Inspectors have highlighted strengths within Sunderland’s services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), while also identifying areas where further improvement is needed.
The report, published today (27 February) by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC), awards the Sunderland Area Partnership the middle rating of the three available categories.
The partnership is made up of Sunderland City Council and North East and Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) who are jointly responsible for the planning and commissioning of services for children and young people with SEND in Sunderland, and Together for Children which delivers children’s services on behalf of the City Council.
What’s going well:
Among their findings, the inspectors, who visited the city in November, noted that:
- Children and young people with SEND in Sunderland are valued, visible, and listened to with their views and wishes incorporated into care and education plans.
- The partnership has invested in specialist provision for children and young people in Sunderland, including a purpose-built SEND school, commissioned services, and resource bases to helps support more children in mainstream settings.
- Primary‑aged children achieve better outcomes than peers with similar needs nationally.
- Choice and input is key – with schools and education providers working together effectively to ensure young people remain in education or training.
- The virtual school is ambitious and offers targeted support meaning many young people with SEND achieve well.
- The partnership demonstrates strong collaborative practice, for example working closely with the parent carer forum.
- Additional services such as Family Hubs add to range of support available to families, while the Healthy Child Programme provides timely visits.
- Mental health support is positive and impactful while children wait for more specialist intervention.
- Accommodation for young people moving into adulthood is well matched to needs.
- Early help and social care plans are collaborative, assisting families to understand behaviour and safety strategies and their views increasingly shape decisions, with co‑production work ongoing.
Inspectors also found some non-urgent areas of improvement including improving families’ awareness and understanding of the SEND Local Offer, tackling the level of permanent exclusions for pupils with SEND and improving the systems for home‑education for young people with SEND.
There were also recommendations on the need for improvements around reducing the waiting times for speech and language therapy, and addressing inconsistencies around mental health support and support for bladder and bowel care and EHC plans.
Commenting on the findings of the report, Councillor Michael Butler, Sunderland City Council’s Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Child Poverty and Skills, said:
“Children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities are a key priority for us, and we are pleased to note the many positives and areas of good practice, the inspectors found during their visit in November.
“As a partnership committed to continuous improvement, we fully recognise the findings of the report and have a shared understanding of the challenges that remain.
“The new DfE guidelines on SEND reform reflect many of the issues that have been highlighted locally and we are optimistic that DfE implementation of these reforms will bring improvements for children and families.”
The full inspection report can be found here: Area SEND inspection of Sunderland Local Area Partnership
