Thurrock Council: Area SEND full inspection

Local area partnership report

Area SEND inspection of Thurrock Local Area Partnership

Inspection dates: 8 December to 12 December 2025

Dates of previous inspection: 13 December to 15 December 2021

Inspection outcome

The local area partnership’s arrangements lead to inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The local area partnership must work jointly to make improvements.

The next full area SEND inspection will be within approximately 3 years.

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) ask that the local area partnership updates and publishes its strategic plan based on the recommendations set out in this report.

Information about the local area partnership

Thurrock Council and the NHS Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board (Icb) are responsible for planning and commissioning services to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND in Thurrock, as part of the Thurrock local area partnership. The partnership oversees the commissioning of local education, social care and health provision for children and young people with SEND.

The commissioning of health services changed across England in 2022. On 1 July 2022, the responsibility for health services in Thurrock passed from the NHS Thurrock Clinical Commissioning Group to the NHS Mid and South Essex Icb.

The Thurrock local area partnership commissions one registered alternative provision (AP) for children and young people with SEND. AP provides education for children or young people, including those who cannot attend schools due to social, emotional and mental health and medical needs, or for those who have been, or are at risk of, being permanently excluded from school. Any other use of AP is commissioned by schools.

Area SEND inspection report: Thurrock Local Area Partnership 8 to 12 December 2025 2

What is it like to be a child or young person with SEND in this area?

Experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND are inconsistent. Children and young people’s views and aspirations are central to some of the area’s work. The youth cabinet, for example, is an effective voice for children and young people with SEND. Children and young people produce important resources in conjunction with the local area partnership. An example of this is the widely disseminated videos about transition between primary and secondary school. While this is the case, sometimes the area involves families in less helpful ways. For example, parents and carers attend online workshops, but do not jointly plan the focus of these workshops. The area recognises that more work needs to be undertaken to ensure the views of more families influence its progress.

Some children and young people with SEND enjoy positive opportunities in their local communities. Where this happens, they develop their social skills and make friends. Summer holiday programmes help them develop confidence through activities such as cooking and digital art. However, the area does not have clubs that cater for the full range of needs. This impacts how some children and young people develop their resilience and independence.

Sometimes, children and young people have their needs identified early and accurately. In early years settings, for example, children typically get prompt and effective support. They thrive. Children and parents enjoy extensive support through early help family hubs. Teams from children’s social care undertake careful assessments which consider children’s views. In these instances, children’s needs are clearly identified. However, some children and young people with SEND have an inconsistent experience. There is a lack of capacity to fulfil antenatal assessments as part of the healthy child programme. Too many looked-after children do not receive initial health assessments within statutory time frames. Where this happens, this impacts how quickly all health needs are understood. Therefore, aspects of support are delayed.

In education settings, children and young people with SEND often do well. They have high rates of attendance. Few are permanently excluded. In primary schools, they achieve positive outcomes in national tests and assessments. However, at secondary and post-16, some children and young people with SEND not in receipt of an education, health and care (EHC) plan do not achieve as well as they should.

While this is the case, many children and young people with SEND enjoy wide-ranging support from the area to access education, employment and training. They benefit from successful supported internships and employability schemes to gain a foothold in the world of work. Low numbers are not in education, employment or training.

Children and young people with SEND often do not get the guidance they require for their health as they progress towards adulthood. Contributions regarding preparation for adulthood to EHC plans are variable. Families sometimes do not know what support is

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available. This leaves some children and young people feeling unheard and unsupported at this crucial time in their lives.

In some health services, children and young people with SEND benefit from timely support. Therapies, such as physiotherapy and occupational therapy, are positive examples. However, access is not consistent across all pathways. Neurodevelopmental diagnostic services often involve significant delays. Families are left uncertain about waiting times. This hampers children and young people’s development and well-being.

The help for children and young people with SEND who are not in school is often effective. Those who are educated other than at school generally receive well-considered packages of support. The area closely tracks the welfare and progress of those with SEND receiving elective home education (Ehe). It has a ‘can do’ approach to this, seeking to empower families to be successful with Ehe.

