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.

1. The local area partnership should urgently address the long waiting times for community paediatrics, the neuro development assessment pathway, occupational therapy and physiotherapy
2. 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.

Ofsted and CQC report

Published July 2024

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

In November 2022 Worcestershire Children First (WCF) invited stakeholders including settings, parents and carers and health providers to participate in a review and the development of early years specialist provision. An update and more information about the review and the development of the Enhanced Early Years provision can be found by visiting WCF’s Education review and consultation pages here: Nursery Assessment Unit Review.

Published April 2024

As an update we first want to note that some parents have experienced delays in payments being received. Please can we extend our apologies again to those parents. We are pleased to update that the services which manage and process payment, has been reviewed to try and improve our timeliness. This has involved developing the systems as well as re-configuration of workloads and developing a system to support management tracking and oversight. 

We have reconfigured workloads to address some outstanding payments and we are in the final stages of developing a more effective electronic payment system. This will speed the payments process up, allowing much less room for error and ultimately provide a better experience for parents and providers receiving money from Worcestershire Children First.  

Published April 2024

We have received notice that Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) will be visiting Worcestershire from 22 April 2024 to 26 April 2024 to inspect our arrangements for children with special education needs and disabilities (SEND). The inspectors want to hear from children and young people, parents and carers, and practitioners about the help and support that children and young people with SEND get.

The surveys are accessible via the following link and will close at 9am on Tuesday 16 April 2024.

SEND Area Inspection surveys

Download further information about the surveys for children and young people, parents and carers, and practitioners.

• Information about surveys for stakeholders - children and young people (PDF)
• Information about surveys for stakeholders - parents and carers (PDF)
• Information about surveys for stakeholders - practitioners (PDF)

Published April 2024

Worcestershire County Council Adult Social Care Commissioning team are trying to improve their understanding of current services for 14 to 25-year-olds who may be moving from children’s social care to adult social care. This is to identify future commissioning needs across education, health and social care and improve pathways through services for young people and their families as they journey into adulthood and improve experience and outcomes.

The survey, which is open to all stakeholders, closes on April 22 2024, and can be found by following this link: 14-25 commissioning needs assessment survey.

Published April 2024

The Worcestershire Groups, Activities and Short Breaks have been commissioned up to June 2024; and this year we have joined this up with our Holidays, Activities, and Food (HAF) programme. Through this work we have ensured that we have commissioned a diverse range of provisions that are able to meet children and young people’s needs both in terms of complexity and geographical locations. 

We are committed to continuing to develop this offer to Worcestershire children and we will be seeking feedback shortly from parent/carers and children and young people who have accessed these services over the Easter holidays to inform the summer holiday provision.

We are aware that some providers costs have increased significantly this year, this has resulted in them having to review the number of places they can offer. Both HAF, Groups, Activities and Short breaks are open to SEND children and young people; we ask that parents/carers always check with providers that they are suitable for their child’s needs before booking a place.

For more information about groups and activities for children and young people with SEND see: SEND Local Offer - Short break groups and activities.

Published March 2024

The Department for Education have announced that MacIntyre Academies has been chosen to run the new autism school in Malvern. The Secretary of State for Education has written to confirm that the application from MacIntyre Academies to establish Enterprise Academy should proceed to the next stage of the free school’s process – the “pre-opening phase”. 

Working closely with Worcestershire Children First and Worcestershire County Council, Enterprise Academy will offer specialist education for 120 pupils aged 5 to 19 with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). 

The final decision to open any free school depends on the Secretary of State entering into a funding agreement (a legally binding contract which contains the terms and conditions upon which a free school is funded) with the academy trust proposing to set up the school.

Published March 2024

A report will be presented to Worcestershire County Council Cabinet on 28 March 2024, seeking approval for the site and a 125-year lease for the new school. Positive progress has been made to find new locations for the current Poolbrook tenants, with relocations starting from Easter 2024. The Department for Education (DfE) are responsible for the delivery of the new school. Initial site surveys are completed, and more will follow once the site is vacant. The Academy Trust appointment is planned for Summer 2024. This would allow the DfE to hire a contractor in early 2025 to design the project and obtain planning permissions. With this timeline, the proposal is for construction would commence in 2026 and finish by Summer 2027. As a result, the DfE anticipate opening the new school in September 2027, rather than the original target of September 2026.

