Department for Education hits North West council with improvement notice over SEND services

The Department for Education (DfE) has issued Wirral Council with an improvement notice as a result of “poor progress” across the Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) sector in the borough.

A number of actions and deliverables had been drawn up in a Written Statement of Action (WSoA) in response to an OFSTED and CQC inspection published in December 2021.

However, this month's improvement notice sets out actions required of the council, working with the Integrated Care Board and its other partner agencies.

It says Wirral’s revised improvement plans most cover the ten areas of significant identified in the 2021 inspection, including “revised activity to:

• strengthen the quality and timeliness of EHC [Education, Health and Care] assessments and annual reviews
• embed meaningful co-production with parents and carers
• increase parent satisfaction with the area’s provision
• improve the use and utility of the published local offer
• improve communication with parents and carers across the area
• improve the relationship between the Local Area Partnership and the Parent Carer Partnership Wirral
• increase joint commissioning of services in the area
• embed effective strategic oversight to ensure effectiveness of plans and provision and hold leaders, managers and partners to account
• address the lack of accurate, up-to-date and useful information informing the area’s plans and the impact of these actions
• embed the graduated response consistently across all schools and settings.”

The Education Secretary, Gillian Keegan, has also chosen to appoint a specialist SEND Adviser to provide advice to the DfE and the council.

The improvement notice adds that “to ensure there is clear evidence of progression”, Wirral must ensure there is an Improvement Board with clearly assigned accountabilities for all actions agreed.

Officials or advisers from the DfE will undertake reviews of progress against the improvement agenda at least every six months “and more regularly where appropriate”. Prior to this Wirral will have to provide its own assessment of improvement.

The improvement notice says the council should aim for actions included in the improvement plan to be delivered by the end of October 2025 or sooner. “However, the Improvement Notice will not be stepped down until sufficient progress has been evidenced, and the Minister agrees.”

In response, Cllr Paul Stuart, Leader of Wirral Council, said: “I accept and acknowledge this move from the Department for Education to issue Wirral with an improvement notice. Since the inspection in 2021 where several failings were noted, our work to improve these areas has been slow and we need to do much, much more.

“While I am disappointed in the lack of progress, I welcome the notice and as a result officers have already set up an improvement board, which had their first meeting recently. The board will meet regularly, chaired by the Chief Executive of the Council. Membership of the board will include myself as well as Chief Executives from Education, Health and Care services and other key institutions in the SEND sector.”

Cllr Stuart said the Improvement Board would  provide regular updates to appointed DfE and NHS advisors who will monitor improvements, as well as ensuring all reports board reports are published on the SENDLO website so that parents, carers, and other stakeholders can track the progress of its work.

“The board has an important job to do and will remain focused on delivering the best provision for children and young people with SEND,” he added.

Elizabeth Hartley, Director for Children, Families and Education at Wirral Council, said: “Since the 2021 inspection we have made lots of changes in SEND support and started many new projects as a direct result. But these changes, while not insignificant, have not been enough and we’re still not in the place we need to be with our SEND offer for families.

“As a recently appointed director, I take this notice extremely seriously and, along with my colleagues across the partnership, am committed to turning things around as quickly as possible.”