This article is our response to the ITV News investigation published on 3 July 2026, which includes allegations from a whistleblower that council staff were instructed to delay access to SEND support. The allegations are currently the subject of public reporting and have prompted widespread discussion about accountability, early intervention and the experiences of children and families navigating the SEND system.
We’ve taken a little while to respond to the recent ITV whistblower investigation, because our first reaction was the same as many – that this is deeply upsetting. Our second thought was that sadly this isn’t a revelation, it is confirmation of what families have been telling us and living with for years.
According to the ITV report, a whistleblower has alleged that council staff were instructed to delay access to SEND support, avoid creating written evidence and leave families waiting longer for help. If those allegations are proven to be true, they point to something far more serious than an overstretched system. They suggest a culture where delay deliberately became part of the process.
Children have been telling us what delay feels like for years, just not in ‘policy language’. They tell us through school avoidance, shutdowns, exhaustion, panic, masking, behaviour that is misunderstood and gradual loss of trust in the adults who were supposed to help.
One child, after being refused a school placement where she felt she would be safe, despite having an EHCP and a named school saying they could not meet her needs, asked her mum:
“Why have they found everyone else a school but not me? That’s not very fair.
Do they not like me? Do they not care about me?
Why are they in charge if they don’t care about children? They shouldn’t be!
Important people are supposed to look after children and help them…”
When a child’s needs are minimised repeatedly questioned or support is delayed this is the result- a child left feeling ashamed, confused, distressed and left wondering whether they matter. The harm is developmental, emotional, educational and affects the whole family.
A child who could have been supported with early, practical adjustments may instead present with high anxiety, school feels unsafe, attendance drops, mental health deteriorates and ultimately trust is lost. A family that was once the child’s safest place can be pushed to breaking point by paperwork, guilt, fear, meetings, complaints, waiting lists and the constant pressure to continue to explain, evidence and prove what they already know about their child’s needs.
Parents are often described as ‘fighting the system’, but the reality is that they are fighting because their children are not coping.
Tribunal data has consistently shown that families are overwhelmingly successful when they challenge SEND decisions. This alone, should perhaps prompt us to ask difficult questions about the system itself, rather than continuing to frame these experiences as isolated disagreements, complications with the process, pressure or poor communication issues.
This isn’t about questioning individual commitment – we know that many professionals care deeply about children and families. We work with many of them who are doing everything they can within underfunded, risk-managed, threshold-full and increasingly stretched systems. But a system can be full of caring people and still cause harm.
When children are made to wait until crisis; if children are expected to visibly fail before support is considered; when attendance is prioiritised without asking whether school feels safe enough to attend, or when families are left chasing, repeating, proving and waiting while their children’s needs escalatate, we are not being preventative.
We believe support should begin when need is first visible, not when a child has reached breaking point loudly enough to qualify for help. Parental concern is evidence and school distress is information. Children shouldn’t have to loose access to learning, wellbeing, family stability or trust in order to be taken seriously.
As conversations about SEND reforms continue, we need more than promises. Schools and local services need the resources to provide earlier support, families need independent routes to challenge decisions, and children need systems that respond before crisis, not after.
Trust can only be rebuilt through honesty, accountability, lawful decision-making and a shared commitment to ensuring that no child is left waiting so long that they begin to believe they don’t matter.
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Read Bright Paths newsletter – May 2026 – 4th Edition
