Senior council managers encouraged colleagues to make it difficult for families to access special needs support and laughed about denying help to children with SEND, a council caseworker has told ITV News. The whistleblower, whose identity we are protecting, works as a special educational needs case worker at a council. She detailed ways in which she and other case workers were encouraged to make it harder for families to make their case, including by leaving telephone numbers off emails, not replying fully to queries and not having face to face meetings. Responding to our whistleblower’s concerns the Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson told us: “Any suggestion of that kind of behaviour is completely unacceptable. No family should have to battle so hard to get the support their children need.” She promised that the government’s planned investment will transform outcomes for children and that councils will be held to account to make sure they are supporting children and familie...