Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out a Local Area SEND Inspection of the Bolton local area in June of this year.
The report has been published by Ofsted today and Bolton has received the following outcome:
“The local area partnership’s special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) arrangements typically lead to positive experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND. The local area partnership is taking action where improvements are needed.”
Of the three potential outcomes, this is the highest rating an area can achieve, and the first area within the North West to receive this outcome. Click on the image below to read the full report.
Bolton Parent Carers are very pleased that the commitment and effort of our local area has been acknowledged through this inspection. In Bolton we are fortunate to have many dedicated professionals who are driven to improving the experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND. We are delighted that the inspectors highlighted the work of our forum and recognised the commitment of the local area to co-production “The local area partnership is committed to co-production. Its success lies in how well all partners work together. Bolton Parent Carers, are an equal and valued strategic partner.“
However, we know, and work with, many families who will not identify their own challenging experiences in this report. We fully agree that those challenges are not reflected in this report. Therefore I wanted to share my experience of the inspection so you can understand how parents and carers experiences were incorporated into the inspection.
As a forum, we had the opportunity to participate in various aspects of the inspection. It was evident that the team of inspectors conducted a thorough and forensic assessment of our local area. They met with a large number of professionals and practitioners from across education, health and social care during the inspection and visited a number of settings. This included capturing the experiences of children and young people from 0-25, those with EHC Plans and without, looked after children with SEND and also those attending alternative provisions.
However, In a change from the 2016 Local Area SEND Inspection, the revised framework created by Ofsted and the CQC no longer includes opportunities for parents and carers to meet directly with the inspection team. Instead, a survey is now used to collect feedback from parents and carers. The survey is open for a limited amount of time. There were over 500 responses from Bolton’s parents and carers.
Bolton Parent Carers had a meeting with the Chief Inspector and a CQC representative prior to their visit to Bolton to share our experiences. We had the chance to provide our honest opinions about the challenges of being a parent carer in Bolton. It was evident during the meeting that the inspection team had had the opportunity to carefully review the survey responses and asked us to expand on various topics.
Bolton Information Advisory Service were also provided with the same opportunity and were able to discuss the types of issues parents approach the service about and the challenges faced by the service.
Inspections are a snapshot in time, and our focus as we move into a new academic year is to ensure that, following the publication of the report, our local area professionals recognise that there remains a huge amount of work to be done to improve the experiences of SEND here in Bolton. Both Bolton Parent Carers and Bolton Information Advisory Service will strive to continue in our work towards this.
Nan Cooper, Chairperson.
August 30th 2024