The SEND Inspection Report from the Local Area’s SEND Inspection in November 2023, which covered the council and health services, gave us 5 ‘priority’ areas that we must focus on and deliver improvements against.
The overall outcome of the Local Area’s SEND inspection was ‘The local area partnership’s arrangements lead to inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The local area partnership must work jointly to make improvements.’
This outcome was in line with West Sussex Partnership’s own self-evaluation prior to the inspection, and we welcomed the findings. We know that there is much work to do to make the necessary improvements and, since this time, we have produced a strategic action plan that was approved by Ofsted and the CQC. We have also attended two monitoring meetings with the Department for Education, who were pleased with our progress and the early green shoots of impact.
Our five priority areas for improvement are:
- Local area health leaders should act swiftly to identify and address ’waiting well’ arrangements, and gaps in service provision to meet the full range of needs of children and young people with SEND. This includes speech and language provision, neurodevelopmental pathways and Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). See progress and impact.
- Health leaders should act immediately to ensure that children identified as at high risk of aspiration are fully assessed including access to video-fluoroscopy as necessary. See progress and impact.
- Leaders across the partnership should work at pace to further develop their strategy to improve the timeliness of Education, Health and Care plans (EHCPs) to ensure processes are rigorous, sustainable and lead to plans of consistent quality. See progress and impact.
- Leaders should continue to implement their oversight and commissioning arrangements of suitable specialist school places and alternative provision so that there is sufficient high-quality provision that meets children and young people’s SEND. See progress and impact.
- Leaders should review and further strengthen their strategic approach to preparation for adulthood, so that young people consistently receive the right help and support they need to lead successful lives. See progress and impact.
Our SEND and Inclusion strategy
As a council we are working together with our families and our partners across education, health and social care, to secure the best possible outcomes for all our children and young people.
We are currently developing our new 5 year SEND and Inclusion strategy that will be launched in the second half of the Autumn term and will run from 2025 to 2030.
Additional information
- SEND and Inclusion strategy
- SEND and inclusion working practices model 2024 (PDF, 158KB)
- SEND improvement plan 2024 to 2027 scorecard (PDF, 288KB)
- WSCC performance dashboard
- 56. The percentage of Education, Health and Plans (EHCPs) completed within 20 weeks
- 57. Children and young people with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) accessing mainstream education
- 58. Children and young people with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) accessing Independent and Non-Maintained Special Schools (INMSS)
- Department for Education (DfE) Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan