Local Area SEND Inspection

The Local Offer Partnership would like to raise awareness that Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) are due to visit Tameside soon as part of the Local Area SEND Inspection.

A Local Area SEND inspection looks at services provided by education, health and social care. Tameside Council and NHS Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care Board (ICB) are jointly responsible for the planning and commissioning of services for children and young people with SEND in Tameside.

The inspection is about providing an independent, external evaluation of the effectiveness of the local area partnership’s arrangements for children and young people with SEND and where appropriate, recommend what the local area partnership should do to improve the arrangements. It uses a new framework which was put in place last year and will result in a graded judgement on a new three-point scale:

• Typically positive experiences and outcomes
• Inconsistent experiences and outcomes
• Widespread and/or systematic failings

Inspections evaluate how well members of a local area partnership work together to improve the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with SEND. The focus is not on inspecting the specific individuals that work in the local area partnership.

During the inspection you will be asked to give your views about the support provided to children and young people with SEND.

There will be three surveys made available for:

• children and young people with SEND
• parents and carers of children with SEND
• professionals who work with children with SEND

When we have been told the date that the inspection will start, the survey will be made available on this website.

You can find further information on the new Inspection framework online here. This includes a handbook and two guides – one for children and young people and one for parents and carers.

Video – Area SEND inspection explained – information for parents and carers

BSL info for parents and carers

BSL info for children and young people

Thank you for your support and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch at local.offer@tameside.gov.uk