The local area partnership is working through the Priority Action Plan and SEND Improvement Plan following the outcome of the 2024 Ofsted and CQC inspection. 

Here you will find some key updates on what we have been working on:

‘Deep dive’ feedback – update about our improvement journey

The Department for Education and NHS England held a ‘Deep Dive’ meeting with the SEND local area partnership on 16th December. This is part of standard process to monitor the progress we’ve been making on our Priority Action Plan. 

They said: “The evidence provided, alongside the feedback from partners, demonstrated the commitment to improve the two APAs (Areas of Priority Action.)” 

Download: Full Deep Dive Feedback Letter (PDF)

The key areas of progress they recognised are: 

• additional support offers have been put in place to effectively manage waiting lists for the Umbrella Pathway (this includes recruiting three nurses for triage and support, to improve patient flow and reduce waiting times)
• 250 young people aged 16 and over have been given the option to transfer from the Umbrella Pathway to private providers for their autism assessment
• school nurses are rolling out screening programmes in reception, year 6 and year 9, to support children’s health and spot any issues earlier on
• the recruitment of a Co-production Co-ordinator, alongside an Emotional Mental Health role will strengthen the work of co-production across the partnership
• the Youth Cabinet has demonstrated high levels of engagement, and their manifesto prioritised mental health and SEND (they aim to build a strong relationship with the SEND Co-production Co-ordinator and continue linking with the SEND and AP partnership committee)
• the Youth Cabinet wants to include more young people to better represent different voices and perspectives (to achieve this, they will produce a film and a newsletter article to disseminate information to the wider community)

This is what they said we should be working on next:

• tackling the staff and expertise shortages is essential for the partnership's success (a comprehensive stocktake should be done to reassess and address what staff, money and other resources we need)
• whilst communication is improving, there is a need for a more comprehensive communication plan that reaches all children using both tangible and digital methods. 
  consider how to measure co-production at a strategic, operational and individual level
• improve understanding of Education, Health, and Care Plans (EHCP) for children and young people with SEND, particularly those in special schools, considering their non-verbal and cognitive abilities
• create strategies to engage with children and young people to ensure their voices are heard and actions from annual reviews are consistently implemented with their input
• produce a visual plan of how the Youth Cabinet links to SEND and Alternative Provision focus groups of young people in Worcestershire

As is usual process every three months, we are reviewing our Priority Action Plan (PAP) and Improvement Plan throughout January. This will be approved by the Department for Education and Ofsted and published on our Local Offer website.

Independent Chair recruitment

We are delighted to announce the appointment to the role of Independent Chair of the SEND and Alternative Provision Executive Board, Jane Friswell.  Jane has worked across England with Local Authorities, Area Partnerships, Multi Academy Trusts, NHSE, Local Health Care Trusts and Social Care bodies.  Jane describes herself as a SEND agent of change, delivering tangible and sustainable difference to improve outcomes for children, young people and their families.  Jane has an excellent understanding and application of effective, strategy, policy and practice in special educational needs and disabilities and whole school improvement. As a parent of a young man with autism and additional learning needs, Jane provides a blended perspective as a leader for SEND with strong purpose and support for parent carer advocacy.

Coproduction with young people

Within the priority action plan, the partnership has committed to creating and recruiting to a new and exciting post; a Co-production Officer, which has now gone live. This role will support in understanding and hearing the voice of children and young people (0-25) with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) across Worcestershire and the wider engagement and co production with children and young people to ensure that their views inform what we do and reflects what is important to them.  
If you know any young people who might like to get more involved in working with us, or existing groups that might like to link with our improvement work, you can use this form to tell us.

Service updates

Support while waiting for your health appointment - A new website has been created to support children and young people, as well as their families, who find themselves experiencing long waits for appointments with health services in Worcestershire. These include appointments for Community Paediatrics, Umbrella Pathway, Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy and CAMHS. The website, created by Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB), contains details of resources and support available locally and nationally.  This includes links to web resources, telephone advice and some in-person groups. Worcestershire’s Children’s Community Health services are continuing to experience a high volume of referrals and unfortunately that means children and young people are waiting longer than usual for their first appointment. This can be worrying and frustrating and the ICB are working as a system to improve waiting times for children, young people and their families.

Greater education choice for young adults - We have funded a new partnership between Heart of Worcestershire College and National Star to provide greater education choice for young adults. St Wulstan’s Building in Worcester has been transformed to create teaching and therapeutic space for post-16 learners. Five young adults have started accessing the facilities already and it is expected that there will soon be capacity for approx. 12 learners.

We will be providing updates each month, however please look through the other information on this page to find out more about how you can get involved with our improvement journey.

