Leader says council no longer on SEND 'cliff edge'

The leader of Derbyshire County Council has said he believes the authority will soon no longer need to be monitored by the government for its special educational needs performance, despite pressures remaining.

The council and local health services in the region - who also oversee SEND services - were accused of "systemic failures" in their SEND performance by Ofsted in 2024.

Since then, the government has been helping to oversee its efforts to improve, including in-person visits from Ofsted.

Last year Reform UK's leader in Derbyshire Alan Graves said the government was "not too pleased" with the progress the council was making during a "stock take" visit but now says the picture has improved.

The council recently reported that significant pressure remained on SEND services and families were still facing delays in accessing support.

Only about 3% of Education, Health and Care Plans - the legal documents entitling children to extra support - are being issued within the legal 20 week limit, with average completion time double this at 40 weeks.

However, Graves told the BBC this week he was hopeful the service had now made sufficient improvements.

"SEND was in the doldrums in the county council when we first started. We're now coming out of that because we spent a lot of time, and we invested some money to change that, to come out of that cliff edge that [the Conservatives] went over", he said.

"We're not there yet, but...we're going to have an Ofsted [inspector] coming to see us and I think at the next time they come to see us, we'll be out of special measures."

A recovery plan and £1.3m investment are in place to address delays and additional staff have been hired recently specifically to help reduce the backlog of families waiting to have their cases progressed.

There have been small improvements in the past year, including assessment times being reduced from 56 to 40 weeks.

The council also said there had been "significant progress" in expanding SEND placements within mainstream schools.

The leader of the Derbyshire Conservatives and former cabinet member on the council for SEND services, Alex Dale, said he "struggled to identify what specific impact" the Reform UK administration had had on making any improvements and urged against "political bluster".

"Much of the work now being highlighted by Reform was already put in place by the previous Conservative administration, which laid the foundations for improvement," he said.

"Performance on key measures, particularly the timeliness of issuing Education, Health and Care Plans within the statutory 20-week deadline, remains far too low.

"More importantly, we still need to see improvement activity genuinely translating into a better experience for children, young people, parents and local schools."

A spokesperson for Derbyshire County Council said: "We were given an improvement notice from the Departent for Education to improve SEND services following a local area SEND inspection in September 2024, and we're working at pace to improve services in line with our Priority Impact Plan.

"We are due an Area SEND monitoring visit from Ofsted and the CQC, which could take place at any point this year.

"When Ofsted and the CQC revisit, they will be considering the progress made against the improvement actions since the inspection which we hope will result in the improvement notice being lifted."

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