Dudley Council and NHS Black Country Integrated Care Board have published their plan to address improvements required following their recent SEND inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission.

Inspectors highlighted improvements made in Dudley’s local SEND (Special educational needs and disabilities) services, including an acknowledgement of strong partnership working.  They did, however, note inconsistent experiences and outcomes remain for some children.    

The plan focusses on how the local area partnership, comprising council, health and local school services will work together to reduce waiting times for mental health support, neurodevelopmental diagnosis and access to wheelchair services.   

It details how the partnership will improve the quality and oversight of Education and Health Care Plans (EHCPs) as well as ensuring they reflect up to date views from children, young people and their families.   

The plan sets out further improvements planned for the Dudley SEND Local Offer, a statutory online resource at dudley.gov.uk/localoffer.

Inspectors visited Dudley in January to assess its children’s and health services and what progress had been made within SEND services since its last visit in 2022.   

They recognised there is a strong, shared culture and ambition for children and young people with SEND across the borough with practitioners from different services working well together, sharing information effectively, resulting in an efficient multi-disciplinary approach to providing services.   

They found the partnership work with the Dudley Parent Carer Forum (PCF) is strong, driving improvement through accurate, up-to-date parental feedback and constructive challenge.  

Inspectors also recognised most children and young people who need speech and language therapy, physiotherapy or occupational therapy receive effective help when they need it and there is effective support from designated practitioners in health, education and social care for those children and young people who are not in employment, education or training.  

Councillor David Stanley, cabinet member for children’s services, said: “We have worked swiftly to develop this action plan to address the improvement areas.

"I am delighted that since the inspection we have already moved our new and co-produced SEND local offer to a new platform and there are plans in place to formally launch in May.

"We remain committed to our journey of improvement and are determined to achieve significant progress in all areas in the coming months.”

The action plan can be viewed at dudley.gov.uk/sendinspection.