Warwickshire County Council has committed to reduce waiting times for autism assessments as it looks to improve support for Special Educational Needs andDisabilities (SEND).

Following a damning inspection in July 2021, which found "significant areas of weakness" in the county, the council was forced to make a plan to improve its service.

Parents from across Warwickshire protested outside the council's headquarters at Shire Hall last summer, calling for the authority to stop treating all SEND children the same.

The new Written Statement of Action promises better communication with parents as well as reduced waiting times, more SEND training for mainstream teachers and more online resources.

The plan also commits to make sure SEND children are only put in mainstream or specialist schools when it is right for their needs.

Many parents had become increasingly frustrated with council decisions to return children to mainstream schools to early.

One parent said to Nub News: "Meetings go on with people within the local authority, but they don't involve the parents and they don't listen to the child.

"This could be really avoided if local authorities included families and communicated with then effectively. Money comes into it a lot, but I honestly think that if they started to listen to the families then they could save themselves a lot of money."

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The 32-page action plan, which can be found here, is a "commitment to improving support" according to Cllr Penny-Anne O'Donnell, WCC's cabinet support for SEND.

"I would personally like to thank everyone who has been involved in the development of the Written Statement of Action to date and for helping Warwickshire to improve the services they provide to children, young people and their families," she said.

"Moving forward, progress on all actions within the plan will be regularly reviewed through our WSoA Steering Group, the Department for Education and NHS England.

"I look forward to seeing the difference we can make by working together to improve the lives of children and young people across Warwickshire."