‘No surprises’ in report into special education needs and disabilities services provided by West Sussex County Council

The SEND services, provided by a partnership of the county council and the NHS Sussex Integrated Care Board, underwent an inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) late last year.

A report published in February placed the partnership at level two out of a possible three, having found ‘inconsistent experiences and outcomes’ – and said it had to improve.

During a meeting of the cabinet on Tuesday (March 12), Jacquie Russell, cabinet member for children & young people, learning and skills, said the report had been a ‘fair assessment’ of where things stood.

She added that all areas highlighted for improvement were already part of the partnership’s own improvement plan and action had been ‘under way for some time to address these areas’.

Ofsted’s report said that too many Education, Health & Care Needs Assessments were not being completed within the statutory time-scales, causing a backlog in Education, Health & Care Plans.

But Mrs Russell said: “The last four months have seen successive, albeit modest but consistent, month-on-month increases, with the end of February reporting 13.1% of plans delivered within 20 weeks.”

The budget for 2024/25, which was recently approved by the full council, included capital funding of just over £20m for the SEND sufficiency programme and just over £1m for schools access initiatives which will allow SEND children to attend mainstream schools.

A £1.6m revenue increase was also included to help with the contracting of educational psychology assessments, temporary posts within the Special Educational Needs Assessment Team to tackle the backlog of assessments, and permanent posts to meet the increased demand for assessments and plans.

Lucy Butler, director for children, young people & learning, told the meeting that, although the partnership had to report its improvement progress to the Department for Education, it was ‘not in intervention’.

Mrs Russell praised the work carried out by the teams in both the NHS and the council’s children’s services.

Given that children’s services had been rated ‘requires improvement’ overall, she said it was ‘nothing short of remarkable’ for them to ‘get us to the place we are at as a level two authority’

While acknowledging that the partnership was ‘not out of the woods’, Mrs Russell said people should be reassured by the ‘very robust SEND and Alternative Provision board’ which was in place.

She added: “It’s no surprise to me to see that we are already seeing these green shoots through the increased percentages in terms of the delivery of the Education, Health & Care Plans coming through.

“Obviously we don’t have a crystal ball but if we are staying on track and doing what we’re doing now, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have been able to overcome that backlog by October.”

The next inspection of the services is expected to be carried out within three years.