There is set to be a gap of least eight months without any new area-wide inspections of services for children with special educational needs and disability (SEND) taking place because a new framework is still being worked on.
The government first asked Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to develop new SEND inspection plans more than three and half years ago.
Ofsted has now said the new framework will be implemented in 2023 but could not give Tes an exact date, which means it will be at least eight months until any new area-wide SEND inspections take place, as the current cycle of checks is due to finish this month.
SEND area inspections have helped to highlight a system in crisis, with more than half of reports to date showing weaknesses in provision in local authority areas in England, requiring a written statement of action - an indication of serious concerns.
However, the inspections carried out by Ofsted and the CQC since 2016 were only designed as a one-off check and are now due to finish without a replacement framework in place.
A leading MP has voiced concerns that there will be no new SEND area inspections carried out for the remainder of this year to hold service providers to account. However Ofsted has insisted that there will be no “accountability gap” between inspection frameworks.
The inspectorate has also revealed that it has been carrying out pilot activity to help develop these new inspections and that a consultation on the new framework will be held later this year.
Over the summer term of this year and the autumn term of the next academic year, Ofsted expects to carry out 20 return visits to local authority areas, which were told to produce written statements of action because of significant weaknesses before the Covid pandemic.
But it is unclear exactly when the new SEND area framework will be up and running in 2023.
Robert Halfon, the chair of the Commons Education Select Committee, said: ”Back in 2019, the Education Committee held one of the largest ever joint inquiries into the SEN system and called for a more rigorous inspection framework with clear consequences for failure. To hear now that change will not happen until 2023, with no certainty on when it will actually launch, is deeply frustrating.
“The lengthy delays surrounding the publication of the new SEND Green Paper, as well as this further delay to the inspection framework, risk more children being denied a level playing field, with parents and carers continuing to wade through an unkind treacle of bureaucracy while they struggle to get the support needed.
“Every child must be given equal access to climb the ladder of opportunity and must never be made to feel like an afterthought.”
The SEND area inspections have shone a light on a system in crisis since they were first created in 2016.
Local authority areas that are found to have weaknesses in provision are required to produce a written statement of action.
A Tes investigation into the first 100 areas to be inspected revealed that more than half of these authorities were found to have significant weaknesses and told to produce written statements.
Failings included concerns over the quality of education, health and care plans (EHCPs); concerns that these plans were not being delivered on time; high numbers of children with special educational needs being excluded or absent from school; poor exam outcomes for SEND children; and a lack of confidence among parents in the system.
In the recent government SEND Green Paper, published last month, the figures showed that, of 141 local area inspections published by 21 March 2022, 76 had resulted in a written statement of action, “which indicates significant weaknesses in SEND arrangements”.
The Green Paper said that the government will work with Ofsted/CQC “on their plan to deliver an updated Local Area SEND Inspection Framework, with a focus on arrangements and experience for children and young people with SEND and in alternative provision”.
SEND commentator Matt Keer has highlighted the issue of SEND area inspections in an analysis of the government’s Green Paper. Writing for the Special Needs Jungle site, he said the new framework was “first announced in mid 2018, but the Department for Education say that they will ‘work with’ Ofsted and CQC to make this happen, which rather suggests that the new inspection framework is still being hashed out, nearly four years on”.
He added: “Ofsted and CQC don’t have a remit to conduct any further full local area SEND inspections until this is sorted, and that will take months, possibly more than a year. Some local areas - including the very worst that England has to offer - will have a gap of more than six years between full SEND inspections. The lack of urgency here is palpable.”
When asked by Tes when a new inspection framework would be ready, an Ofsted spokesperson said: “We are still in the process of developing a new area SEND framework - with our partners in CQC, the Department for Education and NHS England - for implementation in 2023, after a consultation on our proposals later this year.
“We have been undertaking a range of pilot activity to hone our inspection methodology and shine a brighter light on the lived experiences of children and young people with SEND.
“We hope to be able to say more about this shortly. We have been mindful that we are developing the new framework alongside upcoming changes to the SEND Review, as well as other changes, such as the introduction of integrated care systems.
“We have been working closely with colleagues across government and the CQC to align our work with wider SEND policy during this time.”
Responding to Mr Halfon’s comments, the spokesperson added: ”We agree that the SEND system is in need of reform. Our inspections have identified recurring weaknesses across local areas, with over 50 per cent required to produce Written Statements of Action. The new Area SEND framework that we are developing will strengthen accountability and will be implemented in 2023, after a period of consultation on our proposals later this year.
“We have been mindful that our development of the new framework is happening alongside a wholesale review of the SEND system, as well as other changes such as the introduction of Integrated Care Systems. We have been working closely with colleagues across government and CQC to align our work with wider SEND policy during this time.
“There will be no accountability gap between frameworks, and we are continuing to revisit local areas in the summer and autumn terms in 2022.”
SEND area inspections were only designed initially to be a one-off check following the government SEND reforms of 2014, which introduced EHCPs.
In May 2016, the two inspectorates, Ofsted and the CQC, started this new type of joint inspection. The aim was to hold local areas to account and champion the rights of children and young people.
Under the local area special educational needs and disabilities inspection framework, inspectors review how local areas meet their responsibilities to children and young people, from birth to age 25, who have special educational needs or disabilities, or both.
In 2018, the government introduced return visits by Ofsted and the CQC for areas that had been told to produce written statements of action. This followed an increasing number of areas being found to have shortcomings.
In July of 2018, Damian Hinds - then education secretary - asked Ofsted and the CQC to produce plans for another wave of inspections for the whole system once the current cycle of inspections finished.
The original cycle of inspections was originally due to finish in 2021 before the Covid pandemic struck, and Ofsted said it was finishing this Easter.
Final statistics on the outcomes of all the education authority areas in England are expected shortly when the last remaining SEND area inspection reports are published.
SEND area inspections were put on hold in March 2020 because of the coronavirus crisis.
In April of last year, Ofsted and the CQC began revisiting areas where it had significant concerns about SEND provision when it last inspected them. It began full SEND inspections to areas that have not yet been inspected in June 2021.
Ofsted’s chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, said at the time that it had been working on plans for a new SEND area framework during the pandemic.
She said that Ofsted had identified three critical features of an effective SEND system that would form the focus of our new area SEND framework.
These were: strategic leadership, the quality of practice, and improvements in the experiences, progress and outcomes for children and young people with SEND.
Ms Spielman said at the time that the quality of practice included “the quality of relationships between children and families and education, health and care services, and also includes a high-quality curriculum in schools”.
