Have SEND services in Suffolk been sorted out?

Improvements have been made in services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Suffolk but inspectors have warned that changes are not happening quickly enough, a new report says.

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) conducted a monitoring inspection of Suffolk County Council and the NHS Norfolk and Suffolk Integrated Care Board in March after a 2023 review found system-wide failings.

Sarah-Jane Smedmor, the council's executive director for children's services, acknowledged "there is so much more that we need to do".

Nikki Graham, a parent of children with SEND, said she wanted to know when the services were going to get the urgent action they needed.

Ofsted and the CQC say the council and health services were asked to provide an improvement plan for two priority areas after the 2023 inspection.

The first was to work more collaboratively and improve strategic planning, so that children and their families had better experiences and outcomes. The watchdog said there had been "ineffective action" here.

Inspectors pointed to a period of "leadership turbulence" which led to "suppressed momentum", but said the local partnership of the council and health care services now had more robust leadership that was working to repair a "workforce which was open to constructive challenge".

The second priority area was around improving the timeliness and quality of the statutory education, health and care plans (EHCP) that are written for children.

In this area, the inspectors' report found there had been "effective action taken".

Smedmor said she felt the report was "fair and balanced".

"We have made progress around quality assurance of plans, but there is so much more that we need to do," she said.

"It was real recognition of the work that we've undertaken so far and the work we have planned.

"And even if we hadn't made the progress, they knew we had the plans in place to do that."

Ed Garratt, chief executive of the ICB, said: "We recognise that greater consistency and stronger partnership working are still needed."

Despite the positive movement on the number of children now receiving an EHCP within the 20-week government target and the inspectors acknowledging their improved quality, the report still noted "many parents and carers do not share that same confidence".

Nikki Graham, a parent of children with SEND who also advocates for other parents, spoke to Ofsted and the CQC for the latest inspection.

"Communication is really poor, they don't respond to communication," she said.

"When is this going to get the urgent action that it needs? We were promised after the last Ofsted that things would change.

"They say it's like a turning ship and it takes time, but things are getting worse. So the ship is not turning."

Smedmor said they had made progress on the way they communicated with families, but there was still more to do.

The Green Party is the main opposition group at the county council after the May local elections, when Reform UK gained control of the local authority from the Conservatives.

Simon Dowling, the Greens' deputy spokesperson for SEND services, said: "We are asking the Reform UK administration to take this feedback extremely seriously and to make further improvement an absolute priority for their first few months in office."

When asked by the BBC if she had the support of the new Reform administration, Smedmor said they had been supportive of the progress being made and the plans that were in place.

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