The Department for Education has issued a Statutory Direction to Birmingham City Council over the rotten state of its SEND services. How shameful, Birmingham! Birmingham is the second area to …
with Emily Chalke, caseworker at Duncan Lewis Solicitors During the special educational needs assessment that can lead to an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan, expert advice and information must …
Last week, Ofsted published a report on the experiences of children and young people with SEND during the pandemic. The report is well worth a read – but it’s long, and if …
Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission have published a joint report after a series of interim “listening and learning” visits to schools during autumn 2020 and Spring 2021. (Note: This …
The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman is this week issuing two separate reports into the way the London Borough of Redbridge has failed the family of a 20-year-old disabled …
It seems like an ice age since the last time we this rather than just a year – but yesterday, the Department for Education published their annual statistical summary of Education, …
with Matt Keer Ofsted has published a new piece of research entitled “Supporting SEND”. It’s a limited, qualitative piece of work and was conducted before the pandemic. While this means the …
Last Friday we published our report #ProvisionDenied, that showed children and young people with SEND have had their needs and education “pushed to one side, for the convenience of the …
2020 is a year that most of us will be glad to see the back of. But before we kiss it good riddance, here’s a quick look at some figures …
The education fo children with SEND (or lack of it) during the pandemic has been on our minds all year. How can we make schools and LAs accountable for ensuring …
It seems like a lifetime ago now – but there was a time when local SEND services were subjected to at least some external accountability. Ofsted & the Care Quality …
Clean hands it seems, are not just for the pandemic. The Department for Education has them over any failures in SEND. It’s just not their fault. The DfE has finally …
We’ve been waiting a while for confirmation about what’s happening when the current cycle of Ofsted/CQC SEND inspections of all 152 English LAs ends. Will that be it? Will there …
Four years ago, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission started inspecting local SEND services. Thanks to COVID-19, inspections are on hold – so now’s a good a time as any …
First thing’s first, congratulations to Vicky Ford, MP for Chelmsford in Essex, who has been appointed to be the new Children and Families Minister, which includes SEND, or at least …
Ofsted’s annual report, late because of the election, has a great deal to say about SEND and not much of it is good. To recap figures we’ve previously reported (links …
with Nick Whittaker, Specialist Adviser, SEND, Ofsted In one of my roles, I work alongside other SEND representatives on Ofsted’s SEND Stakeholder Advisory Group. As I spend a lot of …
Last Friday, whilst people were still getting their heads around the General Election, SNJ’s relentless data hoover sucked in a new set of figures – fresh information on the Special …
with contributions from Matt Keer, SNJ Columnist Just last week, Matt mentioned the upcoming report from the National Audit Office (NAO). And lo, this week, here it is. As expected, …
A few weeks ago, we ran an open letter from a SEND parent, Claire Ryan, to Ofsted’s Chief Inspector, Amanda Spielman about how the new draft inspection framework was letting …
