Wolverhampton is making ‘strong, accelerated progress’ to further improve services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities’ (SEND).
That is the finding of the most recent review meeting between the city’s SEND Partnership Board, the Department for Education (DfE) and the Care Quality Commission, which concluded that the city continues to make ‘sustainable progress’ and that this work is ‘having a positive impact’.
It follows a Local Area Review of SEND services which looked at how well partners – including the City of Wolverhampton Council, the Black Country Integrated Care Board, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, the Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Early Years’ settings, schools and further education providers – identify, assess and meet the needs of children and young people with SEND.
It highlighted a number of areas of good practice and those which require further development, and a Written Statement of Action was produced to outline the steps that would be taken by partners to further improve SEND services in the city.
The review meeting, the latest in a series of regular progress checks, found that clear and sustained progress had been made in addressing 2 key areas – identifying school aged children and young people with SEND and arrangements for jointly commissioning and providing services – meaning these will no longer be monitored going forward.
Two other areas, relating to co-production and transitions, were similarly ‘closed off’ at the previous review meeting. The DfE and NHS England will continue to monitor the remaining 2 areas for improvement.
Naomi Sharp, the Head of the DfE’s West Midlands Vulnerable Children’s Unit, said: “I know this positive outcome is as a result of a great deal of commitment and hard work on the part of the local authority, the Integrated Care Board, families and front line staff across education, health and social care.
“I would like to thank you for all that you are doing to support some of the most vulnerable children and young people in society, and to congratulate you on the progress you have made.”
Councillor Jacqui Coogan, the City of Wolverhampton Council’s Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Education, said: “We want to ensure all our children – and particularly those with special educational needs and disabilities – get the very best possible start in life, and the council and our partners are working round the clock to ensure this is the case.
“This latest review meeting has confirmed that the city is making excellent progress in improving SEND support and that this is having a positive impact on children, young people and their families – despite a backdrop of much increased demand for services.
“We know there is still more to do and, as a system, we will continue to work at pace to deliver the high standards our families with SEND both expect and deserve.”