly states the Council acts in the best interests of children, “Plans to restructure services to respond better to children’s needs were delayed for a year due to competing council priorities.”
However I don’t want you to think I’m cherry-picking negative criticism from the report. If you read the report you’ll find it has very little to state that is positive.
After all this sentence, “Performance management data is widely scrutinised by managers and elected members, but is not yet leading to improvement and is not always focused on the right things.” sums it up. People (whether that be councillors or managers) know about the problems, but seemingly don’t know (or if I’m being more charitable are thwarted from) fixing them.
The infamous report into Wirral Council by Anna Klonowski Associates explained how in years gone by Wirral Council received independent reports similar to these but just carried on (whereas in other councils it would’ve raised red flags and led to major alarm bells ringing).
Of course it remains to be seen what Wirral Council’s response to this is. An Improvement Board has been mentioned (but if it meets in private as the one before did) the public won’t know about the changes Wirral Council is making in response and to be able to hold their political leaders to account.
As I wish to end on a positive note Committee Rooms 1, 2 (and I’m told also Committee Room 3) on the ground floor at Wallasey Town Hall are now able to be better accessed by those in wheelchairs or those with reduced mobility due to changes recently made to the doors to these rooms at this listed building.
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A Martian tries to understand the incredible Lyndale School situation (episode 2)
A Martian tries to understand the incredible Lyndale School situation (episode 2)
Marvin the Martian from Disney’s Looney Tunes
The below is a fictional interview with Marvin the Martian about Lyndale School. Marvin the Martian is trademarked to Warner Brothers Entertainment. Our legal team point out their trademark doesn’t actually cover its use on blogs but in case they try to argue this blog is an “entertainment service”, it isn’t, so no laughing! Yes I mean it, not even a smile! We also point out it’s not an infringing use of class 9 of this trademark as that refers to its use on goods rather than virtually.
JOHN BRACE: Thanks for agreeing to talk about Lyndale School (again).
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: You’re welcome, but I must admit we’re even more confused today.
JOHN BRACE: Why’s that?
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Well we just listened from our spaceship to the BBC Radio Merseyside broadcast.
JOHN BRACE: Ahh, I see.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: The way Lyndale was described it’s a hospital, not a school.
JOHN BRACE: I see why you’re confused. It’s both in a way.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Well thanks for clearing that point up. So now we can say the red politicians want to close a hospital?
JOHN BRACE: No the red politicians will say they invented free hospitals, that hospitals are very dear to their heart and that they don’t want to privatise them as it doesn’t fit with their socialist ideals. They’ll tell you that hospitals aren’t safe in the hands of the blues or the yellows (or any other colour than red).
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: But the blues, yellows and greens want to keep this “hospital” open! The reds keep voting at every stage to close it!
JOHN BRACE: The reds will say they just voted for “consultation”, won’t call it a hospital and if pressed, they’ll just blame it on the blues and the yellows.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Right there’s another point I want clearing up now too. The bureaucrats who work for the reds, say that the blues and yellows are giving the reds an extra £260,029 this year for special educational needs.
JOHN BRACE: Yes.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: But the blues and the yellows say that it’s not £260,029, but £364,135 and that the reds were told in January that they can spend this SEN Reform Revenue Grant to “choose how to spend the money in order to best meet local need” and that its purposes is (according to the blues/yellows) to “improve outcomes for children and young people with SEN; increase choice and control for parents; and promote a less adversarial system.”?
JOHN BRACE: The reds would prefer you didn’t mention that.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Why?
JOHN BRACE: Well their whole argument is blaming the blues and yellows for giving them less money, not more. It’s an “inconvenient truth”.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: And in politics you don’t talk about the inconvenient truths?
JOHN BRACE: Yes, it’s not diplomatic or tactful to do so. If you try that with a red politician they’ll call you “political”.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: And why is that a bad thing?
JOHN BRACE: Because like unravelling a ball of string, once you start plucking away at one bit the whole thing starts falling apart.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So the reds believe if they repeat enough that the blues and yellows are giving them less money that people like BBC Radio Merseyside will repeat it?
