Surveys
A huge thank you to everyone who shared the parent carer survey, and to everyone who answered the questions.
A whopping 2,234 parent carers responded, as well as 372 children and young people, and 751 practitioners. This is a powerful response rate, and the inspectors assure us that every single text box gets read.
The surveys are the only way in the inspection framework for families to have their say directly to the inspectors, so they are obviously a really important part of the process.
ESPCF meeting with Ofsted – 14th November 2024
On Thursday 14th November, members of the ESPCF steering group who represent our partner groups and organisations met with the lead inspectors from the Ofsted and CQC team.
ESPCF had already submitted lots of documents (see below) sharing parent carer feedback, but this was an opportunity to really “put the flesh on the bones” as the inspector described it, and tell the story of what it is like for families with children and young people with SEND across East Sussex – the good, the bad and everything in between.
We only had an hour (although the inspectors kindly gave us a bit more time) so we had to stick to a small number of key issues.
We talked about:
- Complex health needs, physical disabilities and/or learning disabilities
- Mental health
- Therapies, such as speech and language
- Support (or lack of) in mainstream schools
- Education, health, and care plans (EHCPs)
- How services listen to families
The inspectors listened to what we had to say and asked questions around some of the specific issues . We felt they left with a good picture of families’ experiences, as well as ESPCF’s experiences as a collective organisation trying to work with services to bring about improvements, and some of the ongoing challenges for both aspects.
A huge thank you to our steering group members who joined Holly (ESPCF chair) and Becky (ESPCF comms & admin) for doing a remarkable job of representing life for SEND families in East Sussex:
- Jo from East Sussex EHCP Experiences/Impact
- Marie from Amaze Parent Support Groups & Befriending
- Anna from Holding Space
- Helen from T21 Friends
What else have we been doing?
Documents
We’ve got paperwork coming out of our ears! ESPCF has submitted a 55-page document to inspectors, which summarises the main themes and issues drawn from parent carer feedback. Alongside this were 17 supporting documents evidencing parent carer feedback and experiences.
We have also submitted a 13-page co-production and involvement report, which outlines some of the successes and challenges of how ESPCF has been involved in various strategic and operational work with East Sussex County Council and/or NHS Sussex.
Other meetings with inspectors
Context setting
Holly, ESPCF chair, was involved in a brief ‘context setting’ presentation to all five of the inspectors, alongside Carolyn Fair, (East Sussex County Council Director of Children’s Services) and Dr James Ramsey (Chief Medical Officer and executive lead for SEND at NHS Sussex). This included factual scene setting, such as numbers of children and young people, and different geographical demographics.
It also touched on the top three issues ESPCF hears about: complex systems and the battles for support; education, particularly the lack of consistent support in mainstream schools; and waiting times for neurodevelopmental assessments and mental health support. Carolyn and James outlined the ongoing work by services that they believe is addressing these issues.
This meeting was immediately before ESPCF’s meeting with the inspectors, mentioned above, which was the more appropriate time for the forum to dig into these issues in more detail.
Self-assessment meeting
The ESPCF chair was also invited to a meeting with all of the inspectors to discuss the self assessment information submitted by ESCC and NHS Sussex in which they identify their strengths and areas for development against the inspection evaluation criteria. There were lots of people in the room – various directors, managers, and leads from a range of different services, with lots of talking about what they are trying to do to make improvements across the system.
ESPCF did manage to raise some of the ongoing challenges and barriers for families. This included access to mental health support and that the information and support offered whilst waiting, such as CAMHS webinars, are not as helpful as families want or need. Often, by the time families reach the top of a waiting list, needs have escalated and the support offered is no longer sufficient or appropriate.
Anything else?
Telephone calls between the ESPCF chair and ESCC senior managers have been arranged. These calls are for the forum to hear updates about meetings between the local authority and the inspectors at the end of the day (which ESPCF were not invited to go to ourselves).
The calls are helpful in giving us an idea of what the inspectors are planning on looking at in more detail – although at the moment it’s been very broad.
Other than that, we’re not expecting to be directly involved in anything else. The inspection framework is quite tight, and we understand numbers are kept quite small and specific to leads who are directly responsible for whichever aspect is being looked at.
What next?
After such a full-on couple of weeks of pulling all of our documents together, and preparing for meetings, it almost feels a bit uneasy now – like there’s more we want to be able to do! It’s never clear how much parent carer feedback influences the outcome of inspections, or whether it may just influence the elements they dig deeper into (the ‘key lines of enquiry’). Ultimately, it’s all out of our hands.
What are the possible outcomes?
These local area SEND inspections aren’t rated in the same way as schools and settings are – there’s not the same outstanding/ good/ requires improvement/ inadequate outcomes as used to be the case. Instead, the local area will be given one of the following three outcomes:
- The local area partnership’s SEND arrangements typically lead to positive experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND. The local area partnership is taking action where improvements are needed.
- The local area partnership’s arrangements lead to inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND. The local area partnership must work jointly to make improvements.
- There are widespread and/or systemic failings leading to significant concerns about the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with SEND, which the local area partnership must address urgently.
We hope that the inspection outcome for East Sussex is reflective of families’ experiences. And regardless of the outcome, ESPCF will continue to try to work with services to bring improvements for families.