The Care Quality Commission and Ofsted published the outcome of the inspection of services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Wolverhampton, which was carried out in September 2021. 

Inspectors spoke with children and young people with SEND, parent carers, leaders for health, social care and education. They reviewed performance data and evidence about the Local Offer and joint commissioning.

The Local Area Review looked at how well the City of Wolverhampton Council, the Black Country Integrated Care Board, The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, the Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, Early Years’ settings, schools and further education providers:  

• identify 
• assess  
• and meet the needs of children and young people with SEND.

The outcomes highlighted both areas of good practice and those which require further development.

Following this, the Written Statement of Action was published on 8 March 2022 which details the steps that members of the SEND and Inclusion Partnership Board will take, and in many cases are already taking, to bring about further improvements to SEND services in Wolverhampton. 

View details on City of Wolverhampton Council's Ofsted Inspections

Monitoring visits

Monitoring visits take place between the city's SEND and Inclusion Partnership Board, the Department for Education, and NHS England to ensure that the outlined development within the Written Statement of Action (WSOA) are progressing. The key findings that have been highlighted during the monitoring visits are mentioned in the sections below:

April 2024

Wolverhampton 'continues to demonstrate strong leadership and governance arrangements for the improvement of services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities' (SEND). SEND is 'very much embedded in a vision for Wolverhampton as an inclusive city where all children and young people can thrive and are respected'.

The key points mentioned during the meeting in April 2024 are:

• Partners 'continue to make sustainable progress' against the activities outlined in the Written Statement of Action, and that this work 'is having a positive impact.'
• Clear and sustained progress had been made to address the below 2 points, which will no longer need to be monitored going forward.
  • implementing strategically planned co-production at every level
  • planning and support of transitions within school age, to 19 and to 25
• The review team were particularly grateful for the contributions from Voice for Parents, our Parent Carer Forum, and from HY5!, our youth forum, whose feedback demonstrates that co-production has improved significantly and is now a strength in Wolverhampton.

November 2023 

Actions have progressed well across all priority areas and issues/ risks raised at the 15-month review have been followed up/ escalated as needed. No actions are now delayed to further improve services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Wolverhampton. 

Key points mentioned:

• Better identification of emerging needs at primary and secondary school with a focus on identifying need rather than labelling. 
  • Understanding need is informing approaches, adjustments and support that is then, put in place. 
  • New means of access to the friends and family test within specialist CAHMS and improved offers of support while waiting diagnosis are in place. 
  • Transparency of waiting lists for SALT, OT, CAHMS and co-produced workstreams addressing the issues. 
• There is improved monitoring and accuracy in Education, Health and Care Plans, and timeliness is now above national average. 
  • Stakeholders demonstrate greater clarity and understanding of the pathways, and parents report improved satisfaction with the process. 
  • Quality assurance in place providing feedback on areas for improvement and monitoring education, health, and care contributions. 
  • Improving the annual review process a work in progress. 
• Further work needs to be done around joint commissioning which is recognised as being at an early stage. 
  • There are now full commissioning teams across both the Integrated care board (ICB) and City of Wolverhampton Council. 
  • A reformed SEND Joint Strategic Commissioning Group is in place. 
  • The formal terms of Jointly commissioned services (e.g. SENDIASS) have joint contract review meetings and governance through the integrated commissioning committee. 
• There is greater evidence of co-production 
  • Young people’s voices heard in SEND strategic developments through HY5! Group and HY5! website. HY5! have developed ‘Inspiring Change’ training and Send and Inclusion Partnership Board received this training on 18 July 2023. 
  • Parent Carer Forum are key strategic partnership member and parent carers involved on workstreams and training opportunities with professionals and engagement with wider parent carer community. 
• There is greater clarity about preparing for adulthood, and transitions at reception, year 6 to 7 and post 16 are increasingly planned and supported. 
  • Employers are open to employing young people with disabilities. 
  • Supported Employment Team working with employers and training providers to assist with inclusion in the workplace. 
• Work is continuing with sharing information, including support systems and the local offer. 
  • The Local Offer and Communications Officer is collaborating with parent carers and professionals to ensure a co-produced LO is established on a new platform. 
  • This work has been effectively co-produced, and schools are valuing Parent Carer Forum experience as they develop their own parent carer engagement and forums. 
  • There are established SENCO networks and a SEND newsletter. 

The area has been advised during this review to further strengthen their focus on gathering impact evidence for both the Written Statement of Action (WSoA) and Self-Evaluation Forms (SEF).

