Hull CCG and Hull City Council have acknowledged ‘areas of weakness’ following a Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) inspection.
As part of a joint programme, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Office for Standards in Educations, Children’s Services and Skills (OFSTED) are looking at all 152 local areas in the country.
The inspections evaluates how well education, social care and health services work together to identify children and young people, under the age of 25, with SEND.
Hull CCG and Hull City Council have acknowledged ‘areas of weakness’ following a Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) inspection.
As part of a joint programme, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Office for Standards in Educations, Children’s Services and Skills (OFSTED) are looking at all 152 local areas in the country.
The inspections evaluates how well education, social care and health services work together to identify children and young people, under the age of 25, with SEND.
Room for improvement
If the inspectors praised Hull’ local SEND services and a range of strengths, there are ‘inconsistencies and improvements to the accessibility of services are needed’, said the report.
The council and CCG said that ‘they take these findings extremely seriously and acknowledge that change needs to take place in the short and longer term’
They said: ‘We would like to reassure all children and young people with SEND, and their parents and carers that we have a new team committed to raising standards.
‘Our aspiration remains that all children in this city get the right help at the right time.’
The report said that since 2014, weaknesses and inconsistencies in the local area’s strategic leadership have prevented the effective implementation of the disability and special educational needs reforms in Hull.
Nick Whittaker, Her Majesty’s Inspector (HMI), said that ‘too many children and young people don’t have their needs identified and assessed well and professionals and services don’t work together in an effective and coordinated way’.
He said: ‘The experience of children, young people and families and the outcomes achieved by children and young people who have SEN and/or disabilities vary too widely.
‘The local area’s self-evaluation doesn’t cut to the heart of what is working well and what needs to improve in Hull and there is no agreed way of measuring and evaluating the outcomes achieved by children and young people who have SEN and/or disabilities.
‘This is unacceptable.’
‘Poorer experience’
Ofsted and the CQC argue that children and young people with SEND have a ‘much poorer experience of the education system than their peers’ and are often ‘excluded, absent or missing from school’.
The joint programme also evaluates the implementation of the new reforms of the Children and Families Act 2014, which gives more protection to vulnerable children, including children with special educational needs and disabilities.
