Shortfall is found in city's specialist education offer

ONE PARENT TOLD WATCHDOG THE PROCESSES ‘DO NOT WORK’?

- By TESS RUSHIN

LEICESTER has a shortfall in specialist education provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send), an inspection has found, with one parent claiming that processes simply “do not work’.

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) discovered the shortfall following an inspection of the area partnership, which includes Leicester City Council, Leicestershire NHS Partnership Trust and NHS Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board (ICB).

Their report found that, as a result of the shortfall, some children face delays in accessing placements that meet their needs, while a “small minority” are not even in education “while they wait’

The inspection, which took place in September, also found outcomes tended not to contain sufficient detail in education health care plans (EHCPs), leading to professionals, the young people and their families not understanding the outcomes they are working towards.

The watchdog also found delays in producing EHCPs following annual reviews meant professionals did not have access to up-to-date information about the young people's needs.

In addition, Ofsted said EHCPs “do not consistently prepare young people well for the transition to post16 provision”.

A parent, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “The EHCP process does not work. At our last review, we did not go through the document and it wasn’t updated, meaning my child missed out.

‘Much more needs to be done in terms of the transitions process, too — to say it starts at 16 is, in our experience, a myth”.