Bracknell Forest Borough Council: Area SEND full inspection
Local area partnership report
Area SEND inspection of Bracknell Forest Local Area Partnership
Inspection dates: 3 to 7 February 2025
Dates of previous inspection: 29 November 2021 to 3 December 2021
Inspection outcome
There are widespread and/or systemic failings leading to significant concerns about the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), which the local area partnership must address urgently.
A monitoring inspection will be carried out within approximately 18 months. The next full reinspection will be within approximately three years.
As a result of this inspection, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector (Hmci) requires the local area partnership to prepare and submit a priority action plan (area SEND) to address the identified areas for priority action.
Information about the local area partnership
Bracknell Forest Council and Frimley Integrated Care Board (Icb) are jointly responsible for the planning and commissioning of services for children and young people with SEND in Bracknell Forest.
There have been changes to some leadership posts across the local area partnership since the previous inspection. These include new appointments and changes to the governance structure. The commissioning of health services changed across England in 2022. At this time, the responsibility for health services in Bracknell Forest passed to Frimley Icb.
Bracknell Forest Council commissions a range of alternative provision (AP) both within and outside of the borough. This includes placements for children and young people who are unable to attend school, as well as those who may be at risk of permanent exclusion or who have been permanently excluded.
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What is it like to be a child or young person with SEND in this area?
Too many children and young people with SEND in Bracknell Forest do not have their individual needs swiftly identified and met. While some practitioners recognise examples of positive improvements made by the local partnership in recent years, the impact of these is not yet evident. Families report their frustrations at the inconsistent support they and their children and young people have received. All too often, their experiences are characterised by significant delays. Leaders acknowledge that the pace of improvement has been too slow, and much more is needed to ensure children and young people get the right support at the right time.
Many children, young people and their families wait too long to have their needs identified. Weaknesses in the current system mean there are delays in assessment, diagnosis, treatment and support, particularly for neurodevelopmental and occupational therapy needs. There are some examples where children and young people have benefited from recently improved support while waiting for assessment and diagnosis. This includes services supporting mental health. In addition, families can access live webinars, online resources and support to help some children with their cognitive processing and handwriting.
Children and young people do not consistently get the help they need through their education, health and care (EHC) plans, as these plans are not always appropriate or well coordinated. This is further hindered by weaknesses in the annual review process. An ongoing lack of sufficiency of specialist provision means some children are not attending appropriate education settings in order to help them to learn and to flourish. In addition, there are children and young people, both with EHC plans and those who receive additional support for their needs, who do not attend education regularly. Too often, this level of absence is a result of needs not being identified in an effective or timely manner. Consequently, these children and young people do not have the education placement they need to achieve well.
Practitioners do not work together in a timely way. This means children and young people do not always have the required support, advice or guidance to transition to their next stage or on to adulthood successfully. For many, their EHC plans are out of date and do not reflect their current needs. Annual reviews are not always completed at the right time and in appropriate detail to provide support as a child or young person moves to a new setting or phase. As a result, provision is not put in place to meet their needs. The strategy, preparation and transition processes into adulthood are not effective or considered early enough to have the right impact on a child or young person’s next steps.
Children and young people who do not attend schools, such as those educated other than at school and those not on a school roll, do not benefit from appropriate and timely reviews of their needs. There are too many occasions when plans do not reflect the needs of the child or young person, which hinders the ability of practitioners to ensure that the necessary support and provision is in place. Additionally, these children and
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young people do not have suitable access to a range of services, including school nursing services and speech and language therapy.
There are some examples where services, settings and dedicated practitioners provide effective support. These include where timely referrals are made to targeted early help services so professionals can provide families with assistance. The ‘family hubs’ and ‘youth hub’ provide a community-based location to access the help within local communities. These hubs offer a wide variety of services and activities to meet children and young people’s needs. The local offer is easily accessible and provides useful and clear information about activities and services available.
Where inspectors found some examples of when children and young people’s needs are identified and met early, their experiences are more positive. These include some pupils who attend specialist educational settings and who have more carefully tailored plans that are preparing them well for adulthood. Some children and young people who are electively home educated benefit from practitioners who collaborate to understand their hopes and needs. However, this support is not consistent, meaning that the voice of the child is not always used effectively in developing their individual support.
What is the area partnership doing that is effective?
◼ Bracknell Forest local area partnership recognises the urgent need for improvement.
Their members are rightly creating new ways of working to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND. Appropriate action has been taken to stabilise staffing as well as to enhance practitioners’ specialist skills and knowledge.
