Services for children with special educational needs and disabilities inspected in Sunderland

September 2021

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have identified a number of areas of strength in an inspection of services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Sunderland.

SEND services were jointly inspected by Ofsted and the CQC in June 2021, to judge the effectiveness of services delivered across the local area.

During the five-day visit, inspectors spoke with children and young people with SEND, parents and carers, and local authority and NHS officers. They also spoke to a range of staff, providers and leaders within health, social care and education about how they are implementing the SEND reforms, as set out in the Children and Families Act 2014, across the city.

In the report outlining their findings from the inspection, Ofsted and the CQC outlined the following as areas of strength:

• There have been significant developments since Together for Children started to work on behalf of Sunderland City Council to deliver children's services in 2017.
• Leaders have a clear ambition for children and young people with SEND in Sunderland. They have a realistic picture of the area's effectiveness in identifying, assessing, and meeting the needs of children and young people with SEND.
• Practitioners in SEND services, school improvement, social care and health are knowledgeable and skilful and make a positive difference to the children, young people and families they are supporting.
• The number of specialist education settings for children and young people with SEND has increased. New schools have opened, and more additionally resourced provision (APR) has been developed.
• The timeliness of completing education, health and care (EHC) plans Is above the national average. Applications for EHC plans are administered effectively and EHC assessments gather quality evidence.
• The virtual school provides effective support for children and young people with SEND who are cared for by the local authority. Headteachers are positive about the support they receive from the virtual school when supporting those with SEND.
• The recruitment of a new designated clinical officer (DCO) has increased capacity within health provision.
• Digital developments over the last three years have helped public health staff to make sure that families only tell their story once.

Throughout the report, partnership working between SEND services and education professionals is recognised as an area of strength. The report states that "the support that education professionals receive from the local authority's SEND team is effective. This is helping more individual schools and special educational needs coordinators (SENCos) to correctly identify children's and young people's additional needs. Teachers and school leaders appreciate the advice that they are given."

Alongside this, the development of a SEND ranges document that provides descriptions of need and how best to meet them is praised. The report states that the document was "co-produced effectively and substantial training and sharing of information took place to support the implementation of the SEND ranges. There is now a 'shared language' and understanding between parents and education, health and care professionals about children and young people's needs and how this links to their educational provision." The report outlines that this document has helped teachers and education, health and care professionals to identify and describe additional needs that children and young people may have.

Areas for improvement were also identified, although the report recognises that the area's self-evaluation clearly identifies what needs to be done to ensure improvement plans can further improve the area's effectiveness.

Areas identified as needing improvement include:

• Leaders are not jointly planning, commissioning, and providing education, health and care services in a way that is improving the outcomes achieved by children and young people with SEND rapidly enough, although they acknowledge that there is work to do to ensure that joint commissioning helps the area to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND more effectively.
• Information and data about children and young people's needs is not comprehensive enough to support improvement in area SEND arrangements in Sunderland. Area leaders accept that they need better and more accurate data and information to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND.
• The quality of support for children and young people at times of transition across all services and age ranges is too variable.
• Co-production is not consistent within the area and children and young people and their families are not always involved in making decisions about how best to meet their needs.
• Several health pathways and process are still being formalised and occupational therapy services are disjointed.

Following the inspection, Ofsted have requested that the local authority and the area's clinical commission group are jointly responsible for submitting a Written Statement of Action to Ofsted, to address the two areas of weakness identified in the area's practice: joint commissioning and support for children and young people at times of transition across all services and age ranges.

A Written Statement of Action provides local areas with the opportunity to outline how they plan to address areas in need of improvement. Of the local authorities inspected nationally so far, 59% have been asked to produce one and across the North East and Yorkshire and Humber, this has been a requirement for 72% of local authorities.

Sunderland City Council, Together for Children and the Sunderland Clinical Commissioning Group, said:

"We are pleased with the overall report received from Ofsted and the CQC, who have recognised that there are several areas of strength within SEND services across the local area and that improvements have been made to improve the outcomes for children and young people with special education needs and disabilities in our city. We know that there is more to do and we are taking steps in the right direction to ensure that the experiences of children and families are consistent and that their needs are addressed in a way that's right for them.

"As the report identifies, we already recognise that joint commissioning and transition to adulthood are two areas we need to work on and we will strengthen our existing action plan to incorporate the learning from this inspection."

Councillor Louise Farthing, Cabinet Member for Children's Services at Sunderland City Council, said:

"Young people with special educational needs and disabilities are a top priority for the City Council so we're pleased that Ofsted and the CQC have recognised a number of areas where SEND services are working well and the progress that has been made in improving services in recent years. We fully accept that there is still work to be done and are already addressing the areas where further improvements need to be made.

Mentioned in the report as being 'active and influential' is the Parent Carer Forum, a voluntary group of parent carers of children and young people who have a special education need and/or disability who influence SEND services locally, regionally and nationally.

The Parent Carer Forum in Sunderland added:

"We would like to thank all our parent carers for responding to the survey, speaking to the inspectors, and contacting us both before and during the inspection. We welcome the publication of the report, and that it recognised many of the strengths, and areas for improvement that the Forum have identified when talking with Parent Carers and we had previously raised with our partners. We very much look forward to continue working with TfC, Sunderland CCG and Sunderland City Council in addressing these areas for improvement for the benefit of all our children and young people with SEND in Sunderland."

The full inspection report can be read online at: Ofsted | Sunderland City Council.

Together for Children and Sunderland CCG have jointly produced a Written Statement of Action (WSoA) to address the two areas of weakness outlined in the June Inspection. This WSoA has been deemed fit for purpose by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Progress against the WSoA will be closely monitored through our multi-agency SEND Governance arrangements.