The report of the Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection of East Sussex SEND services and support has been published today.
Inspection outcome
The local area partnership’s arrangements lead to inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The local area partnership must work jointly to make improvements.
The next full area SEND inspection will be within approximately 3 years.
Ofsted and CQC ask that the local area partnership updates and publishes its strategic plan based on the recommendations set out in this report.
The ESPCF steering group will be considering the report when it meets later this month and hopes to respond more fully at that point. ESPCF will also be publishing the documents it submitted to Ofsted during the inspection, highlighting the main issues and themes from parent carer feedback.
Joint statement from East Sussex County Council, NHS Sussex ICB and East Sussex Parent Carer Forum
We welcome the findings of the report for the Area SEND inspection of East Sussex which has now been published.
The report recognises our ambition to improve the lived experiences and the outcomes for children and young people with SEND. It highlights the areas where there is good practice and the progress that we are making. It also sets out the areas where we need to do more and identifies four key areas for improvement. Over the next couple of months, we will be updating our SEND strategy to ensure that we have actions in place to address these areas.
We understand that families’ experience of the SEND system in East Sussex is variable and that outcomes are not yet consistently good. We are committed to working together to make these improvements and to ensure that we meet the needs of all our children and young people with SEND.
We would like to thank all the families that completed surveys and participated in the inspection, and the contributions and representation from East Sussex Parent Carer Forum. We understand the strength of feeling and difficulties that those navigating the SEND system can experience. We will continue working together to improve our services and support for all children and young people with SEND and their families.