SEND inspection due in Staffordshire

Inspectors are due to examine support measures for children and young people with special educational needs in Staffordshire – but a new county council boss has warned it will be difficult to achieve a top rating.

Bernie Brown, who became Staffordshire County Council’s director for children and families in July, has also spoken of the distress felt by parents concerned about their children’s needs being met.

Staffordshire County Council continues to face an increase in demand for support for children with educational needs and disabilities (SEND). And the target for issuing 48% of education, health and care plans – legal documents detailing a child’s special educational needs and the support they require – within 20 weeks was still being missed in Staffordshire this year.

A report due to be presented to Wednesday’s cabinet meeting (October 16) revealed that in July 40.8% of EHCPs were being issued “in time”, but as of August it had gone up to 55.7%. This is up from just 21.6% in February this year.

There are currently more than 8,000 children in Staffordshire with EHCPs. And the number is set to rise to 12,000 by 2028/29, Councillor Jonathan Price, cabinet member for education and SEND, said this week.

Ms Brown told members of the Safeguarding and Education Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday (October 8) that one of the most common complaints was that parents were dissatisfied at the amount of time taken to respond to their queries. She said: “My expectation of all staff is that if a parent contacts you via email or phone they receive a response, irrespective of if we can give them the answer.

“If a parent is distressed and they email me they will get a response from me, which acknowledges their distress and says that I will be passing it on to the appropriate team. Most parents are grateful for that.

“As a mum, if I had an issue with one of my children and I emailed someone and they didn’t reply, that would make me quite annoyed and would exacerbate my distress. So I’m asking everyone to act with respect and compassion for parents who are distressed because they’re worried about not being able to access a school or the right support at the right time.

“If you’re a parent of a child with additional needs, you will quite rightly want to have your child supported in the most appropriate way. But what I would say to parents – and often do when parents complain – is our assessment might be different to their view.

“We’ve got some very experienced educational psychologists who assess children on the basis of need. That might mean their needs can be met in a mainstream school and the parents – I understand why – might not agree with us.

“We have a finite amount of resources. We want all children to thrive, but I have to accept as a director of children’s services that sometimes parents are disappointed, sometimes they are angry and they don’t feel that we always deliver what they would like.

“I think we’re offering as good a service as we can, linked to the policy and lack of funding given to Staffordshire to support those children. That is completely out of our control and influence.”

Educational inspector Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) are due to carry out a full inspection of Staffordshire’s local area partnership’s arrangements for children and young people with SEND this autumn. The partnership involves the Integrated Care Board, which commissions health services, and the county council and is responsible for planning, commissioning, management and delivery of support for children and young people with SEND.

An local area SEND inspection carried out in November 2018 found “significant areas of weakness”, leading to a written statement of action being required to address the issues raised. A revisit was carried out in early 2022, which identified that “sufficient progress” had been made in tackling six of the significant areas of concern, but insufficient progress had been made to address two other weaknesses.

The inspection framework for local area SEND arrangements changed in early 2023, the committee heard. Under the new system one of three outcomes is possible – that SEND arrangements lead to “positive experiences”, “inconsistent experiences” or there are “widespread and/or systemic failings leading to significant concerns” for children and young people.

Councillor Price said: “One of the significant stats that stood out for me was nearly 40 inspections have been completed and nearly 75% of those found inconsistent or significant concerns about the experience of children and young people with SEND. This is a clear indication that the current system is not working for children and young people.”

Ms Brown said: “Challenges are not specific to Staffordshire – these are national challenges that exist. It’s an underfunded piece of legislation and it has led to a huge influx of demand which is challenging for schools, health partners and us as a council to meet.

“Just before I left my previous job and came to Staffordshire I was subjected to a three-week area SEND inspection. We could get the call at any moment.“It is a very intense demanding process for officers and teams across health, education and social care. There is an awful lot of planning that goes in, that we’re doing at the moment to prepare for it.

“There’s a big focus on meeting with children and the views of parents and carers. There is a survey that goes out ahead of the onsite part of the inspection where the views of parents and carers are taken on board and they will meet representative groups.

“If I had to put us in one, two or three (of the possible outcomes), I would at the moment assess us in two (inconsistent experiences for children and young people with SEND). It is very difficult for a county council to get a grade of one because the scale of geography and differences across the county mean some of our children and families do experience inconsistent services.

“We’re working really hard to meet that need across the partnership, but it is challenging. None of the counties have been able to get a one – it’s inherently unfair in some respects because of the geography of county councils.”