Wolverhampton SEND partnership are well placed to now co-produce a position statement for each of the evaluation criteria in the SEF and for the WSoA.  Position statements should be underpinned with: 

• an explanation of how the area has reached this conclusion and 
• a link to supporting evidence of impact. 
• identified next steps and sustainability 

Wolverhampton have, through their work on the SEF, identified priorities and refreshed the SEND Strategy incorporating inclusion. Consultation on the Draft SEND and Inclusion Strategy began on 18 October 2023. The strategy sets out the vision and priorities of the SEND and Inclusion Partnership Board’s offer to children, young people, and their families.

The priorities within this strategy are adopted from the Department for Education’s SEND & Alternative Provision Improvement Plan 2023 and outcomes are based on the inspection standards set out within the SEND Local Area Inspection Framework. Findings within the Send Specific and Emotional Health and Wellbeing specific Joint Strategic Needs Assessments have been analysed to assist development. 

Key next steps 

Wolverhampton report that key next steps identified from the WSoA will be included within the SEND and Inclusion improvement plan which will detail the actions required to achieve the outcomes for each of the priority area within the strategy. 

The local area partnership will form working groups to deliver the SEND and Inclusion Improvement Plan with representation across social care, education, health and the voluntary/private sectors, children, young people, young adults, and families.  

Strengthening the role of schools and settings will be key, especially in relation to further develop inclusive practice in school pathways and provision for those vulnerable to poor attendance and exclusion.

July 2023

Progress 'is being made against each priority area' to further improve services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Wolverhampton. 

Key points mentioned:

• Better identification of emerging needs at primary and secondary school, with a focus on identifying need informing approaches, adjustments and support that is then put in place. Families have "improved confidence that needs will be met" and, when needed, appropriate and timely Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment referrals will be made.
• There is improved monitoring and accuracy in Education, Health and Care Plans, and timeliness is now above national average. Stakeholders demonstrate greater clarity and understanding of the pathways, and parents report improved satisfaction with the process. 
•  There is greater clarity about preparing for adulthood, and transitions into school, from Year 6 to 7 and post 16, are "increasingly planned and supported". 
•  There is greater evidence of co-production, with the voice of children and young people being heard in SEND strategic developments thanks to the involvement of the HY5! Group, engagement with the wider parent carer community and the involvement of parents and carers are involved on workstreams and training opportunities with professionals. 
•  Meanwhile, the parents, carers and professionals are working together to develop a new Local Offer website which will be launched in the coming months and SEND inclusion support officers are sharing key messages with schools and SEN coordinators, bringing together key messages and training for both staff and parents. 

Further work needs to be done around joint commissioning which is recognised as being at an early stage, and a new commissioning committee met for the first time this month involving partners from across the local area. The review found there is scope to increase the pace and work in this area on co-produced priorities, service design and action planning. 

March 2023  

Progress continues to be made to further improve services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Wolverhampton.  

Key points mentioned:

• ‘the area has continued at pace with sound leadership and governance to lead a consistent programme of actions' in response to a Local Area Review of SEND services in 2021.  
• 'evidence of an enthusiasm across services to develop mechanisms' to show how the area monitors the outcomes for children and young people  
• 'evidence of actions being taken to improve the areas of weakness’ identified by the inspection in 2021'.  
• 'commitment to sustainability' with a number of new posts in place to support children and young people not in education, employment or training, an Inclusion and Attendance Manager and a School Improvement Advisor for Children with a Social Worker.  
• Where there have been delays or barriers these have been escalated in order to achieve a resolution with mitigating plans in place in the meantime.  
• there remain pressures, particularly with waiting lists for children and adolescent mental health services, with scope for a 'joint commissioning activity on co-designing services that both relieve pressure on specialist services and prevent the need to escalate due to long waits'.  
• praise for the city's parent carer forum Voice4Parents, which is 'contributing time and ideas to the development work' and is 'keen to strengthen relationships, widen engagement and to link with harder to reach groups', their support helped develop the city's new Family Hubs, the first of which opened this week.  

December 2022  

Good progress continues to be made to further improve services for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) in Wolverhampton. 

Key points mentioned:

• Considerable evidence of actions being taken by the city’s SEND Partnership Board following a 'Local Area Review' of SEND services which was held last autumn.
• Wolverhampton has put in place "effective governance, strategic leadership, partnership working and co-production". The focus "remains on driving the actions forward at pace".  
• The participation of young people is "emerging as a strength", meaning they can be purposefully engaged in future commissioning activity, and additional staff have been recruited across the SEND partnership to strengthen capacity. 
• The focus is now on considering what difference the changes that are being introduced are having on people's lived experience, with partners gathering evidence from professionals, children, young people and families ahead of a 12-month review meeting next year.  

