Inspectors praise multi-agency SEND collaboration
Rita Som
Monday, July 3, 2017
Efforts to support young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Barking and Dagenham are being boosted by effective partnership work, an inspection has found.
According to Ofsted and health watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC), successful partnerships between education, health and social care in the borough are making a positive difference to the timeliness and quality of provision to meet children's and young people's needs.
Inspectors said the partnership working is helping with the ongoing implementation of special education needs reforms under which all children with existing SEN statements must be assessed and transferred from the old system on to new education, health and care (EHC) plans by April 2018.
"All partners in the local area show a high level of commitment to implementing [the government's SEN reforms] and to working together to best meet the needs of children, young people and their families," a letter outlining the findings of the inspection states.
"A significant strength in implementing the reforms is the quality of collaboration between healthcare and local authority staff and personnel in settings, schools and colleges.
"Detailed analysis of information ensures that the local authority understands how well both pupils identified for special educational needs support and those eligible for education, health and care (EHC) plans are doing.
"These good-quality relationships are building capacity and developing the expertise necessary to meet children's and young people's needs."
Inspectors also praised strong governance in the borough.
"Responsible elected members together with the health and wellbeing board successfully hold leaders to account for improving outcomes in a local area which is rapidly changing," the letter states.
"Leaders of healthcare services and the local authority understand the needs of the community and appropriate plans are in place to develop sufficient educational and healthcare provision through to 2020."
However, inspectors did raise some concerns.
They said that capacity to provide therapies such as speech and language, occupational and physiotherapy is hindered by difficulties in recruiting and training staff who can deliver the services sufficiently to a population that has grown rapidly.
As a result, some EHC plans are delayed and some families spend too long waiting for the support they need.
Meanwhile, it was found that EHC plans do not consistently benefit from appropriate input from health and social care.
"The detail of the support that a child needs and how this will be provided is, at times, insufficient," the letter states.
"The level at which parents' and young people's views are taken into account is variable. Some parents and young people said that they did not feel fully engaged in, or informed about, the process."
A spokesman for Barking and Dagenham Council said: "There is much to be proud of, especially some of our joint working across agencies which has been praised and the co-production of our local offer with local parents.
"Our staff have worked hard to develop the strong working relationships over a number of years which is given practical effect through arrangements such as our joint EHC panel which is empowered to approve plans and commit the spending needed to achieve them.
"From May of this year the council has also brought together in one service its services for disabled children. We are confident these new arrangements will enable us to consistently improve health and social care input to EHC plans."
