Plans published for improving services for children and young people with SEND

The plans have been published following a recent inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in April 2024.

The Local Area SEND Partnership includes NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board, Worcestershire Children First and Worcestershire County Council and the inspection also involved speaking with parents, children and young people and visiting schools and education settings.

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:

• 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.
• 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: 

• 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
• 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
• 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, inspectors 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 are available to view on the SEND Local Offer website.

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

The Department for Education and NHS England will also be doing ‘deep dives’ on the priority actions after three, six and nine months to ensure things are progressing as they should.

NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board, Worcestershire Children First and Worcestershire County Council said: “We fully accept the inspection findings and recommendations on what the Worcestershire local area partnership needs to improve.

“We are pleased that our plans have been approved by Ofsted and the Department for Education and are committed to work together, alongside parent carers and young people, to make the necessary improvements to our services.

“We will be sharing regular updates on our progress and would encourage anyone who wants to get more involved in working with us to find out more via the SEND Local Offer website.”

The improvement plans and further information about the SEND inspection is available on the SEND improvement pages of the County Council website.