Nearly 1,000 parents and carers of children with special needs have called for heads to roll at Suffolk County Council after this week's damning report into SEND education.

The group suffolksendcrisis.org represents 950 parents and carers and made the call after Ofsted published its third report in eight years criticising Suffolk's SEND provision.

The group said in a statement: "This is a scandal of catastrophic proportions - thousands of the most vulnerable children and young people in the county have been denied an appropriate education.

"These issues have been highlighted in previous inspections in 2016 and 2019 as well as numerous reviews and reports."

It says the problems result from a failure to comply to with a system set out in the 2014 Children and Families'  Act.

It added: "The inspection identifies that this is a failure of leadership. It is also a failure of governance and proper public administration.

"Not only has this resulted in significant harm to children and young people, it has also placed significant strain on council finances."

And it believes council leaders should be held accountable for this disaster. The statement says: "The Leader of the Council, Matthew Hicks, and the Education Portfolio Holder Rachel Hood have consistently made misleading statements about improvements being made to SEND 
services.

"After many years the service has got worse not better. Both councillors should now consider their positions. Their apologies are hollow given their previous denial of reality."

It points out that senior officials had left the council but added: "The council Chief Executive Nicola Beach should also consider whether her position is now tenable."

A statement from Ms Hood said: “Ofsted and CQC inspectors recognise in their report that there have already been changes to SEND leadership and that we are in the process of recruiting an executive director of children and young people.

"This role will ensure that all partners involved in SEND go further and faster with our improvement plans.

“I believe by working together we can draw on the experience, passion and determination to drive urgent reform and that is what we’re going to do.”