Wokingham Borough Council: Area SEND full inspection

Local area partnership report

Area SEND inspection of Wokingham Local Area Partnership

Inspection dates: 26 to 30 January 2026

Dates of previous inspection: 11 to 13 May 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 3 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

Wokingham Borough Council and Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (Icb) are responsible for commissioning and planning the services for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).

The commissioning of health services changed across England in 2022. The responsibility for health services in Berkshire West Ccg passed to Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board Icb in July 2022 and Wokingham Borough Council and the Icb work together to deliver a whole-service approach for education, social care and health services. There have been changes to some leadership posts across the local area partnership since the previous inspection. These include new, permanent appointments and changes to the governance structure.

Wokingham Borough Council commissions alternative provision (AP) for children or young people, including for those who cannot attend school due to social, emotional and mental health and medical needs, medical needs or for those who are at risk of or have been permanently excluded through a range of providers. The local authority maintains a list of registered and unregistered AP.

Area SEND inspection report: Wokingham Local Area Partnership 26 to 30 January 2026 2

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

Overall, children and young people with SEND in Wokingham experience a system where, while they may encounter some skilled and dedicated professionals who care for and support them, this is overshadowed by widespread and systemic weaknesses in the quality, timeliness and coordination of their support. Too many face long waits, inconsistent provision and a lack of clear oversight, which affects their learning, health, wellbeing and confidence. While some experience effective, personalised support from dedicated staff, this is not reliably the case, and many children and young people do not receive the right help at the right time. In the absence of established strategic oversight and joined-up working, early improvements have not translated into improved experiences or outcomes for children, young people and their families.

When children and young people with SEND in Wokingham have the opportunity to attend inclusive community groups and educational settings, they value and appreciate feeling welcomed and understood. Those who encounter trusted adults who know them well describe positive relationships that help them feel safe and able to express their views. However, these experiences are not universal, and some children and young people report that they do not always feel listened to and that their needs are not met reliably.

Investment in a permanent SEND team has been made, and this impact can be seen, as where education, health and care (EHC) plans are new or clearly written, children and young people experience better‑matched provision. However, many have outdated plans or provision that is unclear or no longer appropriate. This leads to delays in securing suitable settings and contributes to children and young people experiencing instability, part‑time timetables or time out of education altogether. Some rely on fragmented education packages that limit their access to a full curriculum as well as a peer group to support their social development.

Some parents and carers and children and young people in mainstream schools told inspectors that they do not always receive the support set out in their EHC plans. Some do not understand their own plans or how they can shape them. Children and young people reported feeling that decisions are made about them rather than with them. Several young people shared that some school staff do not understand their needs, and a few described punitive responses to behaviour that is because of an unmet need. This affects their confidence, wellbeing and, for some, their sense of belonging in school. Long waits for EHC needs assessment and access to support further reinforce a sense of uncertainty about their future.

While some children and young people benefit from coordinated support through joint clinics or well-organised 0 to 19 public health nursing, for some, health input in Ot and neurodiversity assessments is marked by long waits. Children and young people routinely wait too long for occupational therapy and autism assessments and significantly longer for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (Adhd) assessments. Delays in receiving wheelchairs mean that some unmet needs pose a risk of discomfort

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or pain, reduced mobility and isolation from school and everyday activities. Families describe a sense of ‘managing alone’ while waiting for essential support. Not all children and young people can access the dynamic support register (Dsr) because a diagnosis is required. Access to mental health support also varies. While some children and young people experience timely support, long specialist waits for Learning Disability Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services mean some children struggle without timely help.

Many children, young people and their families who access short breaks, early help or other support from the social care children with disabilities service experience warm, relationship‑based practice. Where needs are identified early, families appreciate the support offered. However, missed opportunities for early intervention mean some children and young people only receive targeted early help support when pressures have escalated. Leaders have a clear understanding of the ongoing pressures on short breaks capacity and have taken proactive steps to expand and strengthen provision. Families value the expansion of the club hub offer, and creative interim solutions are enabling some disabled children with the most complex health and/or learning needs to access timely support while longer-term capacity is built.

Some families describe a system in which some who are able to advocate strongly, sometimes through private assessments, legal challenge or persistent follow‑up, may be more likely to secure timely and appropriate support. This can lead to some inequity where children and young people whose families find it harder to navigate the system may wait longer, experience delays or miss out on services entirely. Complex referral routes, inconsistent communication and variable professional understanding of SEND compound this divide.

What is the area partnership doing that is effective?

◼ Many committed professionals across the partnership demonstrate determination

to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND. Recent significant local authority investment supports this ambition. Leaders identify resilience, stability and motivation in the workforce as key drivers of ongoing change. Practitioners and families appreciate the now more established consistency in the SEND team. Children, young people and families highlight the difference made by staff, who take time to understand their needs, reflecting emerging strengths in relational practice across education, health and social care.

