PARENTS of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) have raised questions over whether Bury Council and CCG have “made progress” in care.

The concerns come following a a re-visit by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Ofsted into the standards of care for SEND youngsters held after poor performance in the last inspection in 2017.

The inspection found that the work of the council and NHS services had improved in five of eight key areas, identified in the previous report.

However, representatives from parent and carer forum Bury2gether, which has more than 700 members, say failing to improve in the three other areas highlighted means that the council is "failing its children".

The issues raised by the report include failures of joint working, awareness of youngster’s health plans and sharing of information between services.

A spokesman for Bury2gether’s steering group said: “To summarise, five years after the SEND reforms were introduced, Bury has failed to make significant progress with its requirements, thus concluding that Bury is still failing its children, young people, parents and carers.”

They added: “Parents and carers feel that Bury Council and CCG are not acknowledging their inadequate progress and are failing to recognise the seriousness of their failings and the impact this is having on families.

“Parents and carers want an acknowledgement of responsibility from Bury Council and CCG that they haven’t done enough.

"They want an explanation of how they are going to put things right, a promise to listen and act on parent and carer views going forward, and they want an apology.”

The Council and the CCG say they are focused on improving the area where no progress has been made and that an 'action plan' has been set up to address this.

Part of the plan includes bringing commissioning teams into the same locations, improving communication between groups and creating a single point of access for parents to help them navigate the system.

Geoff Little, chief executive of Bury Council and accountable officer of NHS Bury CCG, said: "I want to reassure local people that it is our priority to address the three remaining areas at speed.

"We have already made changes since the re-visit and we are completely focused on ensuring that the experience of the children, young people and their families who access these vital services is a positive one.”

Dr Jeffrey Schryer, chair of NHS Bury CCG, added: “We recognise the importance of partnership working to deliver the changes; this includes health, care, education and also local families. Key to this is the coming together of the commissioning functions of Bury Council and the CCG to create the right environment to plan better care and make decisions together. This new way of working is vital if we are to improve services and meet the needs of children, young people and their families in the future. We now have the right systems and structures securely in place to accelerate the pace at which these changes can be implemented.”