Dudley Special Education Needs & Disability Improvement Programme
Children and young people with special educational needs or disabilities (or both) often receive a number of different services. These can be provided by nurseries, schools or colleges and specialist therapists, as well as professionals in education, health and social care.
Under the Children and Families Act 2014, the government placed new duties on the local health, social and education services that provide for these children and young people. The Special Educational Needs Code of Practice was updated to reflect these new duties.
In July 2019 Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission published their findings of their joint area SEND (special education needs and disabilities) inspection of services and provision that they carried out in May.
We know that every child or young person deserves the very best, but we also recognise that we do not yet deliver this on a consistent basis in Dudley. The inspectors have found a number of areas of significant weakness. But they have also identified some areas of strong practice. However we are reassured that the inspectors have echoed our self-evaluation and understanding of areas for improvement and we fully accept their findings.
The inspectors determined that a Written Statement of Action (WSoA) or action plan was required. This was submitted to Ofsted in November and approved on 20 December 2019.
Read Dudley's Local Area SEND written statement of action
We know that there is a lot to do. Alongside our WSoA we are developing a system wide improvement programme and in doing so we will work openly, honestly and closely with parents, carers and partners to ensure good provision of services for all children and young people with SEND.
We have set up a brand new programme office to oversee and drive the improvement and are currently finalising plans and governance structures.
Our improvement vision and road map sets out our how we are going to improve the Dudley area SEND offer to children and young people (up to age 25) and their families.
The partnership who are made up of made up of the council, Dudley CCG, Dudley Parent Carer Forum – Working Together for Change, NHS, health providers, schools, colleges, employers, parents & carers and children and young people have worked together to clearly articulate what as a system Dudley is doing to improve our processes, support and ultimately bring about better outcomes for children and young people with SEND.
Our road map clearly articulates a single vision, priorities and improvement actions. It also identifies what achievements the partnership have already secured and what they need to do now and in the future.
We are keen to keep you updated of developments and have committed to issuing regular programme briefing mail outs.
Read the SEND vision and road map
Read the latest Programme updates