◼ The Parent Carer Forum (Pcf) ‘SEND voices Wokingham’ reflected that they are a

valued partner by the more stable leadership which has now been established within the SEND team. Sendias offers well‑established, valued support for families. It maintains constructive links with the SEND team and contributes to strategic development, supporting hundreds of families. While rising SEN support enquiries stretch its capacity, Sendias remains a trusted source of impartial advice for parents, carers and professionals.

◼ Foundations for more coordinated and preventative health support are emerging.

The Dsr, visible on the local offer, has been co‑produced with the parent carer forum, helps identify risk and coordinate action. Assessments for those who are on

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the Dsr demonstrate effective coordinated planning and care.

◼ The 0 to 19 service works jointly across nursing, paediatrics, early years and

voluntary sector partners, promoting early identification and school readiness. Community paediatric pathways offer strong early intervention and responsive care for specific conditions. Continuing health care works well across the partnership to support young people into adult continuing health care.

◼ Early years speech and language therapy provides timely access and specialist

dysphagia pathways are responsive to meet need. Occupational therapists and physiotherapists demonstrate strong advocacy, prioritising those with highest clinical risk despite system pressures. The early years hub provides timely and high-quality support, including drop‑ins, swift educational psychology advice and clear templates for individual education plans based on parent and child voice.

◼ Revised ordinarily available provision guidance and targeted training are

strengthening workforce knowledge, particularly for early years practitioners and school special educational needs coordinators (SENCO). The SENCO network and educational psychologists help develop expertise across settings, and outreach services support mainstream schools to develop inclusive practice. The schools‑led partnership through the Wokingham Borough Education Partnership brings leaders together, identifying local SEND priorities, such as promoting the better use of AP.

◼ The Multi‑Agency Inclusion Clinic (Maic) is showing increasingly effective practice.

It supports earlier identification of needs such as emotionally based school avoidance and enables schools to access timely advice that prevents escalation. Schools value its input. Although early in development, Maic is promoting more proactive, multi‑agency decision‑making.

◼ Children and young people with SEND in Wokingham generally achieve well

academically. The area partnership has introduced the Partnerships for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools programme. This project aims to test a new approach to better support neurodiverse students in some mainstream primary schools, focusing on staff knowledge, improving skills and creating supportive school environments.

◼ Support for young people at risk of not being in education, employment or training

is strengthening through skills assessments, mentoring and coordinated work with the virtual school and social care. Some further education settings provide effective support for independence and community participation. There has been recent investment, including additional post-16 places created in a local specialist provision, and a new hub opening in September 2026. However, leaders recognise the need to continue to address gaps in suitable post‑16 options.

◼ Most young people and their carers said that transitions between children’s and

adults’ social care was effective. Parents are supported to understand processes and there is timely information-sharing between children’s and adults services supporting smooth transitions.

◼ Helping earlier is a strategic priority, supported by a refreshed helping early

strategy. Reduced early help waiting times and the creation of more early help coordinators enable quicker access to community‑based support for children and

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young people with SEND. Social care services ensure children and young people with SEND, who need targeted or specialist support, experience smoother transitions between levels of need.

What does the area partnership need to do better?

◼ Some children and young people with SEND and their families do not feel

consistently valued as equal partners in shaping services and individual plans. The Pcf continues to highlight barriers such as health governance, long‑standing difficulties accessing neurodevelopmental pathways and short breaks, and inconsistency in EHC plan implementation and SEND communication. The local area partnership must strengthen accountability and governance across the wider system.

◼ The local area partnership is aware of the need for a robust, data‑informed Joint

Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) to understand the current and emerging needs of children and young people with SEND in Wokingham. Leaders need a shared, data‑informed view of local need, robust quality assurance and improved business‑intelligence systems to ensure their intentions improve the daily experiences of children, young people and families.

◼ The Local Area Partnership’s risk register reflects key areas of risk but is not

supported by an accurate and specific understanding of the number of children and young people affected. The lack of time-bound recovery steps linked to clear assurance mechanisms does not reflect on the actions being taken to mitigate the impact of these risks sufficiently for children and young people.

◼ Extensive delays in wheelchair services, poor data quality and the absence of a

fully developed recovery plan leave children in pain, at risk of injury and unable to participate fully in education or community life. The Icb is now working closely with providers to address quality and performance concerns and is taking corrective action.

◼ Governance and oversight of children and young people with SEND in residential

and out of area provision is not fully multi-agency because there is inconsistent health representation on strategic boards. This limits the holistic oversight of children and young people’s needs and health outcomes.

◼ Long delays for autism, Adhd, occupational therapy and physiotherapy mean that

children and young people are not receiving assessment at the right time. The CAMHS service for children with Learning Disabilities is also affected by long delays. These delays in assessment also act as a barrier to accessing other support such as the Dsr, for the most vulnerable children and young people. The commissioned respiratory physiotherapy service requires urgent review to ensure that it is delivered.

◼ Some practitioners are unaware of the local offer, and inconsistent shared‑care

arrangements for Adhd medication undermine safe management and system alignment.

