I’ve been left in a lifetime of debt after combating the council to get my son in class… we needed to remortgage our house – it broke my household

A mother with a visually impaired son was forced to remortgage her home after a costly legal battle with her local council left her drowning in debt.

Mother-of-three Suzanne Hollinshead, 53, and her husband Ian, 57, from Flitwick, Bedfordshire, had to remortgage their family home to help pay off a ‘lifetime of debt’ from the fight with Central Bedfordshire Council to get their visually impaired son Zac, 15, into a specialist school. 

The council was preventing her visually impaired and autistic son from receiving the funding he needed to attend a specialist school.

A National Audit Office (NAO) report branded the current special needs system ‘financially unsustainable’ earlier this year.

And after hearing Suzanne’s story, the Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson admitted to MailOnline that schoolchildren with special needs are ‘being failed on every measure’.

However, while Phillipson said her aim was to prioritise support in mainstream schools, mother-of-three Suzanne said this was exactly what was not needed.

Suzanne told MailOnline: ‘The education system is not working – it’s a catastrophe. It was shocking. We are broken by it, my husband and I. We have a new government in who are clueless and it’s only getting worse.

‘Parents are powerless. Schools and local authorities have all the power and they answer to the Department for Education.’

Local authorities that are already under financial strain face spiralling SEND costs – which Zac’s mother Suzanne said pushes councils to use ‘unfair tactics’ to stop children from receiving funding to go to expensive specialist schools.

The NAO report said that while the Department for Education (DfE) has increased high-needs funding by 58 per cent to £10.7bn in the last decade, ‘the system is still not delivering better outcomes for children and young people or preventing local authorities from facing significant financial risks’.

The Education Secretary told MailOnline: ‘The NAO’s report exposes a system that has been neglected to the point of crisis, with children and families with SEND quite simply being failed on every measure.

‘Every child and young person deserves the best life chances and the opportunity to achieve and thrive. 

‘But at the moment far too few are being given that chance in a system that is skewed towards specialist provision and over-reliant on EHC [Education, Health and Care] plans – with families too often having to pay the price to fight for support.

‘I am determined to rebuild families’ confidence in a system so many rely on – so, there will be no more sticking plaster politics and short-termism when it comes to the life chances of some of our most vulnerable children. 

‘The reform families are crying out for will take time, but with a greater focus on mainstream provision and more early intervention, we will deliver the change that is so desperately needed.’

Yet after years fighting for justice for her son, Suzanne has been left with a different perspective. 

For her, the trouble began when her son Zac started at Woodland Middle School Academy in their hometown of Flitwick. 

His visual impairment stunted his learning and made it difficult to make friends.

Experts she went to said that for Zac to succeed, he really needed to be at a specialist school.

However, she said Woodland Academy claimed they could support him.

She said this meant Central Bedfordshire Council was happy to keep him there and avoid the cost of sending him to an expensive specialist school.

However, she was willing to fight to the ends of the earth to protect her son. 

Suzanne said: ‘As a parent you have that desire for your child to have as much of a normal education as possible.

‘We knew Zac had issues. He wasn’t making friends and playing in the playground. We really started to notice he was very isolated.

‘He was struggling to engage. He was invisible [and missed out on] all those things you need in a playground – you make friends by seeing someone and smiling.’

Before too long, Zac was struggling mentally and his parents worried he was suicidal.

‘He saw no value in his life at all,’ Suzanne said. ‘He was so exhausted. He would sleep for hours and hours after school. 

‘Zach said: ”What’s the point in me? I’m not good at anything.”

‘We tried to work with our local authority and he tried his best in this mainstream environment but he’s not able to access the learning. 

‘He was not able to achieve and it was affecting his mental health. 

Suzanne said her family went into a ‘downward spiral’ when the local authority said Zac had the right support in place.

She added: ‘You become isolated as a family. Zac became too unwell mentally so we took him out of school in the summer term of 2022. Our son was unhappy and not thriving. It was a really scary time.’

But even then, the council would not budge.

Suzanne realised she would have to employ expensive lawyers to fight them in a series of tribunals.

Although the lawyers let her make staggered payments and even worked for free when Suzanne and Ian ran out of money, the couple were left tens of thousands of pounds in debt.

Suzanne said: ‘We had to spend just over £70,000 and remortgage the house.

‘Both Ian and I struggle with PTSD from the process. It has cost us emotionally and financially a lot.

‘It’s horrible. It will take us a lifetime to pay off the debt that we have.

‘Nobody should be expected to remortgage their house.

‘If the solicitors hadn’t allowed us to pay them back piecemeal we would’ve lost our home.’

Describing Woodland Academy and Central Bedfordshire Council’s treatment of Zac, she said: ‘They broke him mentally and fought us all the way to tribunal, which is unforgivable.

