Warwickshire County Council has apologised for a second time this month over communications failings related to SEND training for councillors.

A freedom of information (FOI) request, submitted in June by a member of the public in relation to mandatory special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) training undertaken by elected officials at Shire Hall, has yet to receive anything more than an automated response from the authority despite now being more than two weeks overdue.

It followed on from council officers – employed staff – making changes to the format of the training and which councillors would be obliged to undertake certain elements of it, arousing suspicion from families that in-person training, produced and part-delivered by SEND families in Warwickshire, was set to be sidelined. 

The FOI asks the council for any documentation and correspondence on "whether online training would be sufficient" and any communication, including emails and meeting minutes between officers or external advisors, "discussing implementation, modification or interpretation of the SEND training motion" from its introduction in March 2024 until the submission of the request. 

The information was due on July 11, a day that saw the requester contact the council to remind it of the deadline. Having received no response, they asked again a week later and requested that the council conduct an internal review of the handling of the case.

In between that deadline and second reminder, the same requester did receive a response on a separate FOI that is now 10 months out of date – the council wanted to know "if this request is relevant to you" because it related to complaints about a number of councillors who have since left office or lost power. 

When invited to comment, Warwickshire County Council did not suggest any response had been issued on the SEND training query. It acknowledged "an oversight on our part, for which we sincerely apologise" before stating it was "prioritising responses to the requester".

Further detail on the nature of the oversight was sought by the Local Democracy Reporting Service but we have yet to receive a reply.

The SEND training sessions were introduced in 2024 in response to a public backlash over comments made by three Conservative councillors in a scrutiny meeting, leading to protests outside Shire Hall and hundreds of complaints.

Eventually, Clare Golby, Brian Hammersley and Jeff Morgan, none of whom are councillors now, were cleared of any wrongdoing but SEND families remained outraged by the remarks, as were fellow councillors who passed a motion – a statement of intent – committing to attend and engage with training produced with and delivered by representatives of local SEND groups.

May's local elections saw 40 new councillors take office and each of them was issued with a link to take part in new Department for Education (DfE) approved online training which had not been available in 2024.

Councillors were told they had to complete it before participating on committees or panels related to children's services and that further training would be "offered" as part of a rolling programme. 

The council's executive director for children and young people Nigel Minns, the most senior official in the department, apologised for signing off that internal communication, admitting he could see how it could have led some councillors to believe that the online course was the only requirement.

Speaking after the FOI had been submitted but prior to the council's 20-day deadline for providing the information, Mr Minns denied that the in-person training was ever set to be shelved, insisting that it had been pushed back to September so that new councillors could complete other essential and more pressing areas of induction.

When asked, he insisted he was "absolutely clear that there will be no trail or suggestion anywhere that this training should be dropped", and while many of the conversations had been part of wider, ongoing discussions, he said that diary entries and potentially some written dialogue should be able to show ever-present commitment to the in-person training.

"I think it will be much clearer that there was no intention to drop it," he said.

"Clearly, if we wanted to we would need to have a formal decision. The only thing that is on the record at the moment is the formal decision of council that (the traning) should happen and there have been no proposals to reverse or change that motion."