Agenda item

Further to Minute No. 52 of 4 April 2017 the Committee considered the report of the Head of Schools and Families on the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Inspection final Statement of Action which had been submitted to Ofsted.

The report indicated that the SEND inspection was an inspection of a local areas’ effectiveness in identifying and meeting the needs of children and young people who had special educational needs and/or disabilities; that the inspection was undertaken in Sefton jointly by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission and that inspectors were required to examine the local areas’ effectiveness in:

•         The identification of Children and Young People (CYP) with SEND

•         Meeting the needs of CYP with SEND

•         Improving outcomes for CYP with SEND

and that In Sefton’s case a written ‘statement of action’ was required on 5 areas of concern, namely:-:

Action 1 - the poor progress made from starting points by pupils with a statement of special educational needs or an EHCP at key stages 2 and 4.

Action 2 - the poor operational oversight of the DCO across health services in supporting children and young people who have special educational needs and/or disabilities and their families.

Action 3 - the lack of awareness and understanding of health professionals in terms of their responsibilities and contribution to EHCPs.

Action 4 - the weakness of co-production with parents, and more generally in communications with parents.

Action 5 - the weakness of joint commissioning in ensuring that there are adequate services to meet local demand.

The report concluded that the Statement of Action submitted to Ofsted jointly by the Clinical Commissioning Groups and Sefton addressed the five areas identified above and was attached as an Appendix to the report.

The Committee also considered a letter received by the Director of Social Care and Health, dated 9 June 2017, from Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission on their joint evaluation of the Council’s written statement of action submitted to them on 18 April 2017. The letter indicated that the statement of action was deemed not fit for purpose in setting out how the local area would tackle the significant areas of weakness identified in the published report letter; that the plan was not fit for purpose because the actions to deliver improvements across health commissioning and provision were not sufficiently specific, measurable, relevant or timely; and that Sefton was required to re-submit a statement of action to Ofsted and CQC within 20 working days.  

Debbie Fagan, South Sefton and Southport and Formby Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), indicated that the statement of action would need to be re-submitted to Ofsted and CQC by 6 July 2017; that to address the issues raised in the Ofsted/CQC letter the CCG had taken on external support to ensure that actions were specific and evidence based rather than “broad brush” and the CCG was working in partnership with Sefton colleagues and other providers in the health economy; that the first re-draft of the statement of action had been shared with NHS England; and that a further meeting would be held week commencing 26 June 2017 with NHS England to review and update the statement of action.

Members expressed concern that they had only been provided with the Ofsted/CQC letter on the day of the meeting; that they had commented at the meeting held on 4 April 2017 that the actions required specific targets and outcomes in relation to addressing the areas of concern; and that Members should have the opportunity to consider the re-drafted statement of action prior to its submission to Ofsted/CQC.

RESOLVED: That