‘They didn’t have to fight us. I believe in my heart that they knew what was right for Zac.

‘If schools weren’t also broken by the system, maybe they could see how important a child’s future is and that they have a pivotal role in that process,’ she said.

‘There is such a crisis going on that the local authorities are using tactics that are unfair. 

‘We dragged Zac out of a mental health crisis. As a parent, you will stop it nothing to fix your child if no one else will help you.’

The court battle lasted for months but finally a judge ruled in their favour in September 2022.

However, Suzanne said the local authority ‘continued to drag its feet’ and dithered on where Zac should be sent now that he was destined for a specialist school.

She said: ‘Many months later I was still trying to cope at home, educating Zac with no help, teaching him braille without a clue what I was doing and trying to fix my son’s mental health.’

When Zac finally started at NCW in March 2023, his parents said it was the moment they had all been waiting for. 

The school is exclusively for blind and visually impaired children and focuses on preparing them for independent living, employment and a progression to higher education.

Since joining the school, Suzanne said Zac’s whole outlook on life has changed for the better. 

‘Now he’s this bright funny child with his head held high,’ she said. 

‘He’s in a school where their absolute focus is, ”How can we help this child succeed?” 

‘He’s thriving and he needs that.’

The principal of New College Worcester, Rachel Perks, said: ‘Zac came to us after a long journey for his family to secure funding. 

‘I am delighted that he is now making incredible progress, both academically and socially, as well as with his independent living skills.

‘His family have, like countless others, found themselves having to fight to secure the right education for him, which comes at great cost – both financially and emotionally. 

‘For some students, it is impossible for their families to take on those costs and there is very limited support available to parents who find themselves in that position.

‘Over the years, we have met many parents who have not been made aware of the choices available to them, who have been advised incorrectly, or who simply are unable to manage the legal process to pursue funding outside of mainstream education. 

‘There are so many benefits to being at a specialist provision school, and for some children it is the key to academic attainment, social development and a happy school life where they can make friends and simply be themselves. I believe that every child should have the right to that.’

As a result of her own harrowing experience, Suzanne has started helping other families going through the same process.

This year’s NAO report into the SEN system found that despite DfE implementing its 2023 plan to improve the situation, no stakeholders it spoke to ‘believed current plans would be effective’.

The NAO said: ‘The government has not yet identified a solution to manage local authority deficits arising from SEN costs, and ongoing savings programmes are not designed to address these challenges.

‘Given that the current system costs over £10billion a year, and that demand for SEN provision is forecast to continue increasing, the government needs to think urgently about how its current investment can be better spent, including through more inclusive education, identifying and addressing needs earlier, and developing a whole-system approach to help achieve its objectives.’

Suzanne believes local authorities need to ‘do the right thing’ and fight back against the government.

She said: ‘There are still so many children out of school with special needs. 

‘All I can see [the government] doing is checking many more into mainstream schools. We need tailored learning. 

‘If visually impaired people growing up don’t have good support, they will be part of the benefit system and they cost our society money. 

‘There’s a broken system for children with special educational needs. It’s 30 years out of date. We are told local authorities are overwhelmed. That’s because the system is not fit for purpose.

‘There’s not a bright future for our country if we are not investing in our children.’

Central Bedfordshire Council and Woodland Middle School Academy would not comment on Suzanne and Zac’s experience.

However, the Executive Member for Children’s Services at Central Bedfordshire Council, Steve Owen, said: ‘Like many councils, we are experiencing growing need for specialist school places for children with special educational needs. 

‘We are working hard to address this by creating more specialist school places and improving our services to support families.

‘We echo calls for national reform of the SEND system. Schools need to have the necessary government funding to ensure all children receive the support they need when they need it. Including those who don’t meet the eligibility for an educational health care plan.’

The headteacher at Woodland Academy, Jeff Conquest, said: ‘Most local authorities do not have enough spaces in their specialist settings to meet the increasing needs within society. 

‘Many do not have every type of specialist setting that might be needed, and have to share resources across local authorities. 

‘SEND funding in most local authorities has been overspent massively, as high needs funding is under-resourced nationally.

‘Schools seek support from all services when they have information that a child needs support beyond what their school can ordinarily offer.’

But despite winning Zac the chance to study at NCW, the nightmare is still not over for Suzanne.

With her son’s GCSEs approaching in the summer, Central Bedfordshire Council still hasn’t said whether it will pay for Zac to take his A-Levels at the school.

And after the last legal battle, his family don’t know where they will get the money to fight again if the council tries to send Zac back into mainstream education.  

Suzanne said: ‘We don’t have the finances to fight. It’s heartbreaking.

‘I can’t forgive [Central Bedfordshire Council]. Nobody is listening. Generations of children are going through a system that’s broken. 

‘I go to bed every night worrying.’