The report from the Cambridgeshire Area joint OFSTED and CQC SEND Inspection that took place in January 2025 has now been published. You can view the full report here.

We will be holding an online session to hear from Sarah Callaghan (Service Director for Education) about how they intend to address the issues raised by the inspection on FRIDAY 23rd MAY at 12pm. Book your FREE ticket here.

We have also been asked to share the following with you all from Cambridgeshire County Council:

I would like to share with you the headline findings from the recent Ofsted/Care Quality Commission Area SEND Inspection of Cambridgeshire’s SEND and Alternative Provision services, which took place in January 2025.

The County Council and the NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care Board (ICB), as part of the Cambridgeshire Area SEND Partnership, are jointly responsible for the planning and commissioning of services for children and young people with SEND in the county.  Following the inspection, the partnership has been given the middle rating of three possible outcomes by the inspectors from Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC). 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 Inspectors’ report highlights several areas of good practice, including:

• ‘A clear and coherent strategy to support children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) in Cambridgeshire is already starting to see some positive impacts.’
• ‘Recent leadership appointments have created more stability, after some changes due to reorganisation of how the local authority manages and delivers its SEND services. This creates the capacity to improve provision.’
• The report also highlighted the strong relationships across the partnership with the children and young people who are supported:
• ‘Across the area, many professionals work effectively to meet children and young people’s needs successfully. Many children and young people with SEND praise the support they receive from staff in schools. Health, wheelchair and equipment services provide timely support. Occupational therapy and physiotherapy services are comprehensive and effective, with professionals going above and beyond to meet needs.’

Inspectors also found that:

• ‘Children and young people often have their health needs promptly assessed and supported. For example, the healthy child programme and health visits identify needs early on, including antenatally. Waiting times for many health services are appropriate.’

The report also included a positive endorsement for ‘Inclusion for All’, the council’s partnership plan to drive better outcomes for all children and young people, for focusing on the key priority areas for improvement. Taking this approach ensures the partnership identifies and meets individual needs earlier, enables children to stay in mainstream education and creates a more financially sustainable system where all children can thrive and feel they belong, are wanted and cared about.

The report makes five recommendations for improvement:

1.  The local area partnership should work together to improve the timeliness and quality of the statutory Education Health and Care (EHC) plan processes so that children and young people with SEND get the right support at the right time. This should include a particular focus on:
   A. Improving the timeliness of EHC plan needs assessments and annual reviews;
   B. Improving the quality of EHC plans;
   C. Amending EHC plans appropriately after annual review.
2. The local area partnership should improve access to, and reduce waiting times for, specialist mental health pathways and neurodevelopmental assessments. Leaders should ensure that children and young people and their families consistently receive effective communication and support while waiting for neurodevelopmental assessments.
3. The local area partnership should develop better opportunities for co-production with children and young people with SEND, so their voices and views are more fully included in the design of support and services.
4. The local area partnership should improve the support for children and young people with SEND as they prepare for adulthood, especially in mainstream schools.
5. The local area partnership should improve how it communicates its offer, so that schools, services and families know about and understand what the area seeks to provide. This will mean those who work most closely with children and young people with SEND will be better able to help them access the support available.

We’ve already taken some steps to address these and are now working on a detailed strategic action plan to drive the work of the Local Area Inclusion Partnership to improve the experiences and outcomes for all children and young people with SEND in Cambridgeshire. I will share the final version of the Strategic Action Plan with you all. We are required to publish the plan 35 working days from the date we received the pre publication inspection report (6 May 2025).

We can expect to be inspected again in respect of Area SEND approximately three years from this inspection.

The full inspection report can be found by clicking on this link.

NSPCC are delivering online safety sessions to help you to keep your children safe. This will empower you to guide children as they explore their online world and will cover topics such as cyberbullying, social media, sharing images, gaming and more.

Thursday 12th December 12pm

Tuesday 21st January 6pm

Monday 17th February 6pm

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