Read the Cabinet report in full: Agenda for Cabinet on Thursday, 28th March, 2024, 10.00 am - Worcestershire County Council (moderngov.co.uk).

Published March 2024

Worcestershire Children First are currently working towards National Offer Day (NOD) for primary school places, Tuesday 16 April. This is the date which families with a child starting school in September 2024 will find out which school they are being offered a place in.

If you have a child who is going through the Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment process, it is our intention to make a decision about their named placement by this date. We are currently working on a number of assessments and aim to confirm special school reception places for September 2024 by 16 April 2024. 

As parents, if your preference is for a reception place at special school, we will name your child’s current early years setting for now, and your request for a special school place will be considered. You should know by mid-April (in line with National Offer Day) what school place is being offered.

Requests that have been received since the beginning of January 2024 may not meet the April deadline, as decisions about placement follow EHCNA timelines. National Offer Day is less than 16 weeks after the beginning of the year and information for the assessment may not have been gathered in time for a decision to be made. However, this does not mean your child won’t be considered for a special school place if they need one, you will be notified after the April deadline.

Published February 2024

Worcestershire Children First is undergoing a review of the resources, advice, and best practice around transition for our nursery age children into schools. We are keen to hear from, and learn from, the experiences of parents/carers and settings around this important transition time. Please find below the link for the survey to gather your views.

After the review we would like to consolidate transition advice, celebrate good practice, and seek to improve the transition experience from nursery to schools for all children in Worcestershire.

The survey will close on 16 February 2024.

Thank you for your time.

Parent/carer survey link: Parent carer transition survey

EY setting survey link: Early Years transition survey

School setting survey link: School transition survey

Published February 2024

Families in Partnership, Worcestershire’s parent carer forum, recently entered into mediation with two parent carers. The participants of the Mediation meetings on the 18 and 25 January 2024 are pleased to confirm the following:

“We had a really constructive, transparent and successful coming together. Following a full and honest discussion, there was agreement that we will be working together to harness the lived experience, skills and expertise of parent carers for the best outcomes for children and young people with SEND in Worcestershire. In particular, Berni Louise and Hazel Shaw join with immediate effect as full members of the Steering Group, and we will work together to deliver the AGM and a review of the constitution. We will update FiP members on our plans soon.”

Berni Louise, Hazel Shaw, Iona Walton

Published January 2024

Dear Parent Carer Stakeholder Group,

It is important to the development and improvement of SEND Services for children and young people in Worcestershire that parent carers have a voice, and our families’ experiences are actively heard and understood. 

Just under two years ago a SEND Parent Carer Stakeholder Group was formed to widen stakeholder involvement in the four workstreams of our SEND Accelerated Progress Plan (APP). There has been some success in this forum, but we haven’t been able to consistently reach as many representatives or build the relationships we had hoped. Therefore, the SEND 0 to 25 Partnership Board, which oversees the work of the APP, has made the decision to replace the stakeholder group with a new process, which will strengthen the direct links we have as a partnership with the widest range of registered forums across Worcestershire. 

Each board representative will be assigned to a parent carer forum and, subject to the forum agreement, they will attend that forum on a quarterly basis in order to hear the experiences, positive and negative, of its group members and also hear any ideas about how things could change and what their role and function in that might be to support that change. Key themes will then be fed back and discussed at the SEND 0 to 25 Partnership Board.

Board members, who represent organisations across Education, Health, Social Care, Voluntary Sector and Worcestershire Children First, will be assigned to their support group at the next Board meeting on 19 January. Each member will contact and visit their group before the Partnership Board meeting in April. The visits are expected to be face-to-face, except for those groups who have an online presence only or would rather hold it virtually. This new way of engagement will be reviewed in September 2024.

I want to end by thanking all of the representatives from the different groups that have previously attended, and currently attend for your time and commitment to the meetings. On behalf of all Board Members, we very much look forward to continuing to develop those relationships as well as developing new ones. 

Regards

Mel Barnett
Director for All-Age Disability (0-25)

Published January 2024