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Find the latest updates about services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
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What we’re doing to improve SEND services following the 2024 Ofsted and CQC inspection
November update
Here you will find some key updates on what the local area partnership has been working on during October. Read more about these updates here: What we’re doing to improve SEND services following the 2024 Ofsted and CQC inspection
Improving information while you wait:
- we have been developing a suite of information and resources to support families while they wait for health appointments or interventions
- an online information booklet for parent carers has been developed to provide support whilst families are waiting for children to have an Autism or ADHD diagnostic assessment – due to be published in November
Mental health and emotional wellbeing:
- Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust is developing a list of support and services for children and young people’s emotional wellbeing and mental health
- work is underway to establish the new the Children and Young People’s Early Intervention and Preventative Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing service for 0-25 year olds. It is too early to share what the service might look like yet, but we are hopeful that new services will be in place by 1 April 2025 as planned
- we have seen the launch of Lumi Nova; a digital therapy platform for children and young people aged 7-12 years old
Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs):
- the SEND team is making sure new EHCP requests within the same family are assigned to the same Case Work Officer – allowing families to have a single point of contact for updates.
Feedback and coproduction:
- September marked the launch of Worcestershire Parent Carer Forum’s (WPCF) new SEND ‘Views & Voices’ events. This is a programme of 50+ events now rolling out across Worcestershire offering peer support, friendly advice and SEND system empowerment. Keep up to date with future events on the WPCF Facebook page
- we met with the Youth Cabinet to ask for their thoughts about how the Local Area Partnership could improve how SEND services connect with children and young people with SEND. They talked about connecting to other youth groups, suggesting how to improve the reach to children and young people with SEND via social media and exploring the use of digital technology
October update
Worcestershire’s services for children and young people with SEND were inspected by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in April 2024. The whole local area partnership was part of the inspection which includes NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board and Worcestershire County Council.
The local area partnership is working through the Priority Action Plan and SEND Improvement Plan following the outcome of the inspection.
Key progress includes:
- recruitment of new SEND Casework Officers to increase capacity in the teams who support the coordination and management of Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs)
- recruitment of an Epilepsy Nurse and a procurement process underway to reduce Community Paediatrics waiting times
- starting the transfer of up to 250 young people aged 16+ to an independent accredited autism assessment provider with the aim of improving their waiting time
- co-production sessions with parent carers around a new care pathway for autism and ADHD diagnostic assessments for children and young people aged 0 to 18 years, which will eventually replace the Umbrella Pathway
- commissioning Dingley’s Promise to provide two Early Years Enhanced Provisions in Droitwich and Worcester which will be accompanied by extensive outreach support services, including support to local nursery settings and family support.
- co-production with parent carers to discuss areas of improvement, particularly on the topics of data/attendance, specialist placements, EHCP timeliness and quality, and CAMHS waiting times
The full information can be found here: What we’re doing to improve SEND services following the 2024 Ofsted and CQC inspection.
Published October 2024
Local Area SEND Inspection published
An inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) into Worcestershire’s approach to special education needs and disability (SEND) has been published.
Ofsted and CQC inspectors felt that there were systemic failings in the Worcestershire local area, with the following 2 priority actions required of the local area partnership.
- The local area partnership should urgently address the long waiting times for community paediatrics, the neuro development assessment pathway, occupational therapy and physiotherapy
- The local area partnership should urgently develop genuine co-production with children and young people with SEND at a strategic level. Children and young people should feel they have fully participated in the process of developing services, improvement strategies and plans that meet their needs
The local area partnership, which comprises of NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board, Worcestershire Children First and Worcestershire County Council, fully accept their findings and recommendations on what needs to improve. Whilst the report recognises that progress has been made in some areas, the Partnership would like to apologise to those children and young people with SEND who have not received the timely support they need.
As a Partnership, we are committed to reducing waiting times and providing better support for those children and young people who are currently waiting. We want children and young people with SEND to feel truly seen and respected as individuals and this will be a key priority for us in further developing our co-production of services.
A monitoring inspection will be carried out within approximately 18 months and the next full reinspection will be within approximately three years. As a result of this inspection, His Majesty s Chief Inspector requires the local area partnership to prepare and submit a priority action plan (area SEND) to address the identified areas for priority action.
Published July 2024
Update: SEND provision in the Early Years
Our vision is that most early years aged children in Worcestershire should be able to attend their local early years provider and have their SEND needs identified and met within that setting. To enable this to happen Worcestershire has a strong Early Help offer provided by a range of partners, and specialist support in education provided through the Early Years Inclusion Process. However, we recognise that for a small number of children their needs require an enhanced provision offer, and therefore overtime, starting in the South of the county, we are developing Early Years Enhanced Provisions. Whilst we transition to this model of working, additional offers via outreach and one Nursery Assessment Unit will be in place.
Early Years Enhanced Provision for the South of the county (including Worcester)
Two sites have been identified for the new Early Years Enhanced Provision and we are working with the identified provider to confirm final timings, with the hope that the provision will be open to children and families from January 2025. Worcestershire Children First is working with the provider and stakeholders to finalise plans for these provisions. In the meantime, Vale of Evesham continues to provide outreach support for children identified with significant and complex SEND needs.
Provision for the North of the county
Batchley Nursery Plus will continue to operate in 24/25 as a Nursery Assessment Unit, with a maximum of 16 part-time places for the year which will provide enhanced provision for the Redditch and Bromsgrove areas. In the Wyre Forest Area, in preparation for the transition to an Early Years Enhanced Provision model, Wyre Forest Nursery Assessment Unit will no longer operate in its current model from September 2024. Instead, Wyre Forest School will provide outreach support for children identified with significant and complex SEND needs in the area, bringing this area into line with the South of the county and enabling a greater amount of children to receive support.
Published July 2024
All-Age Disability Directorate staffing structure
To keep our SEND families informed we regularly update the SEND team information in the document below to reflect any changes.
Useful link
September 2024 – August 2025 payment schedule for Personal Education Budgets (PEB) via Direct Payment
The payment schedule for Personal Education Budgets for this school year has been published on the SEN Personal Budgets page of the SEND Local Offer.