PARENTS of children with special needs have lost trust in Surrey County Council, feedback to a survey claims.

A “level of disappointment” with current services and experiences with the council was also recorded by parents.

This was in response to the council’s consultation on the future of SEND (Special Education Needs and Disabilities) services.

More than 1,100 people took part in the online survey providing feedback on the future of SEND in Surrey.

Papers put before cabinet members last week outlined plans to identify children with needs earlier and support families in a “timely and effective way” to “improve outcomes and wellbeing”.

Members resolved to undertake further engagement with families, health partners, education and other partners to explore the feedback, ideas and concerns shared through the consultation and develop the council’s draft SEND strategy.

Surrey’s cabinet also agreed to delegate authority to the council’s executive director for children, families, lifelong learning and culture, in consultation with the cabinet member for all age learning, to approve the final strategy.

The report stated: “There is some level of disappointment with current services and previous experiences in the qualitative responses.”

“Lack of trust” was in the top two most prevalent tags across all seven qualitative questions with “personal experience negative” used by 113 people for one question about feedback from families.

Many respondents said they were unsure of what was being asked.

The report added: “Any future consultation on detailed proposals will be designed to ensure that the matters being consulted on are clear and unambiguous.”

Speaking at SCC’s corporate overview select committee, chief executive Joanna Killian said they were aware parents had no confidence in the services they delivered and that more needed to be done to address that.

She said: “I think there is something we have to do to convince families we are improving because people’s experience in the past hasn’t been brilliant.”