JOHN BRACE: Yes, they’ve been on a media training course you see.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Oh, in how to deal with people like you?
JOHN BRACE: Partly, but anyway your arguments about money are pointless.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Why?
JOHN BRACE: Because Wirral Council has been given the money referred to above (at least the first two instalments), but they don’t officially have it.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: What kind of double talk is that?
JOHN BRACE: It’s not part of the budget that Labour agreed back in the Spring of 2014.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Was that deliberate?
JOHN BRACE: You mean they’d deliberately try to close the school, then suddenly magically find money they knew they had all along but tried to keep quiet and then use that to keep it open to make themselves look wonderful?
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: No, did they deliberately set a budget knowing they had this extra money?
JOHN BRACE: I don’t know, you’d better ask them.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Going back to the radio show, they said it should be about the children.
JOHN BRACE: Yes it should.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So why do they keep getting talked out of the discussion?
JOHN BRACE: Because politicians would rather score political points.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: I listened to the parents, they referred to a “David versus Goliath” battle.
JOHN BRACE: It always is with Wirral Council, see the battles I had with them over filming meetings (until central government stepped in).
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So they were worried you’d film them “scoring political points”?
JOHN BRACE: No.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Oh so they were worried you’d film them trying to close a school?
JOHN BRACE: No.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So what were the reasons then?
JOHN BRACE: Health and safety.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Well that’s ironic in a way isn’t it? They’re bothered about the health and safety implications of you filming meetings but not the health and safety of the Lyndale children?
JOHN BRACE: You might put it that way, I couldn’t possibly comment.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Well, the parents seem to think it’ll affect their children’s health if the school is closed.
JOHN BRACE: A lot of people think it would.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: And if the school closes all the staff are out of a job too.
JOHN BRACE: Yes, but the reds are the “party of the workers”.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: What does that mean?
JOHN BRACE: It means they side with the unions and the workers.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Ahh, so the unions want to close Lyndale?
JOHN BRACE: No, the unions are against closure. See UNISON’s response starting on page 37 which states the consultation was “misleading” and compared to Children’s Centres that there is no “equality or fairness” for Lyndale staff. NUT (National Union of Teachers) also states the consultation was “misleading” and that if Lyndale was closed “some of our most vulnerable pupils will be left without access to a local school.”
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: This whole politics thing is starting not to make any sense!
JOHN BRACE: Now you know how people feel about the whole thing.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So to recap, the blues and yellows gave the reds more money for this sort of thing that the reds won’t spend (yet). The reds say the blues and yellows are giving them less money.
The blues, yellows, reds and greens all say they’re on the side of the people and the reds say they’re the party of the unions. The unions seem to be on the same side as the blues, yellows and greens?
JOHN BRACE: No because a lot of those involved with the unions to put it mildly dislike the blues.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Your whole political system makes no sense whatsoever!!!
JOHN BRACE: That’s “democracy” for you.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Don’t people get frustrated having to live under such a system?
JOHN BRACE: Yes which is why they get a vote.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: And what does a vote do?
JOHN BRACE: It allows people to pick the politicians out of the reds, blues, greens, yellows, purples et cetera.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So if your political system is as it is it’s the public who are to blame?
JOHN BRACE: Well no, our system ignores a majority of their votes. Let’s give an example. This year in Pensby and Thingwall 4,086 people voted.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: OK.
JOHN BRACE: Roughly one in three of those voted for the red party, the rest (two in three) voted for someone else.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So someone else won?
JOHN BRACE: No the red party won, although most people voted for someone else.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So you’re saying the red party is now in charge making the decisions, even though most people who voted in Pensby & Thingwall didn’t want them in charge?
JOHN BRACE: Yes.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So your voting system means you ignore the wishes of most people and then just pick someone that most people don’t want?
JOHN BRACE: Sometimes.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Well doesn’t that mean whoever is in charge is unpopular?
JOHN BRACE: Well that’s the weird thing about our political system, since the red party have been in charge, they’ve become slightly more popular with the public.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Well according to what you just told me they weren’t very popular to start with!
JOHN BRACE: Indeed, but if you look at that election I just mentioned it was between a red and a former red that had switched to the blues. The reds really really did not want their former colleague to win.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So the public were asked to vote to choose between a red and a former red who is now a blue!
