Torbay schools leading to inequality for children with extra needs

Council to address damning report

Torbay Council and local health bosses are preparing to submit a plan on how to improve Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) services following a damming government report on its performance.

In November last year, the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found “significant areas of weakness” in Torbay’s SEND services. 

It demanded that Torbay Council, alongside NHS Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), complete a ‘written statement of action’, outlining their plans to improve SEND services.

The statement, due by Thursday 14 April, must be submitted to and approved by the Department for Education.

Ofsted’s report, published in January, found that Torbay Council and the CCG were well behind implementing the SEND reforms set out in the Children and Families Act 2014.

These reforms are aimed at creating a more joined-up system between local councils and the NHS to improve education, health and care services for children with special educational needs and disabilities. 

For their report, inspectors spoke with children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities, parents and carers, as well as local authority and NHS officers, including staff from the CCG. 

Ofsted found that leaders in the area weren’t working together sufficiently and  there was a “lack of joint working between services to tackle the issues with the pace of change that is needed.”

It found that children and parents are not being consulted enough and that: “the views of parents and carers are often treated as trivial in the decisions that are made about their children and young people.”

The report continued: “Although this is not universal and there are pockets of strong practice, many parents feel that they are kept at arm’s length by area leaders.”

Inspectors said a lack of central leadership over many years: “has led to an entrenched culture among services to solve the challenges they face on their own,” leading to inequality and uneven access to services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

The report says some schools show: “a lack of commitment to the reforms” and a lack of joined-up thinking between education, health and care plans.  

One of the major implications of this, Ofsted says, has been that too many SEND pupils are being excluded from school because of “a lack of timeliness in identifying the needs of children and young people.”

Inspectors found that a significant number of pupils are going through Torbay’s schools: “without their needs being properly understood or met,” impacting some children’s self-esteem and leading to challenging behaviours. 

Another issue is a lack of support for SEND children as they reach adulthood. Ofsted reported that many parents had to look outside of the Bay for appropriate services, particularly as children turned 20.  It said that some families“find themselves in a void” with insufficient support at this point.

The report concluded: “There is now much greater stability in children’s services and better working between the local authority and the CCG.

“However, the lateness in starting to implement the reforms, combined with large challenges such as the variability across the system and entrenched cultural issues, mean that there is a significant amount for leaders to do.”

Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Torbay Council leader Steve Darling (Lib Dems, Barton with Watcombe), who is registered blind, said: “it’s something that’s very close to my heart.”

He wants to make sure: “that those who have challenges in their lives are achieving their full potential.”

The director of children’s services, alongside the cabinet member for children’s services, Councillor Cordelia Law (Lib Dems, Tormohun) will now sign off a final version of a statement of action before it is submitted. 

This written statement, which contains details of how the council and the CCG intend to improve services, cannot be made public until the Department of Education approves it.