Sheffield City Council: Area SEND full inspection
Local area partnership report
Area SEND inspection of Sheffield Local Area Partnership
Inspection dates: 10 to 14 March 2025
Dates of previous inspection: 12 to 16 November 2018
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, 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
Sheffield City Council and South Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (Icb) are jointly responsible for the planning and commissioning of services for children and young people with SEND in Sheffield.
There have been several changes to the senior leadership of Sheffield City Council’s SEND services since the previous inspection. This includes the appointment of a new strategic director of children’s services.
The commissioning of health services changed across England in 2022. On 1 July 2022, responsibility for the commissioning of health services in the area changed from NHS Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group to NHS South Yorkshire Icb.
The partnership commissions alternative provision (AP) through a local authority- maintained pupil referral unit. This is for permanently excluded pupils. Children and young people who cannot attend school because of their health needs are supported by Chapel House AP.
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What is it like to be a child or young person with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) in this area?
Too many children and young people with SEND wait an unacceptable length of time to have their needs accurately assessed and met in Sheffield. Leaders are ambitious and have begun to make improvements, but these are yet to make a sufficient difference. As a result, children and young people’s needs are not met as quickly and effectively as they should be.
The needs of children and young people are not reflected effectively in education, health and care (EHC) plans. The quality of EHC plans in Sheffield is systemically weak and some of the information provided in EHC plans does not meet statutory guidance. For example, the views of parents, carers, and children and young people are not routinely included. Furthermore, when a child or young person’s needs change, health and social care professionals do not have the opportunity to contribute to revised plans. Although communications are improving between professionals across the partnership, it is evident that communications regarding individual children remain poor. As a result, the partnership cannot assure that they are meeting the current needs of children and young people.
Despite some of these services reducing their waiting times, many children and young people wait too long to receive assessment and treatment from community child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), speech and language therapy, video fluoroscopy and neurodevelopmental diagnosis. This impacts negatively on children’s outcomes as their needs are not being identified and met at the right time. Children and young people who may need specialist assessment and intervention from CAMHS and/or neurodevelopmental pathways often need to access their Gp before a referral can be made. This can cause delay for children and young people who have had a holistic assessment completed, for example by a school nurse. Children with complex mental health needs and their families benefit from intensive support from specialist mental health social workers, when appropriate.
Children and young people with SEND and their families receive effective support and intervention from early help services and/or the disabled children’s social work team. Practitioners seek children and young people’s views and work alongside them and their families to determine appropriate services to meet their needs.
Children and young people are not supported well enough when they transition from primary to secondary school and then to post-16 education. The impact of this is that too many children and young people with SEND are suspended and/or excluded from secondary school in comparison to their peers. Some families choose elective home education when they feel that their child’s needs are not being met or to avoid the permanent exclusion of their child from school.
Children and young people in the SENDing Voices group are supported to have their voice heard in Sheffield. They take part in consultations organised by the partnership to improve services. For example, the group has contributed its thoughts on the proposals
Area SEND inspection report: Sheffield Local Area Partnership 10 to 14 March 2025 3
to change transport arrangements for children and young people with SEND in Sheffield. For many children and young people, access to activities in the community is dependent on their parents and carers finding out what is available and providing support for their child to attend. Some parents and carers, children and young people are unaware of clubs, events and activities that they could participate in locally.
What is the area partnership doing that is effective?
◼ Leaders across the partnership are ambitious for children and young people with
SEND. This is expressed in the ‘SEND Manifesto’ which will be the basis of the next SEND strategy from September 2025. Practitioners are energised by their conversations across teams of health, education and social care in the partnership. They challenge each other and acknowledge that there is more to do to improve experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND. However, much of this work has yet to show impact.
◼ The active parent carer forum (Pcf) is a valued strategic partner. The Pcf gathers the
views of parents and carers of children and young people with SEND. The Pcf analyses feedback to inform the work of the partnership and the professional development that it provides. This includes specific autism training for frontline staff in health, social care and education. The Pcf also provides a wealth of support for parents, such as conferences on financial planning. Their work has a positive impact in supporting children and young people.
◼ The partnership collects and analyses data from schools and services effectively to
inform decision-making. Consequently, leaders have a sound understanding of the services which are making a difference in terms of meeting children and young people’s needs. Leaders understand where there are gaps in provision and are making changes to service delivery to address these gaps. It is too soon for some of these changes to be fully implemented.
◼ The partnership is effective in promoting annual learning disability health checks and
health plans. These are making a positive difference to children and young people in identifying needs at an early stage and signposting additional support.
◼ The early help services are having a positive impact for many children and families.
