'Widespread failings' in Torbay SEND services

A report said too many children or young people with SEND are waiting too long to be assessed

Significant concerns have been raised by inspectors over special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services in part of Devon.

A report published on Wednesday by regulator Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission into the Torbay SEND local area partnership highlighted "widespread and/or systemic failings".

Issues raised by the report included too many children and young people with SEND issues having to wait an "unacceptable time" to have their needs assessed.

Torbay Council and NHS Devon, which are responsible for running services, said they were committed to addressing the issues raised by the report.

'Long-standing issues'

The inspection, which was carried out in March, said those responsible for governance did not have an "accurate understanding" of the partnership's strategic SEND priorities.

"The resulting lack of strategic working and effective joint commissioning has resulted in poor communication and collaboration between the local area partnership and families," the report said.

It added leaders had not urgently of effectively addressed systemic and significant weaknesses highlighted in a previous inspection in 2021.

The report said: "Many long-standing issues, particularly the waiting times for assessment and diagnosis, parental dissatisfaction and the high proportion of children and young people with SEND being excluded and becoming NEET [not in education, employment or training], have remained unresolved issues."

A monitoring inspection was set to be carried out within the next 18 months before a full reinspection in three years, the report said.

The partnership has been asked to prepare a priority action plan to address issues identified in the report, inspectors added.

In a joint statement, Torbay Council and Nancy Meehan, director of children's services, and Su Smart, director of women and children's improvement at NHS Devon, said improvement work was already under way.

They said a number of areas were highlighted in the report as "doing well", including the work of the Mental Health in Schools Team, the strength of a neurodiversity support programme and early years support.

The statement added the partnership was committed to addressing the issues and called for "systemic reform at the national level" to help with meaningful and lasting improvements.

The statement said: "We are committed to ongoing improvement across all SEND provision and will continue to work with parents, carers and practitioners to develop and strengthen it.

"Our priority remains the wellbeing and success of our children and young people."

The BBC has contacted the Department for Health and Social Care for comment.