Ofsted’s Annual Report (2018/19) has a whole section on SEND

Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s Chief Inspector, launched the Annual Report on 21st January.

The report makes interesting reading. There is a whole section on SEND (pp.85 – 90) which raises several points:

• There are problems accessing the right education and support. This is partly due to the increase in the number of children and young people with an Education, Health and Care Plan, 3,500 of whom were waiting for provision (at January 2019)
• Pupils with SEND are five times more likely to be permanently excluded from mainstream schools than those without SEND; for over half of these pupils, SEMH was recorded as their primary need at the time of exclusion
• Half of local areas inspected in Area SEND Inspections have been required to produce a written statement of action, an indication of significant weaknesses. This picture is particularly poor in unitary authorities and metropolitan districts. Weak features in areas with a written statement of action include joint commissioning, the health component of EHCPs, the local offer, and co-production

Amanda Spielman also commented in her speech, ‘there are problems both with the over-identification of some kinds of SEND in some places and under-identification in others.’

Ofsted welcome the DfE’s current review of the SEND system with is ‘very much needed’, and they are contributing their knowledge and expertise to it.