Skilled practitioners effectively support families in engaging with services and professionals, and accessing supportive social activities to reduce isolation. Within the early help service, primary mental health care workers and other specialist support workers are effective in ensuring children and young people with SEND have an appropriate response to address their complex needs.
◼ The team around the family meetings have a positive impact in coordinating
communication between practitioners working with children and young people with SEND. This helps to bridge some of the gaps in wider services for these children. This includes children waiting for diagnosis, those who have challenges with school attendance and children struggling with their mental health and family circumstances.
◼ Effective arrangements are in place across the local area partnership to oversee the
quality of placement for disabled children placed out of area in residential schools or
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residential children’s homes. This ensures that children and young people’s needs can be met through the provision. Most children in these placements are thriving in terms of health, care and education.
◼ Through pilots and commissioned projects in education, many schools feel part of
system-wide developments. The partnership’s work to improve attendance by working with the community in two specific localities has been successful and will now be extended. Schools also value the continuing professional development offer from Learn Sheffield.
◼ The local authority undertakes its duty of care in the oversight and monitoring of
children missing education, those who are educated other than at school, and those on reduced timetables. There are clear systems in place to keep in touch with children and young people and their families to ensure they are being safeguarded.
◼ There is a strong commitment to providing high-quality post-16 provision for children
and young people with SEND. There is a variety of provision that caters for a range of SEND needs. The partnership has innovative plans to develop this offer further through bridging units, with the aim of better preparing children and young people with SEND for level 1 courses.
What does the area partnership need to do better?
◼ Although leaders highlight their aspirations in the ‘SEND Manifesto’ they have not
developed the strategy to ensure delivery of their goals. Therefore, the ambition does not yet impact on children and young people.
◼ Practitioners who work with children and young people on a regular basis told
inspectors that some services do not share information effectively. This means that professionals are not fully informed about who is supporting a family and in what way. Similarly, parents and carers report that professionals could listen to them better and gain a greater understanding of their child’s needs.
◼ The strategic vision of leaders is not well known across the partnership by those
delivering services. This creates confusion and some misconceptions. Leaders are aware of this and are improving communications.
◼ The partnership has a shared understanding of the urgent need to address the
unacceptably long waiting times for neurodevelopmental diagnosis. The impact of current arrangements is that too many families face significant distress and feel unsupported. A radical transformation programme is underway to provide a strengthened universal offer. It is too soon to measure the impact of some of these changes. However, initiatives such as the Autism and Social Communication Education and Training Service, Autism in Schools, and the training offer from the Pcf and pre- diagnosis support are starting to have a positive impact on the lives of children, young people and families.
◼ Children and young people are waiting too long to receive assessment and treatment
from community CAMHS. The escalation to tier 3 CAMHS mental health services and neurodevelopmental services is stifled by overly complex bureaucratic pathways to referrals via primary health care. This causes further delay to children and young
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people having their mental health needs and neurodevelopmental needs met at the earliest opportunity.
◼ There are too few speech and language therapists who are trained in dysphagia in
Sheffield. Therefore children and young people are waiting too long for video fluoroscopy. As a result, some children and young people are not having their needs met at the earliest opportunity by this service.
◼ Too many children or young people who would benefit from inclusion on the dynamic
support register (Dsr) are not identified early enough. The register does not meet the needs of these children and young people effectively because some reach a point of crisis before they are able to access the support that the Dsr provides. Processes to review and learn from unplanned admissions to health care are in their infancy.
◼ Children and young people who have a continuing care package through the
partnership have this care paused on admission to hospital. This means that there is a change in carer for a child or young person with complex health needs. This can lead to distress for the family and child.
◼ Some health services are not commissioned to provide care for children and young
people aged between 16 and 18 years old. Therefore, some children and young people have gaps in their health needs being met at the right time.
◼ The partnership does not ensure consistency in the multi-agency response for disabled
children and young people on child protection plans. Specialist health support services discharge disabled children on child protection plans who do not attend appointments without first informing or engaging the professional network to support the attendance. This prevents children and young people having continued necessary support.
◼ Planning for children and young people with SEND in care post-18 is not always
started early enough. This results in some young people experiencing a crisis that could have been avoided.
◼ Formal carers assessments are not undertaken. This means that parents and carers do
not have access to the full range of support to help them meet the additional needs of their child with SEND.
◼ Too many children and young people with SEND are permanently excluded in
Sheffield. This is often the result of unmet needs. Once excluded, many children and young people have unacceptable breaks in their education, and this further disengages them from school. The work of the partnership has not had a positive impact on the quality of AP.
