A WIRRAL father has hit out at the local authority after it withdrew the vital post-16 provision for his son.

Up until March this year, Professor Robert Lee’s 16-year-old son – who has chronic fatigue syndrome – had been a pupil at Wirral Grammar School for Boys with additional support from the Wirral Home Education Service (HES).

It was then decided it would be better for him to transfer formally to HES at Wirral Hospitals’ School as it would allow him to benefit from the excellent teaching and support provided by the service to take his GCSEs.

But towards the end of August, Professor Lee was dealt a “devastating blow” when he was told “with no prior warning” that Wirral Council’s children’s services department had instructed HES staff not to accept any post-16 pupils with special educational needs.

It meant that all educational provision was effectively terminated, something Professor Lee – who is the chair of the Friends of Birkenhead Park – said was devastating not only for his son, but for other pupils and families who were entirely dependent on HES in order to continue their education.

Professor Lee told the Globe the decision was made without any consultation, with no attempt made to offer alternative support to enable pupils to complete their GCSEs.

He said: “At a stroke the future education of some very vulnerable pupils, most of whom have long-term health problems, had been jeopardised. Their future educational development had been put at risk and they had suffered blatant and unacceptable discrimination.”

Professor Lee lodged a formal complaint to Julia Hassall – Wirral’s director of children’s services – in September and, four days later, a decision was made to rescind the initial decision and re-instate the educational support required by affected pupils.

“The original decision by the council to terminate educational provision and to leave vulnerable pupils without any form of support was clearly unacceptable and indefensible, but this was not overturned until the fourth week of the school term with the half-term break fast approaching,” he said.

“I am very grateful that the original decision has now been rescinded, but Julia Hassall has not notified formally the pupils and families directly affected by the original decision, nor has she shown any inclination to apologise to the young people whose education was effectively terminated in such an abrupt, uncaring and unexpected manner.”

Professor Lee added: “It is totally unacceptable for any local authority to attempt to change its policy in relation to post-16 education after the start of an academic year at the direct cost of extremely vulnerable pupils. Externally-imposed financial pressures cannot excuse the way in which children’s services has operated in this case. 

“The rationale for seeking to terminate post-16 educational provision is difficult to understand and no attempt has been made to explain why it was deemed acceptable for Wirral Council to renege on its statutory duties.”

Professor Lee wrote to Julia Hassall and Tony Smith, cabinet member for children and family services, but never received a response.

In a statement, Ms Hassall said: “I have acted to reinstate the education of the children involved, and am personally looking into what happened.

“I would like to apologise to Professor Lee for not replying to his letter, and assure the young people and their families that there has not been a policy change. 

“I will be contacting Professor Lee to seek an urgent meeting so that we can resolve this matter to the satisfaction of all concerned, and so that I can pass on my personal apologies.”

Professor Lee described the HES and Wirral Hospitals’ School as “outstanding” and said it is vital the council’s statutory responsibilities towards children with chronic illnesses and SEN are maintained in the future.

He added: “The local authority cannot afford to fail to meet their post-16 educational needs and appropriate steps must be taken to ensure that vulnerable pupils do not find themselves in the same position this time next year.”