A REPORT published by Ofsted today, Thursday 10 February, has praised Thurrock Council’s Special Educational Needs (SEND) services as having made “sufficient progress” and improvements across a number of key areas.
Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited Thurrock from 13 to 15 December 2021 to assess the levels of progress made by the council in addressing areas identified as needing focus and development, highlighted through a joint local area SEND Ofsted inspection report in April 2019.
The latest report, published this week, found sufficient improvements on how the council stores accurate records and provides oversight of the provision for children and young people, the rigorous quality assurance for services provided to 0 to 25 year olds with SEND, and the quality and reviewing of Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans.
Cllr Barry Johnson, Cabinet Member Children’s Services, said: “The report from Ofsted is a tremendous result for Children’s Services and reflects the high levels of support and care we provide for vulnerable children and young people within our community.
“The report confirms that our SEND team has made great strides in addressing the three areas of significant weakness that were previously reported in 2019. The new processes that we have rigorously implemented throughout the service have been recognised and we are confident that they put us on a strong path for the future.
“The next step for us as an organisation is to take this feedback and learning on board, and consider how we will use it to make our SEND offer the most caring and intuitive it can be. This includes providing more services to children locally, preventing them travelling outside of Thurrock, sometimes in placements costing in excess of £20k a week.
“Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this valued and most crucial service as we work to deliver the best SEND support for our children and young people in Thurrock.”
Anthony McKeever, Chief Executive Officer Designate for the Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board, said: “We are really pleased with the positive results of the SEND revisit which has highlighted the sufficient progress made for children and young people who have SEND in Thurrock.
“This is a great example of strong partnership working in Thurrock with education, health and social care coming together and working with our children, young people and families as well as the Parent and Carer Forum. We will continue to build on these foundations to ensure that all children in Thurrock get the best possible start in life.”
The full report is available to view online.
