Councillor says West Northamptonshire Council staff could leave over criticism of children's services

Less criticism should be levelled at West Northamptonshire Council’s (WNC) children’s services team in case staff are driven to leave their roles, a senior councillor said.

Councillor Fiona Baker, WNC’s cabinet member for children, families and education, said she is a “critical friend” to the service but had been “often outraged or annoyed about various things”.

WNC’s cabinet was reacting to a critical report which found a child with autism was subjected to “significant physical and mental distress” and did not receive a proper education for nearly two years.

Cllr Baker said the authority successfully finds about 2,500 children special needs places every year, with that set to rise to about 3,200 by 2025. She said it receives insufficient funding from the Government and that WNC, along with 42 other English councils, are “lobbying very hard to address these issues nationally”.

But Labour group leader Councillor Wendy Randall told the cabinet meeting on Tuesday the report was “quite shocking” and regular pleas for more money “seem to be falling on deaf ears”.

The Local Government Ombudsman (LGO) report found the child was left isolated in a separate room in a mainstream primary school in 2021. Their school said it was not meeting the child’s needs in “any way, shape or form”.

WNC agreed a plan with the school and the child’s parents but then did not finalise the plan when it should have. The LGO said it had found WNC was aware the child was “not receiving the education and support they needed” at the time but “did not act robustly or quickly enough to find a more suitable school”.

The authority will pay the family a total of £7,125 for its failures and distress caused. The child’s parents started court action against WNC last September.

Cllr Baker said the council had apologised to the child and their family. She said WNC was “disappointed” to receive the LGO’s report but that it highlighted the “difficulty” authorities can face when trying to find suitable placements.

She said of the council’s staff: “I do feel we need to support our team in this area as much as we possibly can in order for them to come in in the mornings, sit behind their desk and do their work. Because continually saying they are doing a bad job is actually encouraging people to leave our service, which is not helping us improve this situation.

“I try my best to support them as much as I can. I am a critical friend. As any in that team will tell you, I’m often outraged or annoyed about various things but we talk through how we can move them forward.”