SEND Inspection

The Local Area SEND Inspection has now finished. Thank you to all those who contributed to the inspection. Inspectors were in West Sussex from Monday 26th February to Friday 2nd March 2018.

Inspectors looked at how effectively we identified, met the needs and improved outcomes for children and young people with SEND. The inspection will evaluate how effectively the local area met its responsibilities, not just the local authority. (The local area includes the local authority, clinical commissioning groups and health providers, public health, early years settings, schools and further education providers.)

Inspectors were in our area for one week (26th February to the 2nd March 2018). They gave the local area five days’ notice of their visit. Two days were spent in meetings, two days they visited early years settings, schools, special schools, alternative provision and post 16 colleges, and one day was set aside for feedback. Inspectors have looked at children and young peoples’ files to contribute to their evaluations. Inspectors have met with children, parents, teachers, leaders and governors.

Ofsted/CQC expect that each local area would have a good understanding of how effective it is, so we developed a self-evaluation framework and are also addressed issues such as data & performance and communication & engagement with all stakeholders. We knew that there would be a focus on the wider group of children & young people who are at SEN Support, so tried to make sure this was fully addressed.

The outcomes of the inspection has been reported in a letter published on the CQC website and the judgements is in narrative form. There is no overall grade but the letter has outline areas of strength and key priorities for improvement.