An investigation into services for children and young people with SEND in the borough uncovered "widespread failings" that have triggered “significant concerns”.

This week, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have published a report following the inspection from June 26 to June 30.

The area inspection by the education and health watchdogs found SEND children and young people are being forced to wait an “unacceptable length of time” to have their health needs met.

According to the report, leaders in Oldham are aware of the unacceptable delays children with SEND are facing but have not addressed the failures “for some time”.

They have now been ordered to address the failings urgently.

Inspectors found that children and young people with SEND and their families are waiting too long to access health services, such as speech and language therapy, community paediatrics and the neurodevelopmental pathways.

The report states that the “excessive waits” are leading to children and young people not getting the help they need for many years.

However, it did note children, young people, and their families with complex needs, as well as those with visual or hearing impairments, are “offered strong, timely support”.

Inspectors also found that many children and young people with SEND are “disadvantaged” due to “poor arrangements for transition” at many points in their lives, including their transition from nursery to primary school and from childhood to adulthood.

“As young people approach adulthood, some health and social care services are delayed or abruptly stop”, the report said.

Children and young people with SEND are also facing “unacceptable delays” in having their speech and language needs identified, with some children in nursery not having their needs assessed until the middle of primary school.

Despite the concerns raised, inspectors found that overall, children and young people’s educational outcomes are improving, and they are attending school more often and are less likely to be excluded but said there is still more work to be done.

The early help services were also praised with inspectors finding that teams take the time to get to know children, young people, and their families.

Children with social, emotional, and mental health needs were also found to benefit from “a range of interventions” with their needs picked up and addressed quickly.

Those with SEND under the council’s care area also said to have their needs met and identified effectively.

The services were last inspected in October 2017. During that inspection “significant areas of weakness” in the local area’s practice were uncovered and inspectors found a lack of accountability at all levels, which they deemed “endemic”.

A follow-up visit found some of the areas of weaknesses were being addressed.

Since then, there have been changes to the senior leadership of Oldham’s SEND services, including new appointments, and in July last year, the health services in Oldham were passed from the clinical commission group to the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board.

The latest inspection has found that local partnership leaders are currently not working together effectively and there has been a failure to address “historical and increasing waits in services”.

Leaders have for example been aware of issues with access to NHS speech and language therapy (SALT) provision for many years.

As a result, inspectors say Oldham’s children, and young people with SEND are not having their needs met as well as they should, and some have not had their needs met for some time.

Leaders have been ordered to urgently improve shared governance and address the delays and gaps in service provision.

Oldham Council, the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board, Northern Care Alliance, and the Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, who are jointly responsible for services for children with (SEND), have accepted the findings.

In a joint statement the organisations said: “We acknowledge that the report has identified some significant areas to improve that we, as a group of local partner organisations, must address as soon as possible.

"These improvements include urgently identifying and addressing delays and gaps in access to health services.

“We are now focused on delivering a priority action plan that will address the concerns outlined in the report.

"Progress against these action areas will be overseen by enhanced partnership governance arrangements to ensure that improvements are made as quickly as possible.”

They added that they are working with POINT, a charity that supports children with SEND and their families, and the Oldham Parent Carer Forum to ensure the views of parents, carers, children, and young people "directly influence" their actions.

The statement also said that Oldham has achieved membership of the government’s North West SEND Change Programme Partnership, which will bring in an extra £5.8m of funding for SEND provision in the borough.

A monitoring inspection will be carried out by Ofsted and the CQC within 18 months and a full inspection in about three years.

Read the full report here