DfE orders struggling council to improve SEND services

Slough Borough Council has been issued statutory direction from the Department for Education to improve standards of SEND support following a monitoring visit from Ofsted in February.

• Special Educational Needs and Disabilities: Special Report

• Opinion: Review must focus SEND system on earlier support

Issued last week (4 August), the direction states that the council is “failing” to improve its SEND provision following a damning report by inspectors from Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission in 2021 which found that council and health services were not working well together across health, education and social care, leaving children and their families without effective support.

The direction notice orders council leaders to work with DfE-appointed commissioner Paul Moffat, former chief executive of Doncaster Children’s Trust, to improve its SEND provision.

Moffat was appointed by the DfE to improve children’s services in Slough last year

Council leaders have “accepted” the direction to improve SEND provision.

Sue Butcher, executive director of people (children) at Slough Borough Council and chief executive of Slough Children

First, said: “We fully accept that finding; progress has not been good enough and agree with children and families minister Claire Coutinho that there must be ‘demonstrable improvement of those services and the experiences and outcomes of children and young people who depend upon them’.”

Councillor Dexter Smith, leader of the council, said: “Services to the most vulnerable children in Slough in recent years have not been good enough but we are committed to working with the DfE to make the improvements necessary and drive for positive outcomes for SEND children and their families. This is a key focus of my administration.

“Our draft corporate plan focuses on children as a key priority for now and for the future and we are committed to turning that strategic focus into swift and sustainable improvements in our services.”

The council has also been handed its seventh consecutive direction to improve children’s services, which notes that failures at the council date back to 2019.

A children’s services inspection by Ofsted in January this year rated the council’s support for vulnerable children, which is run by Slough Children First, as “requires improvement to be good”.

The more recent direction to improve states: “The authority is failing to perform its children’s services to an adequate standard.”