Because we want to let you know what we’re doing following our local area SEND inspection – it’s important to all of us and together we can make even more of a difference
A local area inspection isn’t just about the council, it’s about each partner’s role in working together.
A SEND local area inspection is a review of how well Education, Health, and Social Care services in a local area meet the needs of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). The inspectors are from Ofsted (Education and Social Care) and the
Care Quality Commission (CQC) (Health).
They heard from parents, carers, children and young people as well as Education, NHS – Health / Locala, C + K Careers, Voluntary and Third sector such as PCAN (Parents of Children with Additional
Needs), Children’s Services including Social Care and other council services such as Adult Social Care. They also looked into areas in detail for themselves.
Each of these ‘Big Plans’ are written in a way that they can be read on their own but connect to the
others. Our first Big Plan set out what we were doing over five years. The Big Plan Part 2 - what
we’re doing next, shared more detail about 2025. Our young people, parent carer forum (PCAN)
and partners helped us create each of the Big Plans together.
In this, the Big Plan Part 3, we share key information about our recent Local Area SEND inspection and what we’re doing over the next year. The inspection told us what we were doing well and what else is needed and where we can improve as a partnership.
This adds to the other Big Plans and doesn’t mean we’re not doing the things that our other plans have detailed.
This is important for everyone, but mainly young people and those who live or work with children
and young people who have Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) from birth to 25 years old.
Because you have the power to make a difference every day. We see so many great examples of that
happening, and we know we can connect better.
We’ll be working with all the organisations in our partnership mentioned above. We’ve also heard what our young people, parents and carers have said – ‘don’t keep asking the same questions when we’ve already told you’, so we’ll use what we’ve been told to shape what we do and how we do it.
We’ll also continue to listen to the voices of our young people and work closely with PCAN. We’ll look for opportunities to engage parents, carers and voluntary organisations as we go forward by connecting at key times on specific subjects.
You can see some examples in the roadmaps below, including the new youth forum that will meet in autumn 2025 as well as spring and summer in 2026. We will make sure that we are open about progress and challenges and share updates on the local offer so people can see what’s happening.
We’re looking to make sure our children, young people and their families have a consistently positive experience. That means the right things happening at the right times and the actions and milestones in our plans will help with that.
The inspection told us that we are inconsistent in how we deliver our SEND provision. They identified a lot of good work happening across the SEND transformation programme and 4 areas that we need to focus on. The full report can be found on the Ofsted website – inspection report on the Ofsted website (opens link in new window).
They told us that:-
They were very positive about many things including our Big Plan and cluster working. They said we put children at the heart of what we’re doing and decision making - we listen to children and young people’s voices and that means that children and young people shape local developments that affect them for example, our student’s getting involved in the design of the rebuilding of their schools.
We also know there’s lots more to do and we’re extremely ambitious for every child and family in Kirklees.
The local area SEND inspectors raised 4 areas of focus:–
When we say therapeutic services, we mean:-
The wording in the report can be found here – Kirklees Area SEND Inspection - Ofsted (opens link in new window)
Each of our areas of improvement are shown below so you can see our actions and when we will do them.
Action - What are we doing
This work is being led by: Service Director for Learning.
The way we will check if we are making progress
We will review how partners work together (including through our peer review) and ensure there are clear and measurable outcomes for Preparation for Adulthood.
Effective forecasting, planning and preparation is evidenced in our SEND sufficiency plan.
SENDCos (Special Education Needs and / or Disabilities Coordinator) surveyed to confirm their confidence levels which then means training / support can be arranged
Audits show improvement - Year 9 and above EHCP reviews have evidence of support from education, health, and social care professionals.
20% of new Education Health and Care Plans and Annual Reviews will be audited to ensure consistency and quality.
The number of young people with additional needs including those with EHCPs accessing Education, Employment and Training are in line with national and regional averages.
Together with our partners including PCAN, parents, carers and young people, review our Preparation for Adulthood work.
