Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) will be visiting Warwickshire County Council and Warwickshire Clinical Commissioning Group next week to carry out their SEND Local Area Inspection. 

As part of the inspection, the Inspectors will look for evidence of how children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities (or both) are identified, how their needs are assessed and met, and how they are supported to move on to their next stage of education, the world of work and wider preparation for adulthood. 

During the week, inspectors will visit several providers including early year’s settings, schools, Further Education colleges, independent schools and health provision to gather the relevant evidence needed. This will add to the inspector’s understanding of how all providers and agencies work collaboratively together. Inspectors will also collect information about children and young people in Warwickshire and will speak to key partners, parents and carers. 

Talking about the inspection councillor Jeff Morgan, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services said: 

“We welcome the inspection team to Warwickshire and the opportunity to show how our ambitious programme of change is working to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND.  

“Working together with our partners, we want all children and young people in Warwickshire to lead a fulfilling life and be part of their community. We aim to achieve this by promoting inclusion in mainstream settings, giving schools the skills and resources to meet the needs of learners and building the confidence of parents and carers.     

“As part of the inspection, the team will visit several providers including early years settings, schools, Further Education colleges, independent schools and health provision. They will also be talking to parents, carers and children and young people about their experience of using the service. Once the inspection is complete, the report will be issued on our website.” 

Dr Sarah Raistrick, a working GP and Chair of NHS Coventry and Warwickshire Clinical Commissioning Group. 

“Working together with Warwickshire County Council we are working in partnership to contribute to the implementation of the SEND reforms. Together we will ensure that health services commissioned locally for children and young people are shaped by the lived experience. This means that the CCG, partners, families and young people will work together to identify what matters in accessing Education, Health and Care and to identify any gaps in local provision. 

“It’s a really important programme for us and we are proud to be working together to improve things for our local children, young people and their families.” 

The review will start next week and will be completed within six weeks. The report, with any recommendations, will be published on Warwickshire County Council's website and shared with those who contributed to it. 

Information on local area duties towards children and young people with SEND can be found on the Department for Education website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-guide-for-parents-and-carers. 

Submit your views here. For more information on SEND provision in Warwickshire visit: https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/send

This resource provides information and support for children and young people with special educational needs and disability (SEND). It is called the SEND Local Offer and Warwickshire County Council has been working hard to improve its SEND Local Offer to ensure that families with SEND can find the information they need.

Every local authority in England must produce and maintain a Local Offer. It brings together information about the local services and support available across education, health, and social care for families with children and young people aged 0 to 25 who have special educational needs and/or disabilities.

Consultations with families, young people and professionals in Warwickshire across five months revealed that it wasn’t always easy to find the information they were looking for in the Local Offer. A task group of Warwickshire County Council officers and independent parent carers have worked together with young people and practitioners to address these concerns.

The group explored the understanding gained from these local evaluations with a mapping exercise across 167 other local authority inspection reports. They also cross-referenced against current SEND legislation on what must be included in a Local Offer.

The group worked on improving the navigation issues which were impeding access to information. They have created 12 broad categories to help people find what they were looking for within a more accessible and logical format. On completion, this was re-checked across a range of people through online exercises designed to identify and evaluate the user experience.

The process of redesigning the navigational aspects of the Local Offer enabled the group to identify where the problems in locating information and support were. Importantly, it also helped identify where there were gaps in information or provision. Mapping current information and services across the new categories is now underway. This work will continue alongside development of new information and resources that will see further updates to the Local Offer in the future.

Councillor Jeff Morgan, Portfolio Holder for Children and Families said: “Warwickshire County Council is committed to continuous improvement to build an interactive Local Offer that residents can be proud of. Actively engaging with people and working productively together within a ‘you said, we did’ approach is an integral part of our work going forwards. We were grateful for all the input from children, young people, professionals, parents and carers that fed into the redesign. Please do take a look and tell us what you think.”

Find the SEND Local Offer here: https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/send