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Brighton and Hove praised for SEND services (25 July 2016)

Date: 25/07/2016
Duncan Lewis, Legal News Solicitors, Brighton and Hove praised for SEND services

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have praised services delivered by Brighton & Hove City Council and the local NHS for their “unwavering focus” on the overall needs of children and young people who have a special educational need or disability (SEND).

The Ofsted report notes that Brighton and Hove local area puts the child or young person with SEN or disability and their family “at the centre of its vision to improve services”.

The inspectors said that leaders evaluate the local area’s effectiveness “exceptionally well”, by assessing services’ strengths and weaknesses precisely – and the impact of services for care, education and health are consistently reported by parents as improving the lives of their children.

Ofsted and CQC inspectors also found that pupils in both special and mainstream schools were “overwhelmingly positive” about how they are supported to make progress, with strong joint working relationships between different agencies meaning that safeguarding arrangements were effective.

Families with children who are not meeting their early milestones are also identified “in a timely manner” – and children’s social care services provide “excellent, graduated support” to families who have a child with special educational needs or a disability.

Parents and carers also commented positively on how well their children were prepared for adult life, with one parent saying, “Brighton and Hove accepts you for who you are.”

The speech and language therapy service commissioned by the CCG was found to be “cohesive and strong”, with exceptional leadership and management meaning a full complement of therapists were available to support schools “very effectively” to deliver excellent programmes for children.

The inspectors also noted some areas for development – and called for improvements in identifying children as being on the autistic spectrum, with assessment and diagnosis currently too slow in some instances.

Bright and Hove said the CCG and Children’s Services had recognised this – and the CCG had recently invested in the pathway, so that families had less time to wait for assessment and diagnosis in the future. However, the council added that it was clear that there were still further improvements to be made.

Inspectors also called for the local offer giving information on the help and support available to be made easier to use, saying many parents were unaware of what the local offer was.

The chair of the council’s children, young people and skills committee, Councillor Tom Bewick, said:

“I’m particularly pleased that the feedback the inspectors received from the majority of parents and children who have special educational needs or disabilities has been so positive.

“However, the inspectors have acknowledged that there is more to do – I’m pleased that these areas have already been identified and that there are already plans to address these issues.

“While this is a very good report overall, this is no time for complacency – we recognise that further improvements are needed and we will be redoubling our efforts to achieve them.

“I'd like to thank the children's services team for their dedication to improving life chances and outcomes for young people in the city – and for taking this authority on an improvement journey to outstanding services across the board by 2019.”

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Duncan Lewis children lawyers can advise parents on a wide range of child care law and family matters, including parents’ duties under the Education Act 1996 and SEND.

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