Report of the Director of Education

In November 2021, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission conducted a joint inspection of Manchester to judge how effectively the local area has implemented the special educational needs and disability reforms introduced in 2014. The outcome letter following this inspection has now been published. This report highlights the main areas of strength and areas for development set out in the letter.

The Committee received a report of the Director of Education which highlighted the main areas of strength and areas for development identified in the joint inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to judge how effectively Manchester had implemented the special educational needs and disability reforms introduced in 2014.

The main points and themes within the report included:

• The inspection process;
• The outcomes of the inspection; and
• The letter from Ofsted and the CQC, which was appended to the report.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• To welcome the positive outcome of the inspection and to thank those involved for their hard work;
• Were any of the identified areas for development unexpected and did the Council have the resources to accelerate work to improve the identified areas;
• Home school transport, including travel training for children and young people; and
• The importance of early identification of SEND.

The Director of Education advised that there were no surprises within the letter from Ofsted and the CQC but that it was disappointing that one of the areas highlighted had been that the local offer was not understood by all parents.  She reported that a lot of work had been done to communicate the local offer to parents through a range of means, which Ofsted had acknowledged, and sometimes parents were not aware that the information they had found online was from the local offer website, which could have affected the way they answered the question that Ofsted had put to them; however, she acknowledged that the website could be improved and that the service would look at this.  She advised that addressing the areas for development was mainly about improving communication and improving efficiency and effectiveness in areas such as home school transport rather than requiring more resources.  The SEND Lead explained that travel training was part of the home school transport offer and included enabling young people to travel to college and work-based learning and travel for fun and leisure.  She informed Members of plans to expand the number of people who were skilled and qualified to provide travel training.

In response to a Member’s question regarding school places, the Director of Education advised that the aim was that children would be able to go to their local school, whether mainstream or special, and that the move to more generic special school provision would support this; however, she advised that sometimes places were not available in the right place at the right time and, where a child with SEND was placed at a school further away, the Council would provide home school transport arrangements.  She highlighted the recent investment in increasing special school places, the new primary special free school in Blackley and the expansion of existing special schools and advised that this was an ongoing piece of work.  She also highlighted the excellent work of many mainstream schools in the city, which enabled children with SEND to thrive in the mainstream sector.  The Chair recognised the positive impact that being supported in mainstream schools had had on many children and young people, including those with moderate learning disabilities. 

The SEND Lead informed Members about the SEND Early Years Pathway, which involved a range of professionals and teams, including different types of early years settings, working on early intervention of SEND.  She reported that the percentage of children receiving health visitor checks at 9 months and two years was higher in Manchester than the national average and that these figures were monitored; however, she recognised the impact that the pandemic had had on early identification, as fewer parents had been engaging with services or sending their children to early years settings.  The Chair expressed concern about the impact of the pandemic on babies and young children.  She advised that the Committee would look at health visiting at a future meeting.

Decision

To consider health visiting at a future meeting.