News

Sheffield to have SEND provision inspected

5th November 2018

TAGS inspection, SEND inspection

  • From 12 to 16 November 2018, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) will visit Sheffield to find out how effectively the local area meets its responsibilities to children and young people aged 0-25 years who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

    The inspectors will investigate how well Sheffield:

    • identifies children and young people with SEND;
    • assesses and meets the needs of children and young people with SEND;
    • improves outcomes for children and young people with SEND.

    Please note:

    • This is an inspection of the Sheffield local area as a whole – including health, social care and education. Although the inspectors will visit a sample of nurseries, schools, post-16 providers and specialist services, they will not evaluate these settings individually.
    • The inspectors are not interested in anything that happened before September 2014 (as that is when the SEND reforms were implemented).
    • After the inspection, Ofsted and the CQC will publish a report, known as an “outcome letter”. If the inspectors have found areas of significant weakness, they will tell the local area to put together a written “statement of action”, setting out how it is planning to address them. The Department for Education and National Health England then checks whether the local area is doing what it has said it will do.

     How can parents submit their views to the inspectors?

    By email: You can send your comments to lasend.support@ofsted.gov.uk. The inspectors will read your comments, but they won’t be able to reply to your email or follow up on individual cases.

    Via a webinar: You can watch a pre-recorded webinar any time between now and 13 November. You can register here: http://bit.ly/LASENDSheffieldcitycouncil. The webinar consists of someone reading out 12 questions (such as “Do you believe your child’s needs have been identified effectively?”), which you can then answer by clicking on Yes, No, or Don’t know. This takes about 15 minutes. You cannot pause the webinar or scroll through it; if you are interrupted, you’ll have to watch the whole thing again from the beginning! After the webinar, you have 30 minutes to submit comments.

    By filling in our State of Sheffield survey: We have just launched a refreshed version of our State of Sheffield survey: www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/stateofsheffield The survey covers all aspects of caring for a child with SEND – education, social care, health, leisure, transition, impact on parents and siblings, work and childcare, and lots more. It is specific to Sheffield and a lot more detailed than the webinar. The survey will remain open until the 4th of January 2019, but it would be really helpful if lots of parents could fill it in now. It takes around 20 minutes to complete. You don’t have to do it in one sitting – you can close it down and come back to it the next day; your previous answers will be saved. We will share preliminary findings with the inspectors. The more parents take part NOW, the stronger the evidence will be!

    By attending an open meeting: The inspectors are holding a meeting, which will be open to ALL parents of children and young people with SEND. This will take place on Tuesday 13th November, at 11.45am-1pm. The venue is yet to be confirmed, but is likely to be within a short distance of the city centre. Please book onto the session by emailing Mbox.SENDInspection@sheffield.gov.uk. Please include the following information in your email: your name, email address, contact phone number, any access needs you have, and your child’s age and whether they are supported via SEN Support or have an Education Health and Care Plan. If you do not have access to email you can contact Alyson Whitfield on 0114 205 3386. Participants will be informed about the venue as soon as this has been confirmed. Please note that arrangements may be subject to change dependent on numbers wishing to participate.

    By attending a parents’ meeting at a setting: The inspectors will visit a number of education providers and will arrange a meeting with parents of children at the setting each time. This meeting will be for approximately 30-40 minutes in total. A letter will be sent to parents of children with SEND at that setting with the time and how to book onto this session by the setting. Please note that these sessions are only for parents of children who attend that setting. Inspectors will also meet with groups of children and young people in each of these settings.

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