Issue - meetings

The Board received and noted a report on the findings of the Ofsted and Care Quality Commission Joint local area inspection of the Borough’s disability and special educational needs (SEND) reforms brought about by the Children and Families Act 2014. During the inspection, amongst others, the views and opinions of children, young people, their parents and carers were sought. The Strategic Director commented that the parents were very positive in their comments and mentioned to the inspectors that they were kept fully involved.

The outcome of the inspection was overwhelmingly positive as reflected in the final letter from Ofsted and the CQC, a copy of which was appended to the report. The inspection highlighted many strengths across education, health and social care in terms of the support offered to children and young people with SEND and their families as well as the partners’ commitment to reform and effective implementation. Other positives mentioned were local governance arrangements including the role of this Board in holding leaders to account, collaboration between healthcare and local authority staff in schools and colleges as well as strong relationships with providers allowing for the effective monitoring of the safety and well-being of children and young people.

In terms of areas for development reference was made to the insufficient numbers of parents and young people who know about and/or use the Local Offer to find advice and help, an absence of detailed targets and timescales incorporated into plans as well as a lack of clarity about how some aspects of services will be jointly commissioned. Other areas requiring improvement concerned the capacity in providing a range of therapies due to recruiting and training staff which in turn leads to delays in EHC plans, which themselves do not consistently benefit from appropriate input from health and social care. Finally, the low proportion of young adults with learning disabilities accessing training and employment was also identified as an area for development. 

In response to the findings of the inspection a multi-agency action plan is being developed to begin to address the identified areas for improvement, progress on which will be reported to this Board as necessary.

The Board placed on record its thanks to all the parties involved including staff and healthcare partners, who have worked incredibly hard to achieve such positives outcomes for children and young people with disabilities in Barking and Dagenham.