Dame Christine Lenehan – Director at the Council for Disabled Children, has accepted the role of Independent Chair of the newly formed Nottinghamshire SEND Partnership Improvement Board, established to oversee the improvement actions required as a result of the SEND local area inspection carried out by Ofsted and Care Quality Commission in February 2023.
The report, published today, has highlighted significant concerns requiring urgent action in relation to:
- Identifying, assessing and providing for the needs of children and young people with SEND. This includes an assessment of needs, timely issuing of Education and Health andCare (EHC) plans and holistic oversight of these plans through annual reviews.
- Access to some health services, particularly speech and language therapy, neuro-developmental pathways and equipment services.
- NHS leaders are also required to work together better to use available performance data to identify where gaps exist and whether actions taken to address these are effective.
Whilst the challenges highlighted in Nottinghamshire’s inspection report exist to varying degrees across the country the impact on the lives of children, young people and families in Nottinghamshire requires urgent attention. I welcome the opportunity to support the SEND Partnership Improvement Board as Chair to bring national learning from CDC’s work across the country to support an accelerated approach to improve outcomes and experiences for children and young people in Nottinghamshire.
Dame Christine Lenehan, Director of the Council for Disabled Children