Inspecting special educational needs and disability (SEND) provision – how will yours shape up?

How well do you identify and meet the needs of students with special educational needs – those with and those without education, health and care (EHC) plans? Are you using your ‘best endeavours’ to identify and meet the needs of these young people? Did you know that a new form of inspection begins in May 2016?

Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is a wide spectrum covering students with profound learning or physical disabilities on one hand, to those with Asperger’s or social, emotional or mental health difficulties on the other.

The SEND reforms introduced new legal duties from September 2014. These required FE colleges, sixth form colleges, independent specialist colleges, schools, school sixth forms and 16 – 19 academies to plan and deliver high quality, outcome-focussed provision for young people with disabilities and learning difficulties.

The Code of Practice to the SEND reforms states that colleges must use their ‘best endeavours’ for ANY student with a disability or learning difficulty (with or without an EHC Plan). Remember that colleges have a legal duty to have ‘due regard to’ the Code of Practice to the duties. The Code of Practice also states that colleges ‘should be aware of effective practice in the sector and personalise it for individuals.

From May 2016, inspectors will evaluate, for the first time, how well local authorities, schools, FE colleges and health services identify the needs of young people with SEND, and how well they provide services to meet those needs. The intention is for these inspections to act as a catalyst for improvement, to help ensure young people benefit from the high quality services to which they are entitled.

Inspection teams will usually consist of a SEND specialist HMI from Ofsted, a Children’s services inspector from the Care Quality Commission and a specially recruited and trained SEND Ofsted inspector from another local authority. Organisations will have two working days’ notice before an inspection starts and inspection will normally last for five days. The inspection team will visit schools and further educational providers as well as meeting managers and leaders from the area’s education, health and social care services. They will talk to young peple with special educational needs and disabilities and their parents. They will evaluate how well provision meets the needs of young people – those with EHC plans but also young people whose SEND are not severe enough to require an EHC plan. Inspectors will want to see evidence that young people are progressing well to their next stage of education or employment. They will explore how the local area fulfils its responsibilities and how providers contribute to these, to ensure young people with special educational needs and disabilities are identified and that their needs are met and their outcomes improve.

Charlie Henry, Ofsted lead on special education needs, says ‘I am optimistic that this new way of inspection will help to bring about a cultural change whereby children and young people with special educational needs really do get the services they need to be as independent as they can.’

You can download the consultation document here.

The consultation closes on 4 January 2016