She said she was “quite outraged by the attitude” in an initial statement issued by the council about the strike, which said a small number of employees would be on strike and any impact would be minimal. Criticizing the council’s senior leadership, she told the ECHO: “They don’t care. The general attitude is that no one matters. Children don’t matter.”

She said: “OFSTED shouldn’t fail you in 2021. It shouldn’t take another two years. It’s not rocket science. This is what you need to improve on. They haven’t made any improvements after two years with an idiot. guide on how to make things better.

She said: “It’s a failed generation,” adding: “I don’t know what you can put in place to make these people successful. There is still a cultural problem of parental blaming. They will never accept responsibility for their failures.

“From the moment OFSTED came in and published this report three years ago, from that moment on, no one could pretend not to know.”

Earlier this year, an improvement notice was issued by the government. It said the council had made little progress following a critical 2021 inspection of the council’s SEND services, while families and carers said “the system is broken”.

Ms Peacock believed there had been no improvement on the ground since the notice, as she was currently dealing with four Wirral cases, including one in court, one through complaints and two with overdue annual reviews. She told the ECHO: “I don’t see it as progress.”

She said parents “feel like they’re being misled and misled because they’re being told improvements have been made, but it turns out that’s not the case.” the staff, the parents, the failing children, what do they achieve? In no other industry would this level of incompetence be tolerated.

“Traumatized, enlightened, lied to. Dealing with parents and caregivers and hearing their stories is incredibly difficult emotionally. I don’t hear people saying it’s getting better. They just find themselves with nothing. Nobody takes care of these families.”

Wirral Council agreed earlier this year to invest £1.1 million in SEND services as well as £2.8 million next year. This funding will double the size of the council’s team, halve the workload and aim to improve staff working conditions as well as reduce waiting times for parents seeking help. help.

However, Ms Peacock estimates that progress from creating a new team will take more than a year, adding: “They have been trying to recruit staff for a very long time. To fully understand SEND and the case law, it is not overnight. repair.”

She said: “If staff are not supported to do their job, if they are not properly trained and if they are overworked and there is too much pressure to deal with frustration, because these are them who come to the meetings. They are the scapegoats. . He sits on the senior executives.”

Elizabeth Hartley, director of children, families and education at Wirral Council, said: “I fully recognize that for too long, children and young people with SEND and their parents and carers have had a poor experience in getting board support. We are committed to addressing this situation – putting children and families first – and we are focusing and progressing on wide-ranging improvements to SEND services.

“Over the last six months we have accelerated the pace of this improvement work, which includes implementing a restructure of the Council’s SEND services which will address staff workload and their line management support and will enable us all to provide a better service to children, parents and caregivers.

“This has been supported by investment from the council, which has committed a further £1.1 million this year to improve our SEND services and £2.8 million next year. This will allow us to almost double the number of staff handling cases, thereby cutting the size of the team’s workload in half.

“We know it’s not just about money, which is why the investment and restructuring is complemented by a new approach to engaging with parents and carers through their forum and better work partnership, led by a multidisciplinary partnership council.

“Implementing comprehensive, meaningful change is difficult, and it’s frustrating when you can’t do it overnight. But we are entirely focused on delivering improvements for the children and families of Wirral.

Since government advice was published earlier this year, the issue of SEND services and what is being done to improve them is now a regular item on the agenda at various council committee meetings as well as a new board of directors established to oversee progress. However, Ms Peacock does not think councilors knew enough about the situation “to be able to ask these questions as a critical friend”.

She added: “What is being reported is not correct. There is no doubt about it. There is no doubt about it. It just seems like an acceptance and a nod.”

ECHO contacted representatives from each of Wirral’s four political parties on the local authority’s children, young people and education committee for a response. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats did not respond, but Labor and the Greens blamed the previous government’s underfunding.

Labor committee chairman, Councilor Stephen Bennett, said: “The outgoing Conservative government has completely failed our SEND services and the children who rely on them, ignoring calls from local leaders to act and leaving services in crisis total, which affects boards across the world. country.”

He said the party “recognizes locally the acute challenges of current services and the pressure this puts on our staff”, but that the local authority has “taken strong action”, including a complete restructuring of services and an investment of £3.9 million over two years. .

He added: “Wirral Labor fully recognizes the crucial role of school support staff in supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities. We are committed to strengthening inclusion and expertise in mainstream schools, ensuring that our special schools can effectively support children with the most complex needs and help them overcome educational barriers.

Green Party committee spokesperson Cllr Amanda Onwuemene said her party supported the strike and “is aware of and appreciates the hard work and effort put in by SEND staff, in extremely difficult circumstances, to provide the statutory services, families, children and young people on the Wirral. have rights regarding SEND.

She said the government’s past underfunding had led to “vacant posts, diminished service provision and ultimately a service that requires improvement, as identified by Ofsted in 2021”, but the level expected improvement has not occurred with services “inadequate and, in the worst case, unavailable at present”. the times when it was most needed.

She added that their party would push for ongoing review of any improvements as well as the council’s investment in the service to “repair the working relationship between the council and families”.