“Too many parents remain highly dissatisfied” Derbyshire SEND services still below national standard, Ofsted says - while first improvements welcome

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited Derbyshire at the end of September to determine whether sufficient progress has been made to improve local SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) services.

This comes after an improvement notice was issued following a disastrous Ofsted inspection carried out in September 2024, when ‘systemic failings’ were identified at the Derbyshire County Council SEND services.

A local area partnership, consisting of NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board and partners across education, health and care services, was established to help improve the services.

Six areas for priority action have been identified after the inspection with the local area partnership given two years to carry out the changes.

An Ofsted report published on Thursday, November 12, has revealed that while local area partnership has taken ‘effective action’ to address four of the areas, it failed to address the remaining two.

One of the areas, where the council failed to comply with the requirements, was improving communication with parents and other stakeholders.

The report has found that while ‘some important aspects of communication’ have improved, families and schools ‘have not experienced enough improvement in the partnership’s communications with them’.

The report reads: “Too many parents remain highly dissatisfied with the partnership’s communication and support.

“Numbers of complaints are still high. Many of these relate to the lack of effective communication, particularly about EHC needs assessments.

“Some school leaders say that when they face challenges in SEND provision, communication from the partnership is poor.

“This exacerbates frustrations they experience when help is lacking.”

Another area where Derbyshire County Council has failed to take ‘effective action’ was SEND needs assessment - and meeting children’s needs ‘jointly and accurately’.

While some changes been made to improve the timeliness of the EHCPs (Education and Healthcare Plans), inspectors found that this was still below the national average with children and young adults till waiting ‘too long’ for their assessment.

‘More than half’ of annual reviews were not completed within required timeframes, the report said.

Further concerns have been raised after inspectors found that ‘plans do not have the information they should about health and social care’.

While inspectors noted that professionals often specified required support, this information was ‘not accurately included in the plan’.

Additionally, plans were ‘not routinely amended accurately following annual reviews’.

This means plans frequently had out-of-date information that no longer applied to the child or young person, the report states.

Inspectors have however found that Derbyshire local area partnership made ‘effective’ improvements in four other areas inspected.

The local area partnership has developed a ‘new, well-considered strategy’ to support children and young people with SEND, the report found.

While this is a step in the right direction, inspectors noted that further improvements were needed to support children and young people with SEND in the future.

Ofsted noted that there was ‘beginning’ of ‘some improvement in the experiences and outcomes’ of children and young people with SEND who are out of school.

Health leaders have taken ‘successful action’ since the last inspection to address waiting times - and in ‘most aspects, community paediatricians now offer timely assessment’, the report has found.

More capacity has been added to mental health pathway as well, reducing waiting lists.

The numbers of SEND pupils who are suspended or absent have fallen from a ‘very high level at the time of the previous inspection’.

The partnership has also delivered a lot of training for school SENCos, helping schools to understand more clearly when and how to begin to formally assess children and young people’s needs.

The partnership has been further praised for increasing the availability of specialist provision and the ‘right support is more often in place at the right time’.

The Derbyshire area SEND Partnership will now update its plan to address the new findings.

Executive Director of Children’s Services at Derbyshire County Council Jenny Lingrell said: "We welcome the recognition from inspectors that effective action has been taken in 4 of the 6 priority areas identified in 2024. This reflects the hard work of staff and partners across education, health and social care who have been committed to improving services for children and young people with SEND.

"At the same time we fully accept that there are still areas where children, young people and families are not receiving the service they deserve. We are sorry that some families continue to experience delays in assessments, frustrations with EHCP processes and poor communication.

"While we have made good progress in areas such as strengthening our SEND strategy, improving joint working, increasing specialist provision and reducing waiting times in some health services, we know there is more to do.

“Our focus now is on building on the progress we’ve made, listening carefully to the experiences of families and ensuring that improvements are felt consistently by children, young people and their families across the county.

"We remain committed to working alongside parents, carers, schools, health colleagues and Derbyshire Parent Carer Voice to deliver positive outcomes for children in Derbyshire.”

Jo Hunter, Director of Quality, Safeguarding, Continuing Healthcare and Partnerships at NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board, added: "The report acknowledges important improvements including shorter waiting times in several health services, expanded mental health support and better access to help for children and young people with neurodevelopmental needs.

"However, we recognise that some waiting times remain too long, particularly for some specialist services and we understand the impact this can have on children, young people and their families. We apologise to those who continue to face these challenges.

"Our focus remains on improving access to timely support, reducing waiting times wherever possible and ensuring families receive the information and communication they need throughout their journey."

Sam Gaunt, Chair of Derbyshire Parent Carer Voice, said: “We welcome the recognition that improvements have been made across several areas of the Derbyshire SEND system and acknowledge the commitment shown by partners to address the areas identified during the 2024 inspection. We have seen positive developments in partnership working and a greater focus on the needs of children and young people with SEND.

”However, many parent carers continue to tell us that they face significant challenges navigating the SEND system and that the improvements being made at a strategic level are not always being consistently experienced by families. Delays, communication issues and difficulties accessing support remain a reality for many.

”As Derbyshire moves into the next phase of its improvement journey, we hope to see a stronger focus on meaningful co-production with children, young people and families, alongside clearer communication and greater transparency. We remain hopeful that by working together we can ensure improvements are not only made, but are felt by families across Derbyshire."