◼ The Child Development Centre provides useful training to early years practitioners to
help them identify children’s needs. For example, guidance is given to support settings in adapting the curriculum and using interventions such as sensory circuits. Additional support is also provided to help practitioners implement a graduated approach in assessing and meeting the needs of children. This includes reviewing the resources early years settings use with children and their families. These improvements are beginning to ensure that children’s needs are being identified at an earlier stage. Children in early years settings also benefit from regular access to the speech and language therapy and physiotherapy. This is having a positive impact on their early development and supports their preparation for their next steps.
◼ The effective delivery of the healthy child programme, and all mandated contacts,
further supports the early identification of needs. School nursing teams help children in education settings as well as providing a drop-in service for all schools across Bracknell Forest. Although there is more work to do, improvements have been made in promoting the uptake of annual health checks for children and young people who have a diagnosed learning disability.
◼ Leaders have restructured services to help families while they wait for specialist
services such as neurodevelopmental pathways and child and adolescent mental health services. The local area’s ‘thrive model’ helps practitioners commission services such as the mental health schools team, whose members offer ‘care whilst waiting’. Regular contact is made with children and young people who are waiting for a
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diagnosis. When required, action is taken to provide additional support if there is an escalation of need.
◼ The local area’s ‘team around the school’ approach is providing schools with helpful
guidance on inclusive support and practices. There are examples of improved attendance for some pupils as a result of the emotionally based school avoidance project. Through this work, some education staff feel they have been able to contribute more to the developments being implemented by the local area partnership. They also value the autism trained outreach workers, who provide support for transition to secondary school. However, much of this work is in its infancy and has yet to have the intended impact.
◼ Disabled children and young people who need specialist statutory social care support,
including children and young people in care, have their needs assessed in a timely way. They are provided with support, help and access to services to meet their needs, which is influenced by their views. There is appropriate referral to additional services when needed.
◼ There are effective processes in place for the oversight and monitoring of joint
commissioned residential special school provision for children and young people. These children and young people’s voices are heard and considered as their plans are kept up to date.
What does the area partnership need to do better?
◼ The local area partnership does not work together effectively so as to ensure that the
voices of children and young people and their families are captured and used to influence the development of vital local area services. Families are now more involved in working with the partnership through forums such as the parent carer forum. However, as yet, many do not trust that change will happen. They say that they are frustrated that they have to retell their stories several times before they gain the appropriate help and support their children need.
◼ Parents and carers have access to information, support and guidance provided by the
parent and carer forum and Bracknell Forest information, advice and support service. There are also some examples of where the partnership has considered the views of parents in some strategic decision-making. However, leaders acknowledge that they need to seek and use the views of parents and their children more frequently and meaningfully as part of co-production (a way of working where children, families and those that provide the services work together to create a decision or a service that works for them all).
◼ Leaders do not have a sufficient understanding of the needs of children and young
people with SEND across Bracknell Forest. As a result, they are not able to make informed decisions or to address the much-needed improvements in order to ensure that children and young people get the provision they need. This includes the vital commissioning of support and appropriate education placements, including AP.
◼ For some children and young people, their educational experience has been disrupted
by a lack of appropriate specialist support. Many have missed a substantial amount of their schooling. Others have been supported by a range of unregistered AP, with
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many remaining in these provisions for a significant period of time. In many cases, these children and young people have not had, and continue not to get, the help they need in readiness for their next steps.
◼ Strategic partnership working has been limited by a lack of effective governance,
oversight and monitoring of the overall SEND system. While the local partnership’s key priorities have been focused on the areas for improvement identified during the last Area SEND inspection, new action has not been swift enough to identify and respond to the emerging needs of children and young people in the local area.
◼ Many children and young people do not have their needs or planned support carefully
explained in their EHC plans. Many plans do not reflect the individual needs, and information collated from professionals is not consistently included. In addition, the annual review process is not effective, meaning the needs of children and young people are not appropriately reviewed. Although the timeliness of contributions to EHC plans from health and social care professionals has improved, the quality of these is not consistent.
◼ The use of the graduated approach is not always effective in ensuring that referrals
are made early enough to neurodevelopmental pathways. This approach is often used for extended periods of time when needs have already been identified. Leaders have not evaluated the impact of this approach sufficiently, to ensure it does not delay referral for assessment of speech and language and neurodevelopmental needs.
◼ Children and young people wait too long for an assessment of their health needs,
particularly in neurodevelopmental pathways and for occupational health assessment. This means children and young people are not getting the appropriate support they need as they learn and grow.
