Inspections Clinic: Nine key SEND inspection changes

Inspections of local services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) were introduced in 2016. Carried out jointly by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, the one-off programme of inspections was intended to assess how well local authorities and their partners were delivering major reforms to provision – including the introduction of education, health and care plans (EHCPs).

The two regulators have now been tasked with developing a new inspection framework and are currently consulting on proposals.

Inspections to date have identified recurrent failings in SEND provision with more than half of areas required to produce a written statement of action to address serious concerns.

Inspectors found arrangements for identifying, assessing and meeting children’s needs were often slow and cumbersome and for many families it felt like a “battle” to get the right support, says the consultation document.

There was often a lack of clarity among different organisations over who was responsible for what leading to “fractures” in the way professionals worked together, it adds.

Disruption caused by the pandemic has exacerbated weaknesses in provision.

The hope is the new framework will help drive improvements with an increased focus on accountability and what really matters to children, young people and their families.

It is being introduced amid further reforms including the establishment of “integrated care systems” made up of NHS organisations, local authorities and others and designed to plan and deliver seamless health and care services.

Meanwhile, England’s SEND and alternative provision green paper, published in March this year, proposes a range of reforms including new national standards.

The consultation on the new SEND inspection framework runs until 11 September.

It features nine core proposals, including the introduction of new inspection outcomes intended to give a clearer idea of how areas are performing (see box).

The way inspections work is set out in a draft framework and handbook but these are the key proposals.

1. A greater focus on impact

The current SEND inspection framework puts a lot of emphasis on whether local areas are meeting a range of statutory responsibilities, including the need to deliver EHCPs for those children who require them and set out a “local offer” of support for all families with children with SEND.

But families have not always felt fully included in the inspection process or that their views and the issues they encountered were generally being listened to and then used to shape provision and improve services.

Statutory responsibilities will continue to be important under the new inspection regime and inspectors will look at how they are being met.

But there will be a shift in focus with more emphasis on children and young people’s experiences and the impact of local SEND arrangements on their lives.

2. Changes in how impact is evaluated

Based on discussions with children and young people, families and professionals, the regulators have drawn up draft criteria to assess the impact SEND services are having on young lives.

These include looking at whether children and young people’s needs are identified and assessed swiftly and effectively and children and families’ involvement in key decisions.

Inspectors will look at whether children and young people are getting the right help at the right time, have been well prepared to move on with their lives, and are “valued, visible and included in their communities”.

The proposed inspection framework also includes criteria for evaluating how well local partners work together to plan, evaluate and develop the SEND system.

These include looking at whether local leaders are ambitious for children and young people with SEND, have an accurate understanding of their needs and commission services to meet those needs.

Inspectors will explore these key factors through a range of activities including scrutinising evidence provided by local partners, talking directly to children and young people and their families, visiting settings, following the cases of individual children and speaking to professionals.

3. New inspection outcomes

Inspections of SEND provision to date have not resulted in an inspection judgment although areas where there were significant concerns were required to produce a written statement of action.

The plan is to introduce three distinct inspection outcomes to give everyone a clearer idea of how an area is doing.

The regulators have stopped short of single-word judgments such as “outstanding”, “good”, “requires improvement” or “inadequate”.

Instead they are proposing three overall outcomes (see box). Labelling services with one word is often seen as unhelpful as the reality is local SEND arrangements – involving different agencies – are often a mixture of excellent, good and poor provision.

However, the three new outcomes may inevitably come to represent “good”, “adequate” and “failing”.

4. Clearer recommendations

Until now, inspection reports have simply set out inspectors’ main findings and highlighted aspects of provision that are working well or need to be improved.

Under the new regime, reports will feature clear recommendations on the weaknesses partners need to address as well as which organisation or team will be responsible for taking that forward.

5. Requirement to update local plans

Following an inspection, all local areas will be required to update their strategic plans for SEND to show how they will make improvements identified in an inspection report.

“This approach will support ongoing improvement and help parents, carers and other stakeholders to understand the local area partnership’s plans for developing the SEND system,” says the consultation document.

6. Evidence from children and families

To ensure the views and experiences of children and young people have a central role, inspections will feature more opportunities to hear from them directly.

Before an inspection visit, inspectors will have discussions with children, young people, parents and carers about their experiences.

The regulators will also gather evidence by tracking the experiences of individual children.

They will choose children with a range of needs, who use a range of services and are at different stages of involvement with services.

Inspectors will meet the children and young people selected and their parents and also hold multi-agency meetings with the professionals working with them.

Inspections will also include a survey of children and young people, a survey of parents and carers and a survey of practitioners.

Finally, inspectors will carry out “sampling visits” to providers and services during which they will examine records of individual children and young people and discuss their cases.

7. Include alternative provision

Alternative provision for children who struggle in school plays a key role in the lives of those with SEND. However, it was not included in previous reforms so was not a focus of inspection.

Under the SEND green paper, local partners in England will be required to plan and deliver an alternative provision service focused on early intervention.

At its best, alternative education provision can help children with behavioural, emotional and health difficulties gain new skills and confidence and re-engage with school.

But there are concerns it may sometimes be used inappropriately to prop up SEND services – such as being used as a stop-gap while children wait for an EHCP assessment or a place in a special school.

Meanwhile there are fears children placed in poor-quality, unregistered provision are missing out on the education they need.

The new inspection regime will look at how local authorities use, commission and oversee alternative provision and the experiences of children who attend it.

8. Introduce monitoring inspections

Where an inspection finds serious failings in SEND provision, the plan is to carry out a monitoring inspection within 18 months.

In this situation, local partners will be required to produce an action plan to address those failings.

The aim of the monitoring inspection will be to provide an independent assessment of progress, provide further recommendations for improving services where necessary and ensure families and government are kept up-to-date on what is happening.

Monitoring inspections may also be carried out when there are particular concerns about SEND provision in a local area.

9. New annual meetings

The plans include the introduction of annual “engagement meetings” between regulators and local partners.

The idea of these meetings is essentially to check on progress in between inspections. They are a chance to identify any areas of concern, provide updates on changes to SEND provision and explore how well services are doing.

The meetings will be similar to those that take place under the inspection of local authority children’s services regime, which have been well received by the sector.

Consultation document: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/a-new-approach-to-area-send-inspections