County Council apologises after damning CQC report

Hertfordshire County Council have apologised after a report highlighted systemic failings in services for those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

The report was published by the Care & Quality Commission on Friday (10th November), following an inspection in July.

The report found that too many children and young people with SEND have to wait too long for their needs to be assessed and for suitable provision to be put in place to meet their needs.

The CQC also found that children and young people who are undergoing an education, health and care needs assessment too frequently experience significant delays in receiving their final plan, and that those plans are of poor quality.

A number of other areas where the partnership is effective were also identified. including:

• improving the information available to support education, health and social care practitioners to help children and families;
• working closely with parents through Herts Parent Carer Involvement (HPCI) to co-produce, review and develop our strategy;
• careers advice and guidance to prepare young people with SEND for adulthood with many in further education, training & supported employment;
• the public health nursing team works closely with families to understand and meet needs;
• developments in alternative provision are helping pupils back into mainstream education.

In response to the report the local area partnership responsible for SEND services is strengthening its existing improvement plan and a detailed priority action plan will be submitted to Ofsted and the CQC by 19 December. To ensure independent and expert oversight of the partnership’s delivery of this plan Dame Christine Lenehan has been appointed as the new chair of the partnership’s multi-agency improvement board.

This will build on actions currently being taken to improve the experience of families, and the outcomes for children and young people with SEND in Hertfordshire, some of which include:

• Increasing the budget for statutory SEND services with ongoing additional investment of £5m to improve the quality and timeliness of EHCPs by recruiting and training more staff;
• investing £91m to create 1,000 new SEND school places in specialist and mainstream schools (between 2018/9 and 2025/26);
• intensive work to improve communication and engagement with families;
• continuing to enhance our monitoring systems by making information more readily available to support the quality and timeliness of EHCPs.

Leise Cooper, Chair of Herts Parent Carer Involvement, said: "Families in Hertfordshire have long reported that services in the county are not meeting their children’s needs, and we are pleased this report recognises this and identifies areas for improvement.

"We welcome the urgency with which the local partnership is looking to address the issues raised – it is now vital to ensure that plans for improvement are delivered quickly and effectively. HPCI will continue to challenge and support the partnership to drive change and ensure that work remains focused on how these changes will improve the lives of children and young people."

Opposition councillor Nigel Bell said: "It is with regret, but sadly not unexpected, that Herts County Council have been marked down as failing in their duty to our SEND (special education needs children) in the Ofsted Inspection in July.

"As county councillors we have had more complaints from our SEND families than on any other important issue and we understand the stress they have been going through, and their frustration when they have felt they were not being listened to by the County administration."

Responding to the CQC Report, Cllr Richard Roberts, Leader of Hertfordshire County Council and Chair of the Integrated Care Partnership, said: "We accept the findings of the report and recognise too many children and young people with SEND and their families have not received the support they need and deserve. We are all, across the whole partnership, sorry for this and are taking urgent action to address the priority actions and areas for improvement.

"There are more than 36,500 children and young people identified in Hertfordshire schools as having SEND. Most children and young people with additional needs do not require an Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP) to access the support they need, as these are for those with the most complex needs, but we have seen a 185% increase in children and young people with EHCPs since 2015. We know that we’ve struggled to keep up with that increase and that’s why SEND improvement is a key priority for both the county council and local NHS.

"I am pleased inspectors recognised that we understand the issues faced by children, young people and their families in Hertfordshire and have already put in place a strong strategy to address this, including an additional ongoing £5million investment into statutory SEND services and creating 1,000 new SEND school places between 2018 and 2026.

"We're determined to build on this to go further and faster to deliver the actions and improvements needed. We recognise improving services and rebuilding trust will take time but the whole partnership will do all we can to make sure children with additional needs and their families have the right support at the right time more often."

Hertfordshire County Council and the NHS Hertfordshire and the West Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB) are responsible for planning and commissioning services to meet the needs of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, as part of the Hertfordshire Local Area Partnership. The Hertfordshire Local Area Partnership oversees the commissioning of local education, social care and health provision for children and young people with SEND.

The full report is available on the OFSTED website.