Together with our Parent and Carer Forum and partners, review and update information and guidance for parents and young people on the Local Offer.
Work with our DfE Advisor to look in detail at our Annual Reviews with a focus on transitions (steps children take as they grow and move on like moving to a new school year or school).
Work with our Regional Sector Led Improvement team to carry out a ‘peer review’ on how we approach ‘Preparing for Adulthood’ in Kirklees.
Identify training opportunities that help everyone do Annual Reviews in the same clear and helpful way.
Look closely at information about children with SEND to make sure there are enough services, ‘pathways’ and support to meet their needs .
We will work with our SEND Employment Forum to explore routes into jobs and supported internships.
From the outcomes of Peer Review, use recommendations to strengthen our Preparation for Adulthood action plan
Start to put in place arrangements to hear young people’s views – this will give a clear understanding of their hopes and dreams to inform what extra things are needed for Education, Employment and Training pathways.
Start to implement the recommendations from the peer review.
Review activity with our partners, including DfE / NHS England and PCAN, from the last year and start to plan for the next period.
This work is being led by: Head of Children’s Integrated Commissioning.
The way we will check if we are making progress
Performance and waiting times of SEND Health services will improve in line with national trajectories.
Over time, a reduction in waiting times; reduction in referrals to specialist services; children, young people and parents feel they got the right help at the right time.
Progress our wheelchair improvement plan, host a service user engagement event and use ‘one-off’ money to help shorten the waiting list.
Review the funding and contractual arrangements to deliver an effective and safe wheelchair service to meet the needs of the children.
Begin to use the West Yorkshire Neurodiversity framework for autism and ADHD assessments.
Develop a new dashboard which clearly describes performance and outcomes across the range of SEND Health services.
From a child perspective, start to review what CAMHS and Speech and Language Services are offering now, how much is needed and how it can be improved.
Share clear and easy to understand information about how long people have to wait for support so parents and professionals know what to expect.
Work with children, young people, their families and key partners to improve ‘clinical care’ to support their mental health – this means things like support from therapists to help someone feel better.
Create new ways to understand how well CAMHS are helping children and young people.
Work together with families and partners to design a better wheelchair service.
Review activity with our partners, inc DfE / NHS England and PCAN, from the last year and start to plan for the next period.
Review the effectiveness of additional short-term funding for wheelchair services.
Building on previous work, develop a new way to provide therapy that uses expert staff in the best way. Help school staff, parents, and others learn how to support children with simple activities that make a difference.
This work is being led by Service Director for Learning.
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The way we will check if we are making progress.
20% of new Education Health and Care Plans and Annual Reviews will be audited to ensure consistency and quality;
Improvement in the number of plans where related sections of Education Health and Care Plans are rated 'good' or better;
Surveys of confidence levels of partners.
Using our Quality Assurance Framework, we will continue to review the quality of new and existing EHCPs.
We will develop reports so that all steps in the Annual Review process can be tracked and identify initial areas for improvement, this enables a shared understanding across the Partnership.
We will focus on reviews from change of phase age children and young people to ensure the transition to the next steps of their education, health and care can be as positive as possible.
Work with SENDCo Network, Headteacher Forums, Cluster Communities, Family Hubs to share information and listen to feedback to support improvement.
Work in partnership with professionals to improve the way advice is shared and understood (services sharing their QA process).
Develop clear and simple standards to help health and social care teams give better advice during EHCP reviews. These standards will make sure advice is shared on time, written in a way that’s easy to understand, helps with good decision-making, and is updated properly if things change.
Survey key staff to understand confidence levels about their roles and responsibilities, which inform workforce development and supports new starters.
Develop a detailed, planned approach for bringing Annual Reviews up to date, and sharing this across the partnership and with parents and carers.
Improve Education Health and Care Plan ways of working to help everyone do things the same way.
Children and Family Portal created to support documentation for Education Health and Care Plan sharing and improve communication and engagement with families and partners.
We will, as a partnership develop practice standards focussing on contributions to EHCP reviews. This will include timeliness, quality of written advice, quality of decision making and any subsequent amendments.