June 2022  

Review finds ‘well organised’ SEND improvement programme underway. 

Key points mentioned:

• A recent review meeting with the Department for Education concluded that the SEND Partnership Board is taking "full responsibility and oversight" for the Written Statement of Action  
• "evidenced a well organised and coherent improvement programme underpinned by a strong focus on co-production and outcomes for children and young people with SEND".  
• The delivery of the Written Statement of Action is "progressing well" within 3 key areas and, while it is slightly behind in others, this is mainly due to service restructures and is expected to be back on track by the end of the year.  
• A cross party reference group has been established including politicians from the council's Labour and Conservative Groups who are "committed and supportive of the proposals for improvement in Local Area SEND services and the Action Plan". 
• Meanwhile, SEND 'champions' are supporting and embedding SEND expertise across Wolverhampton, bolstering the Local Offer.

This strategy sets out the vision and priorities of the SEND & Inclusion Partnership Board’s offer to children, young people and their families. It also recognises and builds on our strengths and what works well for families. 

View the Wolverhampton Special Education Needs Disability (SEND) and Inclusion Strategy 2024-2027 for more information.

There is also an Easy Read version of the Wolverhampton Special Educational Needs (SEND) and Inclusion Strategy 2024.

This strategy is currently under review and will be updated by shortly.

The Wolverhampton Joint Commissioning Strategy for Children and Young People with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities sets out the vision and key priorities that council and partners in the city want to focus on to improve the lives of children and young people with SEND.

View the Wolverhampton SEND Joint Commissioning Strategy.

JSNA is a City-wide assessment of the current and future health and social care needs of all local people. This data analysis is used to help to determine what actions partners need to take, to meet health and social care needs, to address the root causes of health and wellbeing, and to reduce inequalities between different groups such as age, race and gender. The JSNA should help to inform partners to make decisions that enable Wulfrunians to live longer, healthier, active lives.

To find out more visit Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and Joint Strategic Needs Assessment SEND - SEN Primary Needs.

The city's Health and Wellbeing Together Board is working to improve the health and wellbeing of residents, reduce health inequalities in the city and support the development of better and more joined up health and social care services.

One of the ways it does this is through its Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy, which identifies key priorities for the city.

To find out more please visit Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy. 

The Schools Accessibility strategy is currently under review, further information about this will be provided in due course. 

Educational performance is greatly improved in the City of Wolverhampton. We are incredibly proud of the achievements of the children and young people of our City. Effective education provision is viewed as a key factor in ensuring that Wolverhampton grows and thrives as a City at the heart of the West Midlands.

Improving access to education and educational achievement for pupils with disabilities is essential to ensure equality of opportunity, full participation in society, greater independence, access to employment opportunities and inclusion within mainstream education.

This accessibility strategy sets out the approach that the Council is taking to increase access to education for children and young people with disabilities, so that they can gain maximum benefit from their time in education. This strategy is also designed to support transitions across providers including in and out of Alternative Provision.

The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 amended the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 by introducing new duties on local authorities (LA) and schools in relation to disabled pupils and prospective pupils. From 1 October 2010, the Equality Act replaced most of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). However, the Disability Equality Duty in the DDA continues to apply. The LA is required to have an accessibility strategy under the planning duty in the Equality Act 2010, Part 6, Section 88 (Schedule 10).

The Equality Act states that Local Authorities in England and Wales must, in relation to schools for which it is the responsible body, prepare an accessibility strategy and further such strategies at such times as may be prescribed.

The Equality Act requires all providers including Schools, Further Education, Higher Education and Early Years settings to make reasonable adjustments to avoid disadvantaging pupils with disabilities.

In addition to this, any setting constituted as a school have an additional duty to plan for better access for disabled pupils, as detailed below. The reasonable adjustments duty and a wider, more strategic planning approach for schools are intended to complement each other. This strategy therefore only applies only to maintained schools. The strategy is however not exclusive and welcomes alignment by partner academy schools based in the city.

The requirements in Law

The General duty requires schools, when carrying out their functions, to have regard to the need to: 

• Eliminate discrimination that is unlawful under the Equality Act 2010; 
• Eliminate harassment of pupils with disabilities that is related to their disability; 
• Promote equality of opportunity between people with disabilities and other people; 
• Promote positive attitudes towards people with disabilities; 
• Encourage participation by people with disabilities in public life; 
• Take steps to take account of individuals’ disabilities even where that involves treating people more favourably than other people. 

