The Department for Education (DfE) has ordered Oldham Council to improve after a damning inspection of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) provision in the borough earlier this year.

The report, published in August, said children were facing ‘unacceptable delays’ to health services with some facing waits of ‘many years’ – with inspectors concluding that ‘there are widespread and/or systemic failings leading to significant concerns’ about provision for children with special educational needs or disabilities.

In the improvement notice, sent to Oldham Council on November 10, the council was ordered to improve governance, oversight, and planning in SEND provision.

It was also told to improve other areas, with the DfE saying it would undertake reviews at least every six months, and more regularly where appropriate.

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Each review will see the DfE meet with staff and leadership, check data on performance and quality, and access minutes of meetings and other relevant information.

The DfE has set a deadline of December 2024 or sooner for improvements to be made.

If Oldham Council fails to comply with the notice, the letter says the Secretary of State could invoke statutory powers under the Education Act 1996 to intervene, which would mean they direct the council to take actions to improve services.

In September, a meeting of the council’s cabinet committee approved a new five-year SEND strategy.

Council and local health bodies respond

In response to the notice, a joint statement has been released.

The statement is attributed to Oldham Council, NHS Greater Manchester and Oldham Integrated Care Board, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust and Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, which are all responsible for the planning and commissioning of services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities in Oldham.

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It says: “The safety and care of all Oldham residents is a priority for Oldham Council and health organisations in the borough, so we take all reports and feedback on how effective the services we provide to each and every person extremely seriously.

“We accept the findings from the recent inspection report from Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission, which highlighted what is working well and what more needs to be done to protect this vulnerable group – children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities – also known as ‘SEND’.

“It is reassuring and a testament to all the hard work from everyone involved that the inspectors recognised the progress that has been made since the last inspection in 2019.

“This includes the new and ambitious SEND and Inclusion Strategy, co-produced with parents and carers, and education, health, and social care partners. Although this is still in its infancy this new strategy has already seen some positive results through the effective co-production relationship with the Oldham Parent Carer Forum.

“It also includes a commitment to continually improving services for children and young people with SEND, and a commitment to a termly progress update to parents and carers through the Oldham SEND Charity, POINT – our strategic SEND partner.

“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.

“We have already started to develop and agree our improvement plan and are working with POINT and Oldham Parent Carer Forum to ensure the views of parents, carers, children and young people directly influence our actions.

“This reflects our commitment to working co-productively to deliver the very best outcomes for our children and young people with SEND.

“Additionally, we were pleased to see that Oldham has been successful in gaining membership of the government’s North West SEND Change Programme Partnership. 

“This partnership will have an additional £5.8m of funding for SEND provision. 

“This funding will help us to refine and reform SEND services and is already closely aligned to our existing strategies, especially those concerned with addressing speech language and communication needs of children with SEND.”

If you have a story, I cover the whole borough of Oldham. Please email me at jack.fifield@newsquest.co.uk.