Local Area SEND inspection: Outcomes

Ofsted and CQC Area SEND Inspection

Wakefield had their Area SEND inspection by Ofsted and CQC in March 2024. The inspection considered the arrangements of the Area Partnership for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities and those who attend alternative provision.

Inspection Outcome

The local area partnership’s arrangements typically lead to positive experiences and outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

The next full area SEND inspection will be within 5 years.

Read the full report online: 50253460 (ofsted.gov.uk)

The local area partnership is taking action where improvements are needed:

The local area partnership should strengthen its work to further address access to, and waiting times in, community clinics for speech and language therapy, specialist CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental health Services) and neurodevelopmental assessment pathways.
The local area partnership should strengthen the contribution from health and social care to transition to adulthood planning within the EHC plan process.

The SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Inspection Plan has been developed collaboratively between education, health and adult social care in response to the recommendations from the recent SEND and AP inspection report. The plan is owned collectively by the local area partnership. The actions will be reviewed through the SEND and Alternative Provision Board.

Download the full SEND and AP Inspection plan 2024.

The local area partnership should strengthen its work to further address access to, and waiting times in, community clinics for speech and language therapy, specialist CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental health Services) and neurodevelopmental assessment pathways.

Rec.1	Actions to be taken	Performance Measure	Outcome	Owner	Timescale
1.1	Remodel speech and language therapy (SALT) pathways to reduce waits for community clinics and ensure resources are aligned to demand. This will form part of the wider review of SALT pathways.	Waiting times are reduced to 18 weeks across all SALT pathways.	Children and young people receive the speech, language, and communication support they need at the right time.	Jenna Hulme	April 2026
1.2a	Increase capacity in the neurodevelopmental assessment pathway by increasing the number of clinicians, and by making the pathway more efficient to ensure support and signposting provided whilst waiting for assessment.	Waiting times for a diagnostic outcome on Autism and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) pathways show a downward trajectory	Children and young people who are neurodiverse, and their families have a positive experience of the support provided whilst on the pathway.	Jo Rooney	Sept 2025

1.2b	Build capacity in the neurodevelopmental pathway to provide support and information whilst waiting for a formal assessment.	Waiting times for a diagnostic outcome on Autism and ADHD pathways show a downward trajectory.	Children and young people who are neurodiverse, and their families have a positive experience of the support provided whilst on the pathway.	Jo Rooney	Sept 2025
1.3a	Increase capacity within specialist CAMHS pathways improved workforce planning, investment in key pathways and smoother navigation between offers of support and treatment.	Waiting times are reduced to 18 weeks (baseline: 54).	Children and young people will have their needs met and identified at the earliest opportunity.	Chloe Sennitt and Lou Jones	April 2025
1.3b	Ensure that children and young people’s mental health needs are assessed and matched with the right service offer from CAMHS.	Waiting times are reduced to 18 weeks (baseline: 54).	Children and young will have had intervention elsewhere in the CAMHS service prior to receiving specialised or longer-term interventions.	Chloe Sennitt and Lou Jones	April 2025
1.4	Develop a performance dashboard for the Children’s Alliance to provide dynamic information that will improve visibility of waiting times and service delivery across the children’s health and wellbeing system.	Monthly Children’s Alliance dashboard is populated with up-to-date data.	Children’s Alliance is able to provide support and challenge to improve the quality of	Jenny Lingrell	April 2025

Prioritise visibility of speech, language and communication pathways, neuro- developmental pathways and CAMHS pathways.

experience for children and young people.

The local area partnership should strengthen the contribution from health and social care to transition to adulthood planning within the Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP) process.

Rec.2	Actions to be taken	Performance measure	Outcome	Owner	timescale
2.1	Health to develop appropriate pathways for support in preparing for adulthood. This will include considering what is available through ICB (Integrated Care Board)/ NHS and wider community services.	Clear pathways for support are available, and easily understood by young people, families and professionals.	The transition between service and through stages of life will be smoother, and young people will not experience a cliff edge in support.	Jenny Lingrell	Sept 26
2.2	Targeted training to be developed for health practitioners to ensure health advice and plans are forward looking and considers needs into adulthood.	All practitioners will understand the importance of PfA, and it will become standard practice to forward plan for transitions and PfA.	Young people and families will be able to expect that all professionals work together to support them to plan for their future.	Jenny Lingrell	Sept 25
2.3	Deliver PfA focussed outcomes training for officers, schools, settings, and other stakeholders	Through strengthening PfA outcomes this will ensure the needs and provision are	Better quality, PfA focussed outcomes in EHCPs. Increases in young people moving towards	Jacqui Dundas	July 25

		focused on meeting the outcomes.	outcomes (e.g., employment/ independent living) when they finish their education
2.4	Targeted training to be developed for social care managers and practitioners to ensure skills for living and PfA is embedded in plans and that this is also used as advice to update EHCP.	All practitioners will understand the importance of PfA, and it will become standard practice to forward plan for transitions and PfA.	Young people and families will be able to expect that all professionals work together to support them to plan for their future.	Jacqui Dundas	Jan 25
2.5	Performance report and data set to be developed to track the progress linked to this priority action.	Target of 80% of all EHCPs will have PfA embedded from Y9 annual review, to include health and social care needs, provision, and outcomes where appropriate.	The quality of EHCPs will improve to support young people into adulthood, with clear outcomes related to aspirations.	Susan Gillan and Jacqui Dundas	Jan 25

Last updated: 16/10/2024