The recent inspection of Barking and Dagenham’s Local Area Partnership for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) has highlighted positives outcomes for children and families, alongside areas for improvement for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCP) and annual review timeliness, against a backdrop of a record increase in demand for services and support.
The inspection report references the sharp rise in the number of young people within the borough in recent years, driven by an increase of families from across London, other parts of the UK, and overseas.
Currently, the borough is supporting approximately 8,500 children and young people with SEND, of which over 2,900 have an EHCP. This sits against a backdrop of the borough now having the largest under 16 population in the country, many with additional and special needs.
The report highlights that “children and young people with SEND benefit from working with ambitious and dedicated staff” and “the partnership between education, health and social care helps to identify needs accurately and provide appropriate support”.
It goes on to say that highly trained staff in specialist hubs, schools and nurseries are skilled at identifying and addressing needs, and “practitioners across education, health and social care understand the multiple and complex needs of the children and young people they work with, ensuring quick and positive action is taken to support them”.
The report notes that while the borough’s leadership is ambitious and has worked hard to manage the increased demand on services caused “by the rapid and significant increase in children and young people arriving into Barking and Dagenham”, progress is slow in some areas, particularly in relation to timeliness and up to date EHCPs and Annual Reviews, transition to adulthood and too few families receiving face to face antenatal visits.
Councillor Jane Jones, Cabinet Member for Children's Social Care and Disabilities said: “Our priority is always to enable the best possible outcomes for every child and young person with SEND in our community. We’re pleased the report highlights that our ambitious and dedicated staff, alongside our partnership with education and health, are identifying needs accurately and providing appropriate support.
“But the sad reality is that the extra demand on our services has not led to extra funding. Quite simply, we’ve seen an increase of 1,181 children with EHCPs since 2021. Following the pandemic, requests for EHCP have increased by 100% in Barking and Dagenham, compared to an increase of 23% across the country. Yet the resources we have available haven’t increased which impacts on our ability to consistently deliver improvement outcomes.
“Only yesterday the new Minister for School Standards, Catherine McKinnell MP, warned that the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system is “creaking at the seams” as official figures show widespread delays in councils issuing Education, Health and Care plans (EHCPs) for children. This is very much our local experience, despite our best efforts.”
“Our staff and partners work tirelessly to give our children and young people the best start in life, but we need the funding allocations to change urgently to keep pace with the increase in demand boroughs like us are seeing.”
Councillor Elizabeth Kangethe, Cabinet Member for Educational Attainment and School Improvement said: “I am very pleased that the inspection recognises that children and young people with SEND attend school regularly and achieve well and that they access a wide range of youth groups and participation opportunities.
“This is a result of years of schools and partners working together to successfully support inclusion. We agree with the recommendations - improvements to EHCP processes and Preparation for Adulthood have already been identified as priorities for the partnership and improvement actions are in place.”
The council and its partners will be updating and publishing their strategic plan to address the recommendations set out in the inspection report, with a focus on improving the consistency and quality of services for all children and young people with SEND in Barking and Dagenham.