Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of SEND provision in schools in (a) Bedfordshire and (b) the East of England.

Bedford Borough was inspected by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in November 2024 and received the strongest possible 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”.

In 2022, Ofsted and CQC revisited the area of Central Bedfordshire to decide whether sufficient progress had been made in addressing the areas of significant weakness detailed in its 2019 inspection. They found sufficient progress in three of six significant weaknesses.

The department and NHS England continue to support and challenge the local area by assessing progress and providing advice through a SEND expert advisor.

Since the introduction of the current Ofsted and CQC Area SEND inspection framework in January 2023, five local areas in the East of England have undergone inspections. Suffolk and Hertfordshire were found to have systemic failings, while Southend-on-Sea exhibited typically inconsistent outcomes. In contrast, Bedford Borough, as stated above, demonstrated generally positive outcomes. Cambridgeshire was inspected in January 2025, but the report has not yet been published.

The department issued improvement notices to Hertfordshire and Suffolk and is working with NHS England to continue to assess progress against priority and strategic action plans.