◼ Recent investment and the delivery of additional specialist and resource base

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places have slowed the rate of increase in independent and out of area settings. However, the legacy of lack of investment and not keeping up with increased demand means that sufficiency pressures on the system remain. These placements present challenges with oversight, and some children and young people travel further from their homes to receive a suitable education. Some children remain on the roll of their current school even after a specialist setting has been named in their EHC plan, and they still cannot access the specialist provision identified. As a result, some children receive non-school-based packages combining online tuition and AP. There are established quality assurance processes to offset the use of unregistered provision. However, leaders acknowledge that some provision does not always provide the ambitious education they want for children and young people.

◼ Although early work has just started, the partnership lacks systems to oversee

school attendance, use of AP and part-time timetables. Current monitoring is child by child, with no systematic analysis of duration or patterns by school or cohort. A significant proportion of children and young people with EHC plans are educated in independent and non-maintained special schools, including some out of area. Their attendance and outcomes are not routinely analysed. This limits leaders’ understanding of effectiveness and equity, leaving gaps in oversight of their progress and attendance.

◼ Despite revised ordinarily available provision guidance, families explained that

some mainstream schools still misinterpret needs as behaviour. Inconsistent application of reasonable adjustments causes anxiety and reduced trust. Some children and young people described experiences as traumatic. Some children and young people shared that this is particularly the case when requests for movement breaks or regulating strategies are met with disproportionate, unhelpful responses.

◼ Leaders know that short breaks capacity remains insufficient. Although

commissioning is underway and underpinned by a detailed co‑produced plan, it is at an early stage of delivery, leading to uneven access for families.

◼ Families do not consistently receive sufficiently timely, accessible and personalised

information about the process of transition between children’s social care and adult services. Some parents do not feel well enough informed about how their child’s rights and entitlements will be protected into young adulthood. For those young people who do not have eligible social care and support needs, some families note that they do not consistently receive sufficiently timely, accessible and personalised information about the process of transition between children’s and adult services. Some families do not feel well enough informed about how their child’s rights and entitlements will be protected into young adulthood.

Areas for priority action

Responsible body Areas for priority action Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board

The Icb must urgently develop and implement a sustainable recovery plan for wheelchair services so that children and young people receive timely assessment,

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repairs and provision. These plans need clear performance measures, robust data, and time‑bound actions to address the significant risks to children’s health, mobility and access to education and community life. Wokingham Local Area Partnership

The local area partnership must develop and maintain a robust, data‑informed JSNA that accurately reflects the current and emerging needs of children and young people with SEND in Wokingham. This must be used consistently to inform strategic planning, commissioning decisions and oversight across education, health and social care. Wokingham Local Area Partnership

The local area partnership must deliver a recovery plan to rapidly improve the quality and accuracy of EHC plans, ensuring clear, current and evidence‑based provision that fully aligns with health contributions. Quality‑assurance processes across all agencies must be strengthened so EHC plans reflect children and young people’s assessed needs and are implemented effectively.

Areas for improvement

Areas for improvement The partnership should improve joint commissioning, data‑sharing and multi‑agency governance so that services work together effectively to plan, deliver and assure high‑quality provision for children and young people with SEND in Wokingham. This includes strengthening oversight across education, health and social care to ensure provision is equitable, sustainable and aligned to need. The partnership should ensure that the recovery plan for the equipment service is fully implemented, monitored and embedded so that children and young people receive timely, needs led assessment and intervention. The partnership should ensure that its sufficiency strategies, including for AP, and for short breaks, are securely enacted and embedded so that there is a sufficient range of high-quality provision to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND. Leaders across the partnership should improve communication to professionals, parents and carers and children and young people, especially about the local offer, so that available services, their strategies, actions and impact are better understood.

The Partnership needs to review the identification of children with Ld who are eligible for an annual health check and health action plan to ensure they are registered on their Gp records as eligible. This should be promoted by the Partnership and include clear communication to families on the benefits of the annual review. The partnership should ensure that recovery plans for occupational therapy, neurodevelopmental pathways, respiratory physiotherapy and CAMHS Ld are fully implemented, monitored and embedded so that children and young people receive timely, needs‑led assessment and intervention.

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Local area partnership details

Local authority Integrated care board Wokingham Borough Council Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Emma Cockerell, Director of Children’s Services

Nick Broughton, Chief Executive of Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Boards www.wokingham.gov.uk www.bucksoxonberksw.icb.nhs.uk Shute End, Wokingham, Berkshire, RG40 1BN

Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire West Icb First Floor Unipart House Garsington Road Cowley OX4 2PG 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 Jo Petch, Ofsted HMI, Lead inspector Harriet Doran, CQC Lead inspector Esther Brooks, Ofsted Inspector Thomas Davies, CQC inspector Steve Bailey, Ofsted HMI

Area SEND inspection report: Wokingham Local Area Partnership 26 to 30 January 2026 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 looked-after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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