West Northants SEND partnership responds to inspection report
Partners involved in providing SEND solutions across West Northamptonshire have today decided to publish an inspection report by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
All partners have a shared ambition that our children have the Best Start in Life, while recognising there is a lot of work to do to achieve this. This is why partners are working hard to progress a range of joint actions that will address significant concerns raised in the latest inspection of services for children with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND) in West Northamptonshire.
In agreement with Ofsted and the CQC, West Northamptonshire Council, the NHS Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board and Northamptonshire Children’s Trust have published the inspection report to progress the action required.
Priority work progresses at pace in response to the report, which can be found on the West Northamptonshire Council website. It identifies failings that must be urgently addressed by the West Northamptonshire Local Area SEND Partnership.
The Partnership fully accepts the findings of the inspection and apologises to children, young people and their families where we have fallen short. The partnership also includes Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, schools and West Northants Voices in Partnership.
Whilst finding that SEND services are not good enough, with many children and young people waiting too long for their needs to be assessed and for suitable provision, inspectors also recognised the “green shoots” of improvement and clear partnership commitment to making critical improvements to address this. They highlighted the ‘ambitious SEND strategy, co-produced with children and young people and parents, and acknowledged ‘it is too soon to see the impact’ of the work being done to improve outcomes.
The local partnership has developed a Priority Action Plan (PAP) in line with the requirements from OFSTED, the Department for Education (DFE) and NHS England, and has been approved by Ofsted. The PAP is aligned with West Northamptonshire’s SEND & Alternative Provision Strategy and been developed with all partners represented at the SEND & Alternative Provision Partnership Improvement Board. The local area SEND partnership will now meet with DfE and NHSE at regular intervals during the next eighteen months to ensure the delivery of the action plan.
Inspectors recognised how ‘parent voices and the views of children and young people with SEND, are now heard much more effectively’, with professionals across the Partnership ‘engaging positively’ to put in place the new SEND strategy. As well as this, inspectors highlighted where children and young people with SEND receive specialist support from the Northamptonshire
Children’s Trust Disability Team, they receive timely assessment and appropriate advice to meet their needs.
They also found that children and young people with SEND ‘benefit from early help services that provide support at home and in the community’, as well as ‘a strong emotional health and wellbeing offer’, and those with a visual or hearing impairment are well supported by a ‘strong, needs-led service’.
The Partnership is now focusing on several priority actions that require urgent attention to address the findings of the report including:
- Improving the timeliness and quality of Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessments so that children’s needs are fully identified, and the right support is provided at the earliest opportunity. At the end of last year, WNC commissioned a team of Educational Psychologists to support with overdue assessments with positive progress being made, setting a positive trajectory for improvement. To further support this, at WNC’s last cabinet meeting £1.35million of funding was approved to increase capacity in the Council’s SEND team to meet the increased demand being experienced – since April 2021 there has been 40 per cent increase in EHCP requests (an increase of over 1,000).
- Developing a partnership joint strategic needs assessment (JSNA) that informs a joint commissioning plan to ensure outcomes are informed based on evidence of local population need, and to support the best use of resources across the partnership. A working group has been set up to develop a JSNA for children and young people with SEND that includes data from across the partnership to inform local need, planning and outcomes.
- Addressing current waiting times for speech and language therapy, mental health services and neurodevelopmental assessments to support early identification for plans to be developed to support them. Additional staffing capacity has been agreed by the partnership for the Speech and Language Therapy service. Resources are being refocussed across specialist therapeutic pathways within child and adolescent mental health community services to increase access. Improved navigation tools for emotional wellbeing and mental health services are being developed for children and young people and professionals. A Community Paediatric Review has been undertaken to transform the early years and primary school neurodevelopmental assessment pathways. This will explore all opportunities to introduce extra capacity and innovative practice.