◼ There is a lack of sufficient appropriate educational provision to meet the needs of
children and young people with SEND. Many, including those with the most complex education, health and care needs, are placed out of borough for their education. This is sometimes at a distance from home. While inspectors heard some positive comments from some young people about the post-16 provision and support on offer, there remains a lack of suitable placements to support the transition into sustained education, training and/or employment.
◼ The universal short breaks provision, including holiday activities and support for
accessing social activities, is not currently meeting the needs of children and families. While leaders have identified that a review is required, families are frustrated that this has taken too long, and that this much-needed support is not available.
◼ Those who have the most complex education, health and care needs do benefit from
robust oversight of their transition arrangements. However, most children and young people do not get the right help or guidance to prepare them for their next stage, phase or for moving on to adulthood. For example, delays in issuing EHC plans often mean these plans are not in place in time for settings to plan and implement efficient transitions between education phases.
◼ Children and young people who do not attend educational settings regularly do not
have their needs overseen effectively. This means their commissioned provision is not regularly evaluated, and their changing needs are not always identified. For example,
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children and young people who are not on a school roll are often not reviewed for long periods of time. In addition, some reviews have little input from health services, including the school nursing team.
◼ Support for children and young people with SEND on the Dynamic Support Register is
provided without a diagnosis of a learning disability and/or autism. However, this support is not always used effectively. For example, although there are arrangements in place to purchase services when needed, there is a lack of oversight to make sure that individual needs are consistently identified and then met.
Areas for priority action
Responsible body Areas for priority action Bracknell Forest Council and Frimley Icb
Leaders at Bracknell Forest Council and Frimley Icb need to create a more effective partnership to ensure:
▪ there is a clear process established to better
identify the needs of children and young people with SEND across the local area; and ▪ that there is a governance structure in place that
provides effective oversight and monitoring of the whole SEND system. Bracknell Forest Council and Frimley Icb
The local area partnership needs to develop more effective and cohesive systems to identify and bridge gaps in commissioning arrangements to help children and young people with SEND to achieve the best possible outcomes. Bracknell Forest Council and Frimley Icb
The local area partnership should take immediate action to improve the quality of children and young people’s EHC plans and annual reviews to ensure:
▪ the plans accurately reflect the up-to-date
education, health and care needs; and ▪ the plans identify the provision required of all
agencies in meeting these needs.
Areas for improvement
Areas for improvement The local area partnership should identify the steps that they will take to collectively monitor and measure the impact of their redeveloped strategy and plans. These plans should be co-produced with and communicated clearly to children, young people and their families. The local area partnership should continue to develop their oversight, strategy and commissioning arrangements of suitable AP so that there is sufficient suitable provision that meets the needs of children and young people with SEND. The local area partnership must ensure that multi-disciplinary working at all levels is further strengthened so that children and young people’s needs are identified and met.
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Health leaders need to make further improvements to the waiting times for children and young people’s access to health assessments and to receive a diagnosis across neurodevelopmental pathways and occupational therapy services. The local area partnership must continue to develop the effectiveness of the way in which the graduated approach is used across education, health and care. Education leaders should continue to improve the sufficiency of appropriate educational provision to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND in the borough. The local area partnership should improve their strategic approach to transition planning to ensure children and young people receive the right help and support they need and in preparation for adulthood.
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Local area partnership details
Local authority Integrated care board Bracknell Forest Council Frimley Integrated Care Board Grainne Siggins, Director of Children’s Services
Fiona Edwards, Ceo Frimley Integrated Care Board www.bracknell-forest.gov.uk www.frimley.icb.nhs.uk Time Square Market Street Bracknell RG12 1JD
NHS Frimley Integrated Care Board King Edward Vii Hospital St Leonard’s Road Windsor SL4 3DP Information about this inspection
This inspection was carried out at the request of the Secretary of State for Education under section 20(1)(a) of the Children Act 2004.
The inspection was led by one of His Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) from Ofsted, with a team of inspectors, including: two HMI/Ofsted Inspectors from education and social care; a lead Children’s Services Inspector from the Care Quality Commission (CQC); and two Children’s Services Inspectors from the CQC.
Inspection team
Ofsted Care Quality Commission Emma Leavey, Ofsted Lead inspector David Roberts, CQC Lead inspector Amanda Maxwell, Ofsted HMI Lea Pickerill, CQC inspector Esther Brooks, Ofsted Inspector Lesley Perry, CQC inspector
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The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) regulates and inspects to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked-after children, safeguarding and child protection.
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