13-08-2023 Ofsted inspection results published
The SEND Area inspection was carried out by Ofsted and the CQC in March 23, and Our Voice was actively involved in gathering inputs from parents and carers and feeding them back to the inspection team.
The inspectors published their report on Wednesday 2nd August.
Enfield received the middle grade of the three possible grades.
This means that according to Ofsted, “the local area partnership’s arrangements lead to inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND. The Local Area Partnership must work jointly to make improvements.”
This also means that Enfield will be reinspected in 3 years' time to look at what improvements have been made (areas receiving the top grade are not reinspected for 5 years). You can see the full report at https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50225063
The key points identified in the report were:
o Children and young people still have varied experiences and although leaders have stepped up the pace in recent years there are mixed views on how much impact this has had.
o Children young people and families are involved in the redesign and improvement of services
o EHCPs are completed within the 20-week timescale and the quality is improving. However, there are out-of-date EHCPs and annual review amendments are not updated quickly enough especially in transitions, so that plans don’t always accurately reflect current needs.
o Sometimes information sharing between professionals isn’t as good as it should be and parents have to step in to ensure professionals have the right information.
o Some, but not all, children and young people are well prepared for transfer to adult services and not all are aware of the support available.
o Numbers of exclusions have reduced significantly and services work closely with alternative provision so (where appropriate) pupils return to mainstream schools as soon as possible. However, some children and young people with SEND experience late identification of their needs with this taking place only after they are placed in alternative provision.
o There is a broad range of activities for young people to try but more needs to be done to ensure families are aware of available activities. There are plans to improve access to schemes like the Summer Uni. As young people get older it is harder for them to access a good range of activities.
Special Needs Jungle has produced a useful explanation of how SEND area inspections work and what the different ratings are, which you can see here.
Thank you again to all of you, and all your young people, who contributed your views either to us, or by completing the surveys for parent carers and children and young people, or directly to the inspectors. It is clear that the inspectors listened to the issues that families face and reflected many of these concerns in their report.
We will (of course) be working with the LA and Health to ensure that parents' views are listened to as they look at what changes will be made in response to the inspection results.