- Improving the partnership approach to speech, communication and language needs to embed recommendations swiftly. The partnership jointly commissioned a nationally recognised programme to analyse needs, and this has provided useful recommendations for improvement and future transformation. A working group has been set up to identify delivery options for earlier identification and support for children with speech, language and communication needs.
Cllr Fiona Baker, Cabinet Member for Children, Families, Education and Skills at WNC said: “The inspection outcome highlights failings within the service which we had previously identified and which we are working hard to remedy. We accept the findings of the OFSTED inspection and will continue to strive to do better for our SEND children, young people and families. I am absolutely committed to seeing this change happen and we have been working hard to build positive, strong foundations for this.
“We recognise the ongoing work which we need to carry out to address the concerns arising from complaints and feedback from our service users and we are incorporating this into our improvement plan which seeks to carry out continual development. We have recently welcomed three additional colleagues who will support with this work.
“Inspectors noted that some of the work we are doing is still quite new and it is too early to see the desired impact and we have been open in that. Unfortunately, due to the scale of transformation needed these changes will take time and they must be made working closely with schools, health colleagues, our Children’s Trust and most of all with families. Involvement from families, children and young people was recognised within the report and I would like to share thanks to all those who have been involved – their contribution has been so valuable, and we will continue to build on this engagement to ensure their voices remain at the heart of our planning, conversations and next steps.
“The £1.35million investment approved at Cabinet, will make a huge difference, enabling further capacity in our team to improve the quality and timeliness for ECP needs assessment. I am confident this will set a positive trajectory to make these critical changes and be a significant step forward for the service.”
Chief Nursing Officer at Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board Yvonne Higgins said: “It is our absolute priority to make sure immediate action takes place to continue to drive the urgent improvements which are required as highlighted in this report.
“Some of this work is already underway and it is now critical that we continue to build momentum across our partnership in health, education and social care to improve services to these children, young people and families who have been let down. The priority action plan will outline specific actions for each of our organisations and we will make the critical changes outlined in this plan as quickly as possible to work towards achieving far better outcomes that the children, young people and families in this county deserve and expect.”
Julian Wooster, Chair of Northamptonshire Children’s Trust said: “We are committed to working collaboratively with our partners to drive forward the priority plan to improve the experiences and outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities.
“Whilst it is reassuring that the inspectors saw that the Children’s Disability Team carry out timely assessments and give appropriate advice to meet the needs of children and young people most in need of social care support, we know that there is still a lot of work to do. Alongside our partners we want to ensure that all children, young people and families with SEND receive the best possible services and support.”
In a statement, the West Northamptonshire Voices in Partnership said: “The result and findings of the Ofsted and CQC inspection align with the perspectives shared by our members and ourselves, which makes them unsurprising.
“As representatives of the Parent Carer community, we are deeply troubled by the findings of the recent Ofsted & CQC report highlighting widespread and systematic failings in SEND provision within our local area. We share the concerns expressed by families across the SEND community.
“West Northants Voices in Partnership are committed to advocating for the rights and interests of children and young people with SEND and their families. We stand in solidarity with all those affected by these failings and are committed to working collaboratively with the Local Authority, Education, Health, Social Care, and other stakeholders to address the issues identified and drive meaningful change.
“Our priority is to ensure that the voices of parent carers are heard and valued. We will actively engage with the local authority, schools, and relevant agencies to hold them accountable for addressing the failings highlighted in the report and to advocate for improved SEND provision across West Northamptonshire.
“We call for transparency, accountability, and swift action to remedy the failings identified in the report and to ensure that children and young people with SEND receive the support and resources they need to succeed. Together, we can work towards a future where every child, regardless of their abilities or disabilities, has the opportunity to reach their full potential.
“We look forward to the return of the inspectors in 18 months, where we hope the Local Area SEND Partnership leaders and stakeholders will demonstrate the effectiveness of the implemented measures with positive outcomes for children, young people with SEND, and their families.
“The West Northants Voices in Partnership team would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to everyone who contributed to our Padlet pages and reached out to us via email and allowing us to share with the inspectors directly.”