The General Duty applies across all schools, and applies to pupils, staff, parents/carers, and any other users of the school. 

There is also a Specific Duty for schools to demonstrate how they are meeting the General Duty. The main requirement is for schools to prepare and publish a disability equality scheme, involving people with disabilities in its development, and to implement the scheme and report on it as required.

The Equality Act requires schools and LAs to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that pupils with disabilities are not at a substantial disadvantage and to enable pupils to participate in education and associated services.

When deciding whether a reasonable adjustment is necessary, schools need to consider any potential impacts on pupils with disabilities in terms of time and effort, inconvenience, indignity and discomfort, loss of opportunity and diminished progress.

Duties on Schools

The Equality Act 2010 requires schools to develop and publish an Accessibility Plan that outlines how they will improve the access to education for disabled pupils over time. The school’s Accessibility Plan should be published on the school website, and hard copies provided upon request. There should be a link between the school’s Special Educational Needs information and the Accessibility Plan. Wolverhampton’s Local Offer website signposts to a list of school’s and advises to find SEN information on the school’s website and this should include their Accessibility plans.

Key Data 

• There are 8,881 pupils resident in the City who receive additional and specialist support
• There are 1,010 pupils on role in the 8 Special Schools.
• 7,871 pupils with Special Educational Needs or Disabilities (SEND) are supported in mainstream settings

Every local area is required to have Joint Strategic Needs Analysis (JSNA), for further information on the City’s demographics please visit Joint Strategic Needs Assessment SEND - SEN Primary Needs.

Scope and Key Aims

Ensuring that pupils with disabilities gain maximum benefit from their time in education is a priority for the Council. This can only be achieved through effective partnerships between all agencies that engage with the City’s children and young people and their families.

As outlined in the SEND Code of Practice 2015:

…[The] UK Government is committed to inclusive education of disabled children and young people and the progressive removal of barriers to learning and participation in mainstream education. The Children and Families Act 2014 secures the general presumption in law of mainstream education in relation to decisions about where children and young people with SEN should be educated and the Equality Act 2010 provides protection from discrimination for disabled people.

This strategy forms part of a range of strategies and plans being delivered by the City of Wolverhampton Council designed to improve access to mainstream education for children and young people with both visible and invisible disabilities and special educational needs.

Underpinned by the Children and Families Act 2014, this strategy outlines the approach that the council will take when identifying and remediating any issues related to accessibility and participation.

Three key aims have been identified which are intended to maximise the benefits to children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities.

1. Increasing the extent to which pupils with special educational needs and/or disability can participate in the school curriculum; 
2. Ensuring that pupils with special educational needs and/or disability are able to gain maximum benefit from their time in education through improving facilities and services provided or offered by schools. 
3. Improving the delivery of information to disabled pupils.

AIM 1: Increasing the extent to which pupils with special educational needs and/or disability can participate in the curriculum 

This will be achieved by:

1. Providing on-going guidance and training to schools to support them in the effective implementation of Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001, the Equality Act 2010 and the Children and Families Act 2014 
2. Collecting and disseminating examples of good practice across the City and the wider educational community 
3. Providing information and support to ensure continued professional development in the area of special educational need, disability and inclusion is considered a priority within schools. 
4. Ensuring continued access to advice and support through centrally maintained specialist services and partner organisations. 
5. Further developing settings, schools and other education providers, as centres of excellence. 
6. Working with schools to ensure that relevant information is readily available to support access on entry to/transfer between schools, and transition in and out of Alternative Provision. 
7. Ensuring that “inclusivity” is always a main priority whenever any change to curriculum and other policies are proposed. 
8. Ensuring schools regularly review their accessibility plans. 
9. Ensure that support is available for schools with pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities who have English as an additional language through specialist CWC services. 
10. Provide support to pupils with social, emotional and mental health needs through specialist CWC services. 

