SOUTH Gloucestershire’s ability to provide services to those with special educational needs or disabilities has been blasted by inspectors, having raised "serious concerns" in its effectiveness.
The joint inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) took place between November 6-10, speaking to children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) and their parents and carers at early years, schools and post-16 education settings.
South Gloucestershire Parents and Carers Forum, NHS professionals at the Clinical Commissioning Group and health partners providing community health services for children and young people were also consulted.
The report published lists an array of concerns including that “senior leaders have been too slow to implement the disability and SEN reforms” citing “a lack of strategic direction, frequent staff changes and changes to the roles and responsibilities of senior leaders” reducing capacity to deliver statutory reforms effectively.
It also said there were significant concerns over “long-standing problems” in some services provided, resulting in young people having to wait for lengthy periods to have their needs assessed.
As a result parents and carers said there was a lack of confidence and dissatisfaction in the local area’s ability to have their child’s needs assessed quickly and effectively.
The report does, however, highlight improvements in recent months, with the leadership of the clinical commissioning group having been strengthened since April.
SGC’s recent changes to the cabinet structure was also praised as offering oversight of safeguarding with the number of complaints reducing.
The report added that the pace of change to improve and develop provision and services for young people with SEND, as well as integrating health services, are improving, but both could be improved further.
But overall, the inspection raised "significant concerns about the effectiveness of the local area". As a result, Ofsted have demanded South Gloucestershire Council to provide a written statement of action, explaining how they will tackle the numerous weaknesses.
Cllr Jon Hunt
Cllr Jon Hunt, SGC cabinet member responsible for children and young people, said: “We fully accept the overall findings of the report, which highlights many strengths to build on and recognises the progress made in improving services and outcomes for children and young people with SEND, particularly in recent months.”
He said that in order to better meet the needs of these children, they had setting a body to “drive positive change”.
“We are already working closely with our NHS partners and education settings to bring about rapid improvements to the outcomes for children and young people with SEND and their families.”
Anne Morris
Anne Morris, director of nursing and quality for Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire CCGs, said they had already taken action in many of the areas, including waiting times in key therapeutic services, and investment in a waiting list initiative to reduce waiting times for assessment of children who may have Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
She said: “Services for young people with special educational needs and disabilities are among our top priorities.
“We look forward to working with our partners in South Gloucestershire Council and community health providers to implement our agreed service development and improvement plan, improve South Gloucestershire SEND services and provide the highest quality care for children and their families.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here