JOHN BRACE: Yes.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So let’s get this straight, the reds are in charge not because they’re terribly popular but because of your voting system.
JOHN BRACE: Yes.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: And most people don’t vote or when they do vote often their vote doesn’t count (which is why they often choose not to vote)?
JOHN BRACE: Yes.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: And that’s called democracy?
JOHN BRACE: Yes.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: But the children of Lyndale are not allowed to vote?
JOHN BRACE: No.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Why not?
JOHN BRACE: I don’t make the rules here.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: So Lyndale School can be closed by a bunch of red politicians that most people never voted for and in some places a majority don’t want, that claim to be the party of the unions (who are against the idea), claim to the party of the people (who are also against the idea) and the ones who will be affected (the children) don’t even get a say in whether the politicians are red, blue, yellow, green (or something else) this year?
JOHN BRACE: You left out the bit about the reds blaming it all on the blues and the yellows.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: Oh yes, the red politicians say they don’t have any money because of the blues and the yellows, but the blues and the yellows say well that’s the reds’ fault but they’ve given the reds more money anyway?
JOHN BRACE: As usual it is more complicated than that.
MARVIN THE MARTIAN: And you call that “democracy”, sounds like disorganised chaos!
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Lyndale School Consultation Meeting: Cllr Dave Mitchell “They need the care they’ve got!” (part 9)
Lyndale School Consultation Meeting: Cllr Dave Mitchell “They need the care they’ve got!” (part 9)
Phil Ward (Wirral Council’s SEN Lead) at a later meeting of Wirral Schools Forum 2nd July 2014 (who chaired the consultation meeting at Acre Lane on the 16th June)
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This transcript starts about 1 hour and 4 minutes into the meeting.
PHIL WARD
Next question, ok, yes, thank you.
UNKNOWN SPEAKER (MALE)
I’d just … (unclear)… and this side here, listening to the people who are around who have been giving their opinions, errm frontline people who have all the experience of all the years of looking after the children and seeing all those who have those difficulties that have actually come about you know!? Why aren’t they sitting there? Why aren’t they sitting there telling you, what the nature of those problems are and …(unclear)…ing to you how they feel that it should be dealt with and what would be the best way? Why don’t you prefer no experience to (unclear).. key parts…(unclear)… when you’ve got people with loads of experience and anyway you’re not going to do it at the end of the day?
He received a round of applause.
COUNCILLOR DAVE MITCHELL
I’m going to make two points and one is that what is being proposed of the nature of, we need to go back and look at errm individual pupils and we need to do this before we take a democratic decision, before we decide.
The second point is really concerning those children, errm the children of Lyndale and the point Ian [Lewis] touched on earlier, is that moving the children from the Lyndale School to other schools, those are children with different sets of needs and can we invite all those Lyndale actions you know?
What I would like and the children who are at Lyndale, could we be, could we be learning from them? They need the care they’ve got! It’s (unclear)…and you know, I think the point is relevant for me, I think playing one off against the other and it’s a case of the children at the Lyndale, hopefully so we’ll still get the benefit of that, but the children themselves (unclear)… and then (unclear) …and then you have the ability to cause problems and I am really concerned about that! I’m really concerned about that.
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Lyndale School Closure Consultation: Cllr Phil Gilchrist “this looks to be a set of moving goalposts”
Lyndale School Closure Consultation: Cllr Phil Gilchrist “this looks to be a set of moving goalposts”
Cllr Phil Gilchrist (left) presented with the Andy Day Memorial Cup by former Mayor Cllr Dave Mitchell (right)
Councillor Phil Gilchrist (the Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group on Wirral Council) has kindly provided this blog with his consultation response to the Lyndale School Closure Consultation. It is reproduced below. For the purpose of clarity when reading the acronyms SEN and DCSF have been expanded and this addition appears in brackets [] in bold italic text.
Ed – Updated (revision 4) 10:50 12/8/14 to replace absolute values in table 1 with relative values to fix display problem. Ed – Updated (revision 5) 10:55 12/8/14 to replace absolute values in table 2 with relative values to fix display problem. Linked email address.