What is the area partnership doing that is effective?

◼ The local area partnership has identified and addressed some key weaknesses. This

has led to some important outcomes for children and young people with SEND improving. Key examples include reduced therapy waiting times; high attendance rates at school; low levels of permanent exclusion; and positive academic achievement for those with EHC plans.

◼ The local area partnership’s leadership has forged strong partnerships. In particular,

its relationships with and support for educational settings is a strength. Professionals in schools praise the collaborative approach. Special educational needs coordinators receive helpful training and levels of communication. This leads to children and young people with SEND often achieving well and having positive experiences in education.

◼ The Parent Advisory Team Thurrock (the local SEND Information Advice and Support

Service) offers a strong and effective service. Despite rising requests for support, it helps high numbers of families who have questions or difficulties.

◼ The partnership has enhanced its offer of specialist educational provision in response

to rising need. An example of this is the establishment of successful specialist resource bases in schools. This means many children and young people with SEND who cannot access mainstream education find an appropriate setting. As a result, their needs are met more effectively.

◼ There is some effective joint working across the partnership. Early help hubs show

strong multi-agency work. The fair access processes are collaborative and rigorous. These lead to clarity and support for many children and young people with SEND who do not have a school place.

◼ Strong relationships with children and young people with SEND underpin the work of

social care services. The virtual school provides effective support to help to meet the needs of children in care with SEND. The children with disabilities team provides wide-ranging and relevant support to children and young people with SEND and their families. Young adults supported by this team benefit from robust transition arrangements to adult social care, which reduces uncertainty and anxiety. This

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promotes successful outcomes.

◼ There is appropriate monitoring of commissioning arrangements for residential special

schools. Therefore, placements are identified that appropriately meet children and young people’s needs. Children who are placed out of area are regularly visited by social workers. This supports the oversight of children’s well-being and safety.

◼ The local area partnership has a clear strategy for commissioning registered AP.

Children and young people with SEND in this provision do well. The area also commissions outreach support, which successfully reduces permanent exclusions.

◼ The dynamic support register delivers a strong multi-agency response for children

and young people with SEND who are at risk of hospital admission due to mental health needs. The key-worker service enables immediate engagement and rapid allocation of support when children and young people need it.

◼ Therapy services mostly provide positive experiences and outcomes for children and

young people and their families. Advice lines reduce unnecessary referrals and promote early intervention and support. Children and young people with SEND benefit from timely help in occupational therapy and physiotherapy. Therapy assessments are child-centred and lead to useful, holistic support.

◼ The partnership monitors uptake of annual health checks closely. These have clear

action plans to meet needs proactively. One example showed a central register of the needs of patients with learning disabilities, including communication preferences and family support. This enabled reasonable adjustments such as longer- or quieter-time appointments and easy-read letters. As a result, young people were supported to attend the surgery more effectively.

◼ There are minimal waits for children and young people with SEND to access the

specialist child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). This means children who meet the higher threshold to support their mental health often receive help promptly.

◼ The local area partnership plans to redesign neurodevelopmental pathways. Its

current capacity cannot meet the numbers requesting support. Leaders have now identified that meaningful transformation depends on engagement with adult services. The area has a tight oversight of the long waits for this service. It challenges providers where appropriate to improve services. The area understands the impact of delays on families. It monitors risk to children and young people effectively.

◼ The specialist health visitor service plays a key role in supporting children on the

neurodevelopmental pathways. The service provides detailed reports that inform paediatricians’ diagnostic decisions. It works jointly with other teams to identify and reduce barriers to school attendance.

What does the area partnership need to do better?

◼ The timeliness and quality of EHC plans and annual reviews are inconsistent. This has

been affected by high staff turnover in the statutory SEND service, and capacity issues within the educational psychology service. The area has been rectifying this. The timeliness of EHC plans has recently improved. However, annual reviews are not

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timely enough. When they happen, the plan is often not rewritten appropriately. Health professionals are not routinely invited to contribute to annual reviews. Plans use imprecise language, which reduces clarity and accountability. There is variability in the outcomes that relate to preparation for adulthood. These weaknesses limit the effectiveness of the EHC plans to provide the support that children and young people need.

