Ofsted’s chief inspector has said he expects the watchdog’s to change after the government sets out its plans for reform of special educational needs and disabilities support.
Sir Martyn Oliver told the Association of Directors of Children’s Services’ annual conference today that he expects these inspections will change in response to the SEND reforms due to be announced this autumn.
Ofsted carries out SEND area checks with the Care Quality Commission to inspect local services for children and young people with SEND, including schools.
It recently finished a and has published a to date.
As a result of this, Ofsted has already introduced a number of changes, including increasing the amount of time inspectors have for follow-up monitoring inspections and simplifying the data sought from local authorities.
SEND inspections to be changed again
But Sir Martyn said he anticipated that this inspection system will be changed again as a result of new government SEND policies.
Ministers have said they will set out their vision for SEND support in a White Paper after the summer.
At the conference in Manchester, council directors questioned the chief inspector about the point of area SEND inspections and warned that local authorities were being judged for a system despite elements of it not being within their control.
During a question and answer session with Sir Martyn, one delegate questioned the value of these inspections: he told the chief inspector that they were “inspecting a system that does not work” and covering areas for which councils are not accountable.
Colin Pettigrew, executive director for children and families at Nottinghamshire County Council, said that although area SEND inspections look at education and health, young people with SEND are not a priority for health authorities.
He said: “Sir Martyn, you made the point about being happy to be held accountable for things you are responsible for. I can’t be held responsible for an area’s SEND system when the Integrated Care Board is focused on over-85s and bed blocking.”
‘Not good enough’
On the value of area SEND inspections, Sir Martyn said it was important that Ofsted fulfilled its responsibility. He also said that the SEND system is not working.
He indicated that councils and parents have also been saying the same thing, adding: “It is only because collectively, with the enforcement of Ofsted saying it is not good enough, we now have a government saying we need to focus on it.”
In its recent on area SEND inspection findings, Ofsted said that since the inspection framework launched two years ago, 54 local areas had been inspected and 14 (26 per cent) given the lowest rating - having “widespread and/or systemic failings” that needed to be addressed urgently.
Ofsted and the CQC also found that local-area SEND arrangements “lead to inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND” in 26 areas (48 per cent).
Another 14 areas were given the highest rating, where inspectors deemed that arrangements “typically lead to positive experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND”.
Ofsted has also said that it is considering creating a national team to lead on SEND inspections.
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