The local area partnership is working through the Priority Action Plan and SEND Improvement Plan following the outcome of the 2024 Ofsted and CQC inspection. 

Here you will find some key updates on what we have been working on during November:

• Co-production workshop – on 13 November we held a follow up workshop with parent carers on the quality and timeliness of EHCPs. Parent carers made suggestions on how to make improvements through better communication and transparency; and explored how an online system could help to track the EHCP process. We are now setting up two working groups which will include parent carers - one to review the format of the EHCP document and the second to further explore developing an online system
• Children and Young People’s Coproduction Lead – we are now finalising the job description and person specification for the new role of Children and Young People’s Coproduction Lead. This role will be crucial in enabling us to better involve children and young people with SEND in making changes and improvements to SEND services. The job will be advertised in January
• Independent Chair recruitment – we have completed the interviews for an Independent Chair for the SEND and Alternative Provision Executive Board. An offer has been made and we are now carrying out the standard HR checks and processes before agreeing a start date – which will be in the New Year
• EHCP feedback report – part of our quality assurance process includes collecting feedback from parent carers following the EHC Needs Assessment process where a new EHCP has been issued, or following the annual review of an existing plan. The surveys are sent to parent carers and around 25 families are randomly selected each month and contacted by phone for their feedback. The ‘you said, we did’ style report is available on the Local Offer website (under the heading ‘EHCP Quality Assurance You Said We Did reports’)

We will be providing updates each month, however please look through the other information on this page to find out more about how you can get involved with our improvement journey. 

Video update

Have a look at our short video that summaries some of the things we have been working on from September to December 2024.

The local area partnership is working through the Priority Action Plan and SEND Improvement Plan following the outcome of the 2024 Ofsted and CQC inspection.

Here you will find some key updates on what we have been working on during November:

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. The information has been collated from various sources and covers a wide range of services and organisations. We have consulted with Healthwatch Worcestershire, Worcestershire Parent Carer Forum, Worcestershire Youth Cabinet, Health teams/services, Public Health and Health Leads including our Clinical Lead in development of the information. The information is being finalised and will soon be published on the Herefordshire & Worcestershire Integrated Care Board (H&W ICB) website.
• Neurodivergence Booklet - An 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. Feedback has been received from parent carers and we’re now making the final changes ready for it to published in November. The booklet will be a PDF published online and made available to families on the Autism and ADHD diagnostic pathways.

Mental health and emotional wellbeing

• Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust have appointed a dedicated communications and engagement officer to work with partners across Worcestershire to develop a list of support and services for children and young people’s emotional wellbeing and mental health. The person started at the beginning of November. As this list develops, we will be working with children and young people, families and carers to ensure that it is useful and enables individuals to access the right services and support at the right time. If anyone would like to be more involved with this work, they can email their contact details to: whcnhs.communications@nhs.net
• work is well underway to establish the new Children and Young People’s Early Intervention and Preventative Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing service for 0-25 year olds. A market engagement event was held in July, and Herefordshire & Worcestershire ICB received multiple bids for the tenders. This means that lots of organisations and providers applied to deliver the service on behalf of the ICB. The team are following strict procurement rules and prospective providers will be invited for interview in early November. It is too early to share what the service might look like yet, but the ICB are hopeful that new services for children and young people will be in place by 1 April 2025 as planned.
• a further exciting development for access to children and young people’s mental health support has been the launch of Lumi Nova; a digital therapy platform for children and young people aged 7-12. This launched on 3 October and is available across Herefordshire and Worcestershire. For more information, please visit: Lumi Nova: Tales of Courage

Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs)

• we've started making some changes in the SEND team to make things easier for parent carers with more than one child with an EHCP. Right now, these families often have different Case Work Officers for each child, which means they have to tell their story multiple times and wait for updates from more than one person. From now on, any new EHCP requests will be assigned to the same Case Work Officer of siblings who have an open case. Over time, we’ll also move existing sibling cases under one Case Work Officer to provide a single point of contact for families.

Autism training 

• NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire have funded a number of free autism webinars for parent carers and autistic teenagers. The parent carer webinars cover topics including autism and sensory differences, autism and behaviour, navigating the system, autism and the teenage brain and supporting your autistic teen. For teenagers, there is a free 5 week online course about autism for autistic teens (diagnosed and non-diagnosed) to learn more about autism in small, supportive group sessions and a one-to-one meeting with an autism advisor.

