EDUCATION and health leaders have been ordered to set out how they intend to improve provision for children with special needs - as Ofsted raises ‘significant concerns’ in a report.

Ofsted carried out an inspection of local authority services for children in need of help and protection, looked after children and care leavers, and undertook a review of the Local Safeguarding Children Board in January.

Today, an inspection report has been published criticising leaders in a number of areas.

The county council has pledged to improve services and is inviting parents of children with additional needs to meetings so they can talk about their experiences.

The report found:

  • Frequent changes in senior leaders have reduced the local area’s capacity it implement the disability and special educational needs reforms effectively. Until recently leaders have not tackled their identified areas with urgency and vigour. As a result the provision that children and young people who have special educational needs and/or disabilities across the local area receive and the outcomes they achieve are too variable
  • The approach to ‘doing the basics well’ in completing assessments for education, health and care plans (EHC) on time and in partnership with appropriate agencies is weak
  • Current leaders have ambitious and aspirational plans in place but these have not yet led to reductions in the considerable current financial overspend in the High Needs Budget of the Dedicated Schools Grant
  • Leaders’ arrangements to check the quality and impact of their work in the local area are inconsistent. Systems to identify and tackle weaknesses as they occur are poor. As a result, leaders have been slow to address weaknesses and drive improvement in the quality of services for children and young people who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.
  • Parents and carers of children and young people who have special educational needs and/or disabilities spoke of the delays and their concerns at having to struggle to have their child’s needs assessed. Overwhelmingly they described a lack of understanding of how to get the help and support they need in the local area to improve outcomes for children and young people.

The report does outline some strengths, including improvement in procedures to identify children with sensory and behavioural needs.

Dorset’s special schools were singled out for praise, as was the quality of special educational needs coordinators (SENCOs) in schools. Ofsted also said identification of SEND in the early years is effective and that careers advice for older children is working well.

But inspectors also set out several areas of development, and demanded a Written Statement of Action be produced by the local authority and the clinical commissioning group ‘because of significant areas of weakness in the local area’s practice’.

Sara Tough, Dorset County Council’s director of children’s services, said: “We take these findings very seriously and are committed to working with our partners, parents and carers to improve services and outcomes for children and young people with additional needs.

“We need to continue to make progress in improving how quickly we complete plans and get better at working together with other agencies to meet children’s needs.

“The inspection team told us they believed that we have a clear understanding of what needs to be done and that our plans are having an impact.”

The inspectors also interviewed parents and carers of children with SEND, who said they would like to be more involved and for the agencies to share more about the work they are doing with them. The council is inviting parents to local meetings where they can talk about their experiences of SEND services.

Cllr Deborah Croney, the council’s Cabinet member for learning, skills and children’s safeguarding said: “We know we have some work to do to make the experiences of all our children and young people with additional needs better. We are already making significant improvements across a number of areas.

“We want to make every child’s experience a good one. We will be working closely with parents, carers, schools and our partners so together we can make sure all our children in Dorset reach their highest potential.”

A spokesman for Dorset CCG added: “We acknowledge the findings of the Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) report and are pleased that a number of areas have been identified as doing well or improving. Where improvements are required we will continue to work closely with our partners in Dorset to implement these.”

Are you a parent of a child or young person with special educational needs? Tell us your views by emailing rachel.stretton@dorsetecho.co.uk or calling 01305 830981