◼ Too few children and young people are reintegrated back into schools after time in AP.
They remain in AP so there is no space for further referrals when children and young people need the service. The partnership has identified the need to strengthen the checks made on the quality of education provided in AP settings. This is yet to be implemented.
◼ Some education transitions in the partnership do not support children and young
people to succeed. This includes transitions from AP to mainstream education, from primary to secondary education and, for some, from school to post-16 education.
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◼ Too many children and young people with SEND on post-16 courses do not complete
their education. The partnership is working to address this through collaborative groups and expanding its pre- and post-16 offer. There is a need to improve the quality and coordination of careers information and guidance for children and young people with SEND across the partnership.
◼ The partnership does not offer a suitable level of quality assurance and guidance for
EHC plans. Therefore, the plans lack specificity in relation to the provision of services that should work together to deliver outcomes across education, health and social care. Many of the children and young people’s key needs are not identified well, and cannot be linked to a measured outcome.
◼ EHC plans lack meaningful content about preparation for adulthood and contributions
from the child or young person. This means that their aspirations, current talents and interests are not being identified or reflected in their plans. Some young people begin courses at post-16 that are not appropriate for them, which increases the risk of the young person dropping out of education.
◼ Too many EHC plans do not identify important information such as personal budgets.
Children’s social care and health needs are not reflected in their plans and as a result their needs are not being met at the right time.
◼ In addition, plans do not reflect true multi-agency working. Too often, the focus is on
a single agency such as education providing the outcome measure within the EHC plan. This means that children and young people who have complex needs have gaps in their provision.
◼ Out of date EHC plans negatively impact on transitions. For example, leaders are
basing decisions for places in post-16 provision on information that does not correctly represent the young person at that time.
Areas for priority action
Responsible body Areas for priority action Sheffield City Council and South Yorkshire Icb
Leaders across the partnership must act with urgency to:
◼ ensure that amended EHC plans are completed and
issued in a timely way ◼ ensure EHC plans better reflect the current needs
and provision for the child or young person across health, education and social care, particularly as they move through different phases of education ◼ improve and embed processes for the quality
assurance of EHC plans and annual reviews. Sheffield City Council and South Yorkshire Icb
The partnership must continue to strengthen its work to further meet the needs of children and young people by:
◼ working at pace to implement the next phase of
changes to arrangements for identifying, assessing and meeting the needs of children.
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◼ developing and implementing arrangements for
diagnostic assessment of autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (Adhd) ◼ improving the coordination and accessibility of pre-
and post-diagnostic support. Sheffield City Council and South Yorkshire Icb
The local area partnership must continue to work at pace to improve communication by:
◼ transforming the way that they co-produce, inform,
consult and involve all partners, especially children and families ◼ deepening and embedding cultural change in
relationships between families and practitioners in the local area ◼ further building trust and confidence in the
partnership’s ambition for children and their approach to improving their experiences and outcomes ◼ ensuring that all key stakeholders in the journey of
a child and young person with SEND communicate effectively with one another to ensure the best outcomes for them in Sheffield.
Areas for improvement
Areas for improvement The local area partnership should continue to work together to ensure that children and young people are able to access timely support for the following services:
◼ speech, language and communication therapy ◼ CAMHS for children and young people to age 25 with SEND ◼ video fluoroscopy. The partnership should further develop the culture of inclusion by:
◼ improving the experience of children, young people and families through enhancing
the planning and support around key transition points, such as the move between educational phases, reintegration from AP and in preparation for adulthood ◼ improving the understanding of leaders and educators, especially in secondary
schools, to better meet the needs of children who are at risk of exclusion.
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Local area partnership details
Local authority Integrated care board Sheffield City Council
NHS South Yorkshire Icb
Meredith Teasdale, Strategic Director of Children’s Services
Gavin Boyle, Chief Executive Officer
www.sheffield.gov.uk
www.southyorkshire.icb.nhs.uk Town Hall Pinstone Street Sheffield S1 2HH
197 Eyre St Sheffield City Centre Sheffield S1 3FG
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 from education and social care; a lead Children’s Services Inspector from the Care Quality Commission (CQC); and another Children’s Services Inspector from the CQC.
Inspection team
Ofsted Care Quality Commission Mary Cook, Ofsted HMI, lead inspector Thomas Davis, CQC lead inspector Hannah Millett, Ofsted HMI Harriet Doran, CQC inspector Margaret Burke, Ofsted HMI
Area SEND inspection report: Sheffield Local Area Partnership 10 to 14 March 2025 9
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 children looked after, safeguarding and child protection.
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