Feedback and coproduction

• due to the amount of feedback received from parent and carers about the Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP's), Healthwatch Worcestershire is running a survey during November to understand parent and carer experiences in detail. Healthwatch Worcestershire is a statutory service that aims to give local communities a stronger voice to influence and challenge how health and social care services are provided locally. They would therefore ask that any parent or carer who has applied for an EHCP (even if declined) or whose child or young person has one currently, to please complete the survey. Parents and carers can then be entered into a prize draw to win either an iPad or £100 Amazon gift card as a thank you for their time. Find out more and access the survey via the Healthwatch Worcestershire website (closes 30 November).
• patients and their carers, families and friends are being asked to share what matters most to them when they are in Worcestershire’s hospitals, to help inform plans for further improving patient experiences and quality of care. Visit the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust website to find out more about complete the survey (closes 5 Jan 2025).
• September marked the launch of Worcestershire Parent Carer Forum’s (WPCF) new SEND ‘Views & Voices’ events.  Exclusively open (and free) to all Worcestershire parent carers of children and young adults with special needs and disabilities, Views & Voices is a programme of 50+ events now rolling out across Worcestershire. Offering peer support, friendly advice and SEND system empowerment, Worcestershire parent carers described the events as “a lifeline”, “informative” and they left “feeling less alone.” Each Views & Voices event is hosted by a local WPCF ‘rep’ and more than 100 parent carers have already joined for free coffee, a chance to offload and a few laughs too. They’ve also been joined by education, health and SEND professionals from Worcestershire County Council and Herefordshire & Worcestershire NHS. Parent carers firmly grasped the opportunity to ask questions, challenge decisions and hopefully be a small part of making improvements. One parent carer described it perfectly as “healthy constructive challenge!” The WPCF Views & Voices events will continue across the county through November, December and into the New Year, when there is hope to kick off Views & Voices ‘evening’ events, as well as online events with specific themes. Keep up to date with future events on the WPCF Facebook page.
• Youth Cabinet took place on 22 October and was attended by members of the SEND and AP Partnership Committee who gave an update from the October committee meeting. Members of the Youth Cabinet made lots of suggestions around how the Local Area Partnership could improve how SEND services connect with children and young people with SEND. They talked about ways the Youth Cabinet would like to be involved with our development work, such as 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. Youth Cabinet have also received enquiries from potential new members who are looking to get involved as representatives of the voice of young people with SEND in Worcestershire.
• we are holding a coproduction workshop on the 13 November focusing on the quality and timeliness of EHCPs. This follows sessions which took place in August and October.  We will be producing a ‘You Said We Did’ update in December to show how the suggestions of children, young people and parent carers are being used to shape the direction of our strategic improvement work.  If you are interested in joining future coproduction events please get in touch with the Parent Carer Forum.

We will be providing updates each month, however please look through the other information on this page to find out more about how you can get involved with our improvement journey.

The local area partnership is working through the Priority Action Plan and SEND Improvement Plan following the outcome of the 2024 Ofsted and CQC inspection. 

Here you will find some key updates on what we have been working on:

Education, Health and Care Plans

• Worcestershire County Council have three new SEND Casework Officer jobs out for advert. This will increase the capacity within the teams who support the co-ordination and management of Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs). Having extra people in the team aims to reduce the time taken to create EHCPs, improve the quality of plans and improve the communication with families
• Worcestershire County Council has made small improvements to increase the number of EHCPs that are created within the statutory 20-week timeframe. In 2023, 27.7% of new EHCPs were issued within 20 weeks, and this has increased to 38.1% as of end August 2024. We know there is still a long way to go but are hopeful that the additional staffing will help us to improve further

Waiting times within health services

• to support the reduction in Community Paediatric waiting times, Hereford and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust (WHCT) have an active procurement process underway to secure additional clinical capacity. With this and by doing some things differently, more community paediatric appointments will be available for those children who are waiting
• WHCT have appointed an Epilepsy Nurse, and we are aiming for them to start in January subject to the usual HR processes
• The Trust have also contacted 250 young people aged 16 and who are on the Umbrella Pathway waiting list. They have been offered the opportunity to transfer to an independent accredited autism assessment provider with the aim of improving their waiting time. So far, 72 young people have opted for the transfer, and this is in process, while others are still considering the offer or working through the detail. The offer of a transfer will remain in place until September 2025

Improving co-production

• during August and September 2024 NHS Herefordshire & Worcestershire worked with Worcestershire Parent Carer Forum to run three online information sessions for parents and carers to share and received feedback on:
  • action being taken to reduce waiting times for Autism and ADHD diagnostic assessments in Worcestershire
  • plans for a new care pathway for Autism and ADHD diagnostic assessments and support
  • co-produced models for an improved Autism and ADHD diagnostic assessment service & support service

Further information about the new care pathway for Autism and ADHD diagnostic assessments, as well as the summary of the parent carer information sessions is being added to the NHS website.  