Feedback Form
Please let us know the main relationships you have with the school(s) by putting a tick in the appropriate box or boxes. You might be a parent and a member of staff, for example.
School
Parent
Member of Staff
Governor
Other Person
Elleray Park
Lyndale
Stanley
Foxfield
Meadowside
Other (Please Specify)
Cllr
I attended the consultative meeting held at Acre Lane on 10th April and the further meeting held on 16th June.
I have also visited The Lyndale School on 27th January on a private fact finding arrangement, and, on 9th May after a request from parents.
In addition I have visited the school and Stanley, Foxfield, Meadowside and Elleray Park with other councillors on 16th and 17th June.
I was also a signatory to the ‘Call In’ considered by the Council committee.
Short fact finding visits can only provide a brief picture of how a school works day by day. In making the recent visits I formed a strong impression of the way the children at The Lyndale might be ‘compared’ with children of the same ages at Elleray Park and Stanley.
In attempting this I also need to take account of the needs that I did not see – children who are not in the school, that day, because of their poor health.
It seems to me that a high proportion of children attending Lyndale have the most serious needs.
Lyndale may not be the best laid out building but is ‘home’ and provides the atmosphere and the facilities to stimulate the children.
The financial problems flow from the formula adopted by the Council.
Consultation on changing the funding formula began in 2010, under the last Government, when the DSCF [Department for Children, Schools and Families] looked at the formula (Chapter 4) for high cost pupils.
The formula the Council adopted in 2013 arose from discussions at the Schools Forum which chose the present banding system which has added to the pressures on Lyndale’s finances.
The parents need the utmost assurances that the care and education being provided must continue to that same high standard.
Without sight of ‘the answers’ provided to parents I am aware that reference is regularly made to what the SEN [Special Educational Needs] ‘test’ should ensure.
As I mentioned at the last meeting this looks to be a set of moving goalposts.
A ‘pale imitation’ is not good enough for the children.
Some years ago parents did seek the creation of an all through school, up to the age of 19. One of the ‘drivers’ was the issue of ‘transition’ at age 11.
Councillors who visited Foxfield and Meadowside were assured that there is a very thorough process for transition – with study of the children, visits to Lyndale by staff before children move, and visits by parents to those schools.
These visits showed the differences in the buildings ‘on offer’.
The new Stanley building was ‘sparse’ and assurances were given that any new additions could be designed with needs of ‘The Lyndale’ children in mind
However this appeared to be an addition as an ‘afterthought’.
The children at Elleray Park had different needs from the children at Lyndale.
Assurances have been given that schools can adapt their teaching styles and methods to the needs of children, that parents have choice and that there is good communication between professionals.
It is apparent that the parents at Lyndale place great emphasis on the way the staff the children ‘know’ interact with them Equally the staff are able to ‘read’ the developing signs and gestures that the children are able to return.
I have asked how the ‘Lyndale’ can be completely replicated elsewhere.
The answer has not, as yet, as far as I know, been given in a way that fully satisfies the parents,
However, if the Council insists on change then it should design a setting that has the atmosphere and facilities valued by parents, several classrooms with accessible changing, a communal hall where children can fully socialise and guaranteed access to hydrotherapy. .
Please tell us your name and address, postcode, and email address if you have one. We will not use your personal information for anything other than this consultation.
Please note: In order to ensure that this process is fully open and transparent, other people will be able to read all the responses to this consultation.
10 weeks left in Lyndale School closure consultation
10 weeks left in Lyndale School closure consultation
Front of thank you card from Lyndale staff and children (you can click on the image for a higher quality version)
(you can click on the image for a higher quality version)
As you can see above, Leonora and I received a thank you card fortnight ago from the Lyndale staff and children (the scanned images probably don’t do it justice). So I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Lyndale staff and children for the thank you card.
In the three and half years since starting this blog I think it’s the first thank you card that Leonora and I have received and came completely out of the blue so I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the Lyndale staff and children for creating it and sending it.
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Wirral Council Cabinet meeting of 16th January 2014 at which the decision to consult on closing Lyndale School was made
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