Satisfaction surveys developed as a partnership and responses collated to enable us to improve experiences.
Review activity with our partners, including DfE / NHS England and PCAN, from the last year and start to plan for the next period.
This work is being led by the Service Director for Learning.
The way we will check if we are making progress.
% of families reporting they know where to get help while waiting; % of children accessing interim support services.
A clear process is in place and audited annually to ensure all relevant partners are informed.
We will meet regularly with the Department for Education, NHS England and our Parent Carer forum representatives for challenge and support and we’ll give public updates 4 times a year.
Consistency of experience across the partnership – making sure we do the right things at the right time for and with people in Kirklees is key. We’ll use the ‘measures’ in the action plan above to help understand progress and challenges. We’ll use the things our children, young people, parents and carers tell us to help change what we do and how we do it.
The work will be overseen by the Health and Wellbeing Board which has senior people from across our partnership. These include Councillors, the Voluntary sector, Police and Health as well as Council Services.
We will report into the Council’s chief executive and directors every 6 weeks as well as reporting progress and challenges with our partners including the ICB, Education and our cross-partner Transformation and Commissioning Group.
The day-to-day work will be managed by the SEND transformation programme board.
We’re extremely ambitious for our children, young people and families in Kirklees. The inspectors noticed our passion to make a difference and we’re calling on all our partners to use all our joint energy to turn the Big Plan part 3 into reality.-
We’re investing in extra expert communication help to develop a strong plan for sharing clear and helpful information with families and partners.
We’ll keep families and partners updated about important steps and events and look for new ways to share more useful information – like when building work starts
ISOS Partnership’s ‘What Works In SEND’ first learning workshop with other Local Authorities.
We will build a way of connecting with young people on a regular basis – we’ll call this a ‘Youth forum’ and hold the first one in Autumn.
Enable the electronic (Liquid Logic) portals for professionals to be made available to support Education Health and Care Planning
Planned face to face regular engagement sessions in place.
Hold a ‘Local Offer Live event’ where families can meet people who provide SEND support across the partnership, ask questions, find out what’s available, join workshops and meet other families / share experiences.
‘Day in the life of a carer’ training delivered to workforce by Parents of Children with Additional Needs
Youth forum held.
Improve our systems so that parents and carers can talk with our teams directly about their children's needs.
ISOS WWIS completed, lessons learned confirmed and future action / plans informed
Enable the electronic (Liquid Logic) portals for parents to be made available to support Education Health and Care Planning.
Consider content of the Local offer and Families Together Gateway using a range of media (videos, bulletins etc) so that information and relevant support is easy to access
Review activity with our partners, including DfE / NHS England and PCAN, from the last year and start to plan for the next period
We will meet regularly with the Department for Education, NHS England and our Parent Carer forum representatives for challenge and support and we’ll give public updates 4 times a year.
Consistency of experience across the partnership – making sure we do the right things at the right time for and with people in Kirklees is key. We’ll use the ‘measures’ in the action plan above to help understand progress and challenges. We’ll use the things our children, young people, parents and carers tell us to help change what we do and how we do it.
The work will be overseen by the Health and Wellbeing Board which has senior people from across our partnership. These include Councillors, the Voluntary sector, Police and Health as well as Council Services.
We will report into the Council’s chief executive and directors every 6 weeks as well as reporting progress and challenges with our partners including the ICB, Education and our cross-partner transformation and Commissioning Group.
The day-to-day work will be managed by the SEND transformation programme board.
We’re extremely ambitious for our children, young people and families in Kirklees. The inspectors noticed our passion to make a difference and we’re calling on all our partners to use all our joint energy to turn the Big Plan Part 3 into reality.
You can also download a PDF version of the SEND – The Big Plan Part 3 SEND inspection – what we’re doing next below.
SEND – The Big Plan Part 3 SEND inspection – what we’re doing next (downloads PDF file)
en-GBLast updated: 06/10/2025