AIM 2: Improving the physical environment of schools to enable pupils with special educational needs and/or disability to take better advantage of education, benefits, facilities and services provided 

This will be achieved by: 

1. Supporting schools in reviewing the physical access audit of their premises and ensuring they understand their responsibilities, in order to increase the number of children, who’s needs are met within the city. 
2. Provide guidance and disseminate good practice on how a school’s physical environment should be adapted to support the needs of children and young people with non-physical disabilities, as well as those with physical disabilities. 
3. Ensuring that the Planning Authority monitors all building projects carried out centrally or by schools to address accessibility issues. 
4. Providing schools with advice on disability and accessibility issues. Creating a climate in which schools always identify “inclusivity” as a main priority whenever any change to the physical environment is proposed. 
5. External resources available to Schools 
   1. Through various specialist teams and services, the LA provides advice to schools about, for example, improving the acoustic environment for pupils with hearing impairment, the reduction of glare and the improvement of signage for pupils with visual impairment, and reasonable adjustments to the physical environment for pupils with mobility difficulties. 
   2. Physiotherapists can advise a school about an individual pupil’s mobility and physical development. This might include things like co-ordination and ability to sit, stand and walk. They can advise the school on how best to help the child develop physically, to keep the child as mobile as possible and on any appropriate specialist equipment or adaptations to the environment. 
   3. Occupational Therapists can advise a school about using activity-based therapies to help raise an individual pupil’s self-esteem and to encourage them to be as independent as possible. They will also advise on any appropriate specialist equipment or adaptations to the school environment if required. 

AIM 3: Improving the delivery of information to pupils with special educational needs and/or disability

This will be achieved by: 

1. Creating a culture of inclusivity, a climate in which schools always identify “inclusivity” as a main prior ty whenever provision of information is planned. Our vision is also that all children including disabled children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities should be recognised as fully integrated citizens with the ability to contribute to their local community, and that when they need support to do this that the right support is available. 
2. Continuing to maintain specialist support services. We believe that every child and young person with special educational needs and disabilities from Wolverhampton should expect to receive high quality provision which promotes good health, care and educational progress and achievement. This includes access to universal services as well as specialist support where required. 
3. Through the Local Offer which provides information in a single place for children and young people with special educational needs (SEND) and their parents or carers. Provision is available, within Wolverhampton Libraries & Community Hubs as well as City of Wolverhampton Council Civic Centre, to support access to the Local Offer. 
4. Though the Wolverhampton Information Advice and Support Service (WIASS) which is the impartial and confidential information, advice and support on matters relating to a child or young person's special educational needs or disability from birth to 25 years within Wolverhampton. 
5. Provide guidance to schools on how to ensure information is shared with parents, carers and young people in an accessible format. 

Governance 

This strategy will be led by the Director of Education through a strategic group which will include members from: 

• The SEND Service 
• The Corporate Landlord Service 
• The Health Service 
• Parents/carers 
• Children and young people 
• Headteachers 
• SENCOs 

The Accessibility Strategy and governance will be aligned to the SEND and Commissioning Partnership Board and sit within the overall governance structure for delivery of the SEND strategy and align to its priority areas of developing high quality accessible pathways for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities. The SEND and Commissioning Partnership Board will be responsible for ensuring that the Accessibility Strategy is aligned with and/or inform the following: 

• Wolverhampton’s Joint Strategy for Children and Young People with Special Educational 
• Needs and Disability (SEND) 2015 - 2020 
• Asset Management Plans 
• Schools’ Accessibility Plans 
• The Early Years Plan 
• Children and Young Peoples Plan 
• The Council’s Vision for Education 
• The Council’s Strategic Plans 

To support schools across the city and ensure that there is a clear and associable pathway the Council will provide Wolverhampton Schools with an accessibility template. The template will assist schools when creating their own Accessibility Strategies so that they mirror the overarching strategy of the Council.

Strategy Review

This strategy will be reviewed and revised as necessary in line with the overall review of SEND priorities and delivery. 

Evaluation and Monitoring 

The Council recognises the need to monitor, evaluate and review the processes within the Local Authority and schools to ensure that accessibility is increased and the best use is made of all of the resources. Reports on progress will be published and publicised annually by the strategic group. 

The Corporate Landlord Service, drawing on information provided by schools, Academies, settings, support organisations and health colleagues will carry out implementation, review and evaluation of the strategy.

Continuing to maintain specialist support services

We believe that every child and young person with special educational needs and disabilities from Wolverhampton should expect to receive high quality provision which promotes good health, care and educational progress and achievement. This includes access to universal services as well as specialist support where required.

The Local Offer has to follow guidelines from the SEND code of practice which sets out the specific provision under the Children and Families Act 2014. It is about children and young people aged 0-25 with special educational needs or disabilities. SEND code of practice also contains details of the legal requirements that professionals must follow without exception. 

For more information please visit SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25 Years.