Apologetic Derbyshire council education chief outlines SEND plans after damning Ofsted report

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission published a report on November 14 stating the Derbyshire Local Area Partnership – including the county council – needs to improve the effectiveness of local education, health and care services to identify and meet the needs of children and youngsters with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities aged up to 25.

It identified what it described as ‘widespread and or systemic failings’ in the council’s SEND provision with a significant number of families reporting being in crisis and feeling their requests for help are being ignored.

The partnership – which plans, delivers and commissions services and includes the NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board – has been working to address criticism that youngsters have been waiting too long for education and health assessments, have been missing school and have been waiting for specialist health support amid poor communication with parents.

Cllr Alex Dale, Cabinet Member for Education, said: “We are sorry to all families and young people who have been affected by what we are facing in Derbyshire.

“It is not just a Derbyshire issue. It is a national issue but there is no excuse for not trying to get it right in Derbyshire.

“We have recognised for quite a while now that we know we are not where we need to be and we need to work towards improving these things.”

The report’s findings followed an inspection in September and were released on November 14 after the National Audit Office stated in its own report that Government steps would not be enough to address many SEND challenges faced by local authorities nationwide and it also stressed the national SEND system is financially ‘unsustainable’, in ‘urgent need of reform’ and is ‘broken’.

However, the Ofsted and CQC report found the Derbyshire partnership board had left parents and carers waiting more than two years in many cases for children’s needs to be assessed and Education, Health and Care Plans were slow and often inaccurate without health or social care professionals’ contributions meaning children could either go to school without sufficient support or even remain out of school.

Cllr Dale said: “We are extremely sorry for any parents in that situation. It’s a key priority and we need to urgently address that issue as much as we can. They have said the additional investment in special school places is not going to be quite enough to deal with this issue.

“It’s an issue we are eager to resolve as quickly as we can and it’s a complex issue and sometimes it’s about looking at available places and agreement of where that child can be placed.

“Being in a rural environment has an impact. Transport to school makes it challenging, but parents quite rightly expect their children to be taught in a school environment and we are pushing very hard to deliver that.”

Cllr Dale said the authority is trying to improve effectiveness, services and assessments, as well as the way the partnership identifies needs with plans for more staff and school placements and alternative provision.

Derbyshire County Council’s timeliness and efficiency for assessments completed within a 20 week timeline stood at 2.6per cent in November, 2022, according to the council, but the authority’s latest figures stand at 48per cent from May, 2024, just shy of the national average of 50.3per cent for other authorities.

And while not searching for an excuse, Cllr Dale pointed out the number of EHCPs has doubled and the council is facing a huge rise in demand and requests for SEND services like many other councils across the country and this is a national issue.

However, the council has introduced a digital case management system called iDOX to improve efficiency with children’s EHCP assessments and communication between the council, families, schools, health and other agencies.

Cllr Dale explained iDOX will be accessible to all professionals and parents so everyone can see what is planned in the system which will streamline a huge volume of time-consuming enquiries to allow experts to focus on more complex enquiries and be more efficient.

This technology is part of a £1m investment the council recently made in its SEND service with a redesign, a new team set-up, additional staff and SEND officers with an increased number of educational psychologists and specialist training under a structure designed to handle assessments in record time.

The council has also invested £11m to create 500 additional special needs school places across the county and it has also remodelled other services within its schools and learning service to develop the inclusive capacity of mainstream schools and set up an SEND Coordinator Network and an SENDCo Helpline.

Cllr Dale said: “There has been a lot of activity with improvements with software and communications and more special school places.”

The council is also working more on inclusion with mainstream schools taking SEND youngsters to support the service as the Government plans to introduce a more qualitative and subjective report card system instead of one based on academic attainment and exam results which can discourage school involvement.

A new inclusion support service will mean every single school in Derbyshire will be offered an inclusion support teacher for 22 days a year to share best practice and to help schools.

Cllr Dale said: “There will always be children who cannot be taught in a mainstream setting but it’s absolutely right that we try and make that work to achieve their full potential;.”

He added: “Schools have an extremely challenging role to play and they are valued partners in trying to improve and the apology we have made to children and families we extend to schools also.”

Cllr Dale said the council, health partners and schools have a role to play and more needs to be done to identify needs earlier and reduce pressure on the the system to address the number of EHCPs while working towards a more consistent approach across the county.

He added: “It’s unfair to say there is no partnership working. There are good relationships with health colleagues and the county council. The key message needs to be the golden thread so when we identify need and meeting need – it needs to be better done jointly.”

Cllr Dale said: “There are foundations for what can be a strong partnership but the challenge of all organisations is to put that at the very core.”

The council’s Cabinet Member for Education is also the chairperson of the f40 group which is across party group set up by the lowest funded councils for education in England with the aim of securing fairer funding for schools and SEND.

It has identified with education unions and others a need for £4.6bn of Government funding to support the system.

Cllr Dale described the Government’s recently announced £1bn uplift for SEND services as a ‘drop in the ocean’ and he argued that not just funding but Government reform is needed with more clarity, school accountability and a better regulated independent sector.

The recent NAO report has also warned that two-fifths of councils could be at risk of declaring bankruptcy by March, 2026, because they are overspending on higher-needs budgets.

Concerning SEND, Cllr Dale said: “It is an absolute number one priority for the council, not for the bankruptcy reason, but because we do not want to be in a position with widespread and systemic failures in the council because we want families to feel they do not have such a challenge in accessing the services they need. Health and schools need to recognise we need to work together to do this better.”

Cllr Dale added: “I am a great believer in ‘control what we can control’ and we have to try and deliver the best possible services we can in Derbyshire.

“My focus for the last couple of years is how to get the system improving. We have done a lot with improving timeliness, restructuring services to make them more efficient, putting additional staff in place, introducing new software and delivering more special places.

“I think it’s important to build on that and what we have done. I feel I am fired-up to drive and work towards working with the teams to improve.”

NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board Chief Nurse Professor Dean Howells has also apologised on behalf of the Derbyshire Local Area Partnership for identified failings and that the NHS board is determined to address these issues with the council.

Cllr Dale said: “I want to offer a profound apology to children and families who have been experiencing delays or missed educational provision and support that we need to be providing.

“We fully accept the findings and we recognise the improvements that Ofsted have told us we need to make and those are all areas we have already been working on in recent years.”

A further monitoring inspection of the partnership and the Conservative-led council’s work will be carried out within approximately 18 months and the next full re-inspection will be within approximately three years.

The partnership will also be expected to prepare and submit a priority action plan.

Leader of the council’s opposition Labour Group, Cllr Joan Dixon, said she had become so concerned about the number of complaints relating to EHCPs, SEND and transport to school she had written to the council’s managing director.

She added: “The county Local Area Partnership has failed to provide adequate places in mainstream school, specialists schools or other alternative provision.

“And ultimately some parents and carers have been driven to home schooling as the only option they feel meets their child’s needs.”