In May, the inspection team released a report which outlined their findings. You can see the full report on the Ofsted website.
They identified a number of areas of strength in SEND practice in Milton Keynes including:
- Ambitious leaders who know the area well and lead with a strong moral imperative
- A local commitment to early identification and intervention
- Active engagement with families and effective examples of co-production
- A broad and deep commitment to inclusion in our local schools, well supported by the local authority
- Suitable support for children unable to attend school and moving into the area
- Timely assessments and intervention from occupational therapy and physiotherapy, and effective speech and language therapy services for the early years
- Helpful support from mental health services through the ‘Single Point of Access’ .
The overall outcome of the inspection was identified as ‘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)’.
Alongside the areas of strength, the report identified 5 areas for improvement. These are:
Strategic use of data
The local area partnership needs to strengthen its strategic evaluation and oversight for children and young people with SEND. This includes the strategic use of data to understand children and young people’s needs and how this will inform the partnership’s work in the future.
Multi-agency working to support identification, assessment & meeting need
The local area partnership should strengthen multi-agency working between education, health and social care. This is to ensure that children and young people’s needs are identified, assessed and met in a more efficient and timely manner.
Gaps and delays in some health services
Health leaders should further address gaps and delays in some health services to improve early identification and support for children and young people with SEND. This includes the Healthy Child Programme, mental health and speech and language therapy (SALT).
Quality and value of EHC plans
The local area partnership should improve the quality of EHC plans so that they are fully valued by all agencies to better drive the provision offered by practitioners across education, health and care.
Coproduction and voice of children, young people and families
The local area partnership should ensure that the voice of children and young people and families is central to the EHC planning process, through improved co production to more widely influence the work of the partnership.