◼ While the local area partnership involves the Thurrock SEND Family Forum in its

strategy, the partnership has not been as successful as it would like in capturing the views of some families. This leaves some children and young people with SEND and their families feeling unheard.

◼ Some of the local area partnership’s systems to use data are not joined up or clear.

The partnership sometimes does not have the health information it needs. For instance, its data for neurodevelopmental waiting lists for 18- to 25-year-olds has large gaps. Its antenatal data is insufficient for meaningful analysis. This hinders the area’s ability to oversee these services. Consequently, it does not evaluate and improve them as well as it might.

◼ The partnership does not track the use of unregistered AP by academies. Because of

this, the partnership is not clear where there are gaps in the provision. This limits the range of its AP strategy. There is a lack of understanding of how well the provision meets children and young people’s needs.

◼ The partnership is not making the antenatal contacts it should as part of the healthy

child programme. Challenges with staff capacity contribute to this. This means opportunities are missed to identify health needs early and support the wellbeing of parents and babies. The resulting delays in support hamper children’s development and widen health inequalities.

◼ Most children in care do not receive initial health assessments within statutory time

frames. As a result, the partnership may not identify all the health needs of very vulnerable children and young people in care with SEND quickly enough. The Icb has identified this risk and has a strong and realistic plan in place to rectify it.

◼ While there are minimal waits for specialist CAMHS, support from other services for

children with mental health needs is inconsistent. Thresholds for support are very high. At lower levels of support, children and young people sometimes do not get the help they need.

◼ There are very long waits on neurodevelopmental pathways. Referrals have increased

significantly without a corresponding rise in workforce capacity. These waits leave families anxious and uncertain. Because of staff shortages, planned support gets cancelled. Clinicians experience considerable stress due to high caseloads.

◼ There is also insufficient capacity for 18- to 25-year-olds on adult

neurodevelopmental pathways. This leads to extensive delays in diagnosis and intervention. These affect the mental health of young people with SEND whose needs were not identified in childhood. This is exacerbated when, after diagnosis, there are further delays in accessing medication and reviews.

◼ There are no formal transition pathways to help children and young people with SEND

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manage their health needs as they enter adulthood. This is a missed opportunity to create continuity of care.

Areas for improvement

Areas for improvement The local area partnership should improve the quality of EHC plans and the timeliness of annual reviews. As part of this, it should ensure that:

▪ all relevant professionals are invited to contribute to annual reviews so that

amended plans reflect the needs of the children and young people and the provision required to meet those needs

▪ plans include detailed information about the support to be provided regarding

preparation for adulthood

Leaders should accelerate their work across the partnership to improve the strategic use of data to commission appropriate services and evaluate their work across education, health and social care. They should ensure that:

▪ they have accurate data that relates specifically to the children and young

people with SEND for which the local area partnership is responsible

▪ there is a focus on indicators of low performance, including antenatal and initial

health assessment data

Health leaders should work at pace to accelerate existing plans to maximise opportunities for early identification of needs and reduce waits for assessments.

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Local area partnership details

Local authority Integrated care board Thurrock Borough Council NHS Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board Sheila Murphy, Executive Director of Children’s Services

Tom Abell, Chief Executive Officer

www.thurrock.gov.uk www.midandsouthessex.ics.nhs.uk/ about/boards/integrated-care-board Civic Offices New Road Grays Essex RM17 6SL

NHS Mid and South Essex Unit 10 Phoenix Court Christopher Martin Road Basildon Essex SS14 3HG 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 another Children’s Services Inspector from the CQC.

Inspection team

Ofsted Care Quality Commission Charlie Fordham, Ofsted HMI, lead inspector Deana Fowle, CQC lead inspector Nicki Shaw, Ofsted HMI Andrea Crosby-Josephs, CQC inspector Amanda Meier, Ofsted Inspector

Area SEND inspection report: Thurrock Local Area Partnership 8 to 12 December 2025 8

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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