Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the provision of SEND services in Ashford constituency.

Following the inspection of Kent’s special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in January 2019, inspectors reported nine significant areas of weakness, requiring the local area to produce a Written Statement of Action.

A revisit by Ofsted and CQC took place in September 2022. The report was published on 9 November 2022 and judged that the local area had not made sufficient progress in addressing any of its significant weaknesses, which were:

(i) A widely held concern of parents that the local area is not able, or in some cases not willing, to meet their children’s needs.

(ii) A variable quality of provision and commitment to inclusion in schools.

(iii) That parents and carers have a limited role in reviewing and designing services for children and young people with SEND.

(iv) An inability of current joint commissioning arrangements to address known gaps and eliminate longstanding weaknesses in services.

(v) Poor standards achieved and poor progress made by too many children and young people with SEND.

(vi) The inconsistent quality of the education, health and care (EHC) plan process.

(vii) Weak governance of SEND arrangements across the EHC system at strategic and operational level.

(viii) Unacceptable waiting times for children and young people to be seen by some health services.

(ix) A lack of effective systems to review and improve outcomes for those children and young people whose progress to date has been limited by weaknesses in provision.

Every child and young person with SEND should have access to high quality services. Where a council does not meet requirements to provide appropriate support for these children, the department will take action to prioritise their needs and bring about rapid improvement. That is why Kent County Council (KCC) was issued with an Improvement Notice in March 2023, setting out the steps expected of them to raise standards in their SEND services.

After reviewing the actions that KCC has taken to improve its SEND services, the department lifted its Improvement Notice in August 2024 on the basis that KCC has met the conditions set out within it. The department continues to maintain close oversight of services and the further improvements KCC must make to ensure every child and young person with SEND has access to high quality services, including through regular review meetings, close working with NHS England, and the continued support of a department commissioned SEND Advisor.