• on 9 October we held a co-production session with 12 parent carers and senior leaders from the Worcestershire Local Area Partnership to discuss areas of improvement. The topics included data/attendance, specialist placements, EHCP timeliness and quality, and CAMHS waiting times. Parent carers provided suggestions on ways of addressing the areas of improvement, which will be incorporated into our planning. A full summary of the discussion will be published on the Local Offer. Parent carers were also clear that we need to improve communication with families – so we are making sure we issue monthly updates on the work we are doing

Other updates

• we are still recruiting for the role of Independent Chair of the SEND and Alternative Provision Executive Board. The Independent Chair will provide governance, strategic direction and performance management of leaders of the SEND local area partnership, as we continue our improvement journey.
• Worcestershire County Council has commissioned 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. The aims of these provisions are to:
  • provide the best early support for young children
  • help more children join mainstream schools and settings
  • assist families get the right support for their child’s needs
  • ensure each child moves to the right school or setting for them
• The Family Support Offer is available to all families in south Worcestershire with children aged 0-5 who have SEND or a developmental delay and will include stay and plays, home visits, information sessions as well as 1:1 support

We will be providing updates each month, however, please look through the other information on this page to find out more about how you can get involved with our improvement journey. 

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, Worcestershire Children First and Worcestershire County Council.

Read the full Ofsted and CQC report

Ofsted and CQC inspectors identified there are “widespread and/or systemic failings leading to significant concerns about the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), which the local area partnership must address urgently”. Inspectors have given the partnership two priority actions to improve:

1. address the long waiting times for community paediatrics, the neurodevelopment assessment pathway, occupational therapy and physiotherapy. Leaders should also improve the support available while children and young people wait
2. 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

An additional three areas for improvement have also been identified through the inspection. 

These are:

1. Leaders across the partnership should work at pace to implement the action plans that underpin the SEND strategy and seek to address the areas identified as priorities
2. Leaders across the partnership should work at pace to continue to improve the timeliness and quality of new EHC plans and the quality of existing plans
3. Leaders across the partnership should continue to address the long waiting times for children and young people requesting support from CAMHS

As a result of the inspection, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector has asked the local area partnership to co-produce a Priority Action Plan to address the two priority actions, and an Improvement Plan to address the three areas for improvement. Both of these plans have been approved by Ofsted and the Department for Education and can be found via the links below. 

Read the Priority Action Plan (PDF)

Read the Improvement Plan (PDF)

We will receive a monitoring inspection after 18 months (expected Autumn 2025) and a full inspection after three years (expected Spring 2027). 

We are in the process of recruiting a new independent chair for our SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Executive Board. The Chair will provide governance, strategic direction and performance management of leaders of the SEND local area partnership. 

The Department for Education (DfE) and NHS England will also be doing ‘deep dives’ on our priority actions after three, six and nine months to ensure things are progressing as they should. This will include assessing how effectively the partnership is responding to the inspection report recommendations, to identify concerns and to determine any next steps. 

Joint statement from the Local Area Partnership, on behalf of Worcestershire Children First and Worcestershire County Council and NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board:

“As a partnership, we absolutely accept the failings and are truly sorry that children and young people have not received the support they need.

“We are determined to carry out the actions set within our improvement plans following the independent Ofsted and CQC inspection.

“One of the priority actions is to reduce waiting times within our health services. We will do this by focusing on additional capacity to meet the high increase in demand over the last few years, to make sure children get the assessments and the care that they need.

“The other priority action is how we include our children, young people and families in plans to change and improve the services we provide. We are committed to working together as a genuine partnership, which includes our families, to ensure meaningful improvements are made.

“All of the actions from the improvement plans will be monitored independently to ensure they are being delivered. This includes regular reviews by the Department for Education and NHS England, the appointment of an Independent Chair following the creation of an Improvement Board and quarterly oversight from the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Panel.

“We understand that it will take time to build the trust of those have been let down. We promise we will work together to make the necessary improvements required.”

Representatives from the local area partnership have met with the Worcestershire Youth Cabinet and Worcestershire’s Parent Carer Forum is working closely with the local area partnership to bring the voice of parent carers to our services, plans and strategies. We held a recent ‘priority action co-production workshop’ for parent carers and will hold future co-production events as we progress in our journey of improvement.

You can link in with the Parent Carer Forum to find out about the latest news, developments and events or get more involved and attend co production workshops, forums, discussion groups or become a parent carer rep at regular meetings with the local area partnership. 

Find out more about the Parent Carer Forum on their website

Follow Worcestershire Parent Carer Forum on Facebook for the latest news and events

We send out regular All-Age Disability newsletter to anyone who is signed up to our Children’s Disability and Additional Needs Register (who has provided their email address and opted in to receiving updates). The newsletters will include regular updates on the improvements we’re making in SEND services.