Inspectors criticise quality of SEND support in Oxfordshire

During a visit in September Ofsted and health watchdog the Care Quality Commission found that parents in the county face a "struggle" to ensure their children's needs are identified and met.

Inspectors said a particular concern among families was the poor quality and lack of timeliness of education, health and care (EHC) plans, introduced through the Children and Families Act 2014 in order to improve the quality of joint support for children. This meant that when children or young people move school or college, necessary provision was not always in place.

Inspectors found that only a third of plans are completed within the statutory 20-week period and too often they are based on out-of-date information.

"Parents are rightly frustrated by this," a letter outlining the findings states.

"Leaders' work to improve the situation has been ineffectual. The situation has improved a little recently. However, the proportion of plans completed in due time remains low."

Further concerns were raised by inspectors around failures by senior managers to effectively evaluate performance in order to make improvements.

"Self-evaluation is not typically sufficiently detailed to prove fully useful. Too often, leaders do not use performance information well to gain a clear understanding of the impact of their work on improving the effectiveness of services," the letter states.