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Inspections and evaluations
This is a summary for parents, carers, young people and practitioners across education, health and social care services about the impact of our local area partnership arrangements on the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with Special Education Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
Our official co-production partners Suffolk Parent Carer Forum (SPCF) carried out their annual survey earlier in 2023. We are grateful both to them for sharing it with us, and to the parent carers who took part.
Read the 2023 SPCF survey on the SPCF website
The document below is our response to them, to show what we have done so far in response to each area raised, how well we think we've done it so far, and what we intend to do next.
In July 2022, Senior Officers from Suffolk County Council and the Integrated Care Board met with officials from the Department for Education (DfE) to review the progress we have made against our Accelerated Progress Plan.
We were pleased that the DfE noted that "the evidence provided by the local area demonstrated the leadership’s commitment to improvement in a wide range of areas", describing our overall progress as "reassuring".
In June 2021, Suffolk County Council commissioned an Independent Review to focus on the processes, communication protocols and family-facing elements of SEND services. This was carried out by a team from Lincolnshire, including Lincolnshire County Council and the Lincolnshire SEND parent carer network.
The final report was published in September 2021.
Progress updates |
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December 2022 In response to the Lincolnshire Review in 2021, we co-produced an Integrated Plan setting out the activity required to deliver the review’s recommendations. We have been working to deliver these recommendations through this Integrated Plan over the last twelve months, and have recently reviewed our progress. |
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Autumn 2022 In response to the 2021 Independent Review of SEND Services in Suffolk, we produced an action plan to help us deliver the review's nine recommendations. Read the Autumn 2022 open letter in full here. |
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July 2022 In July 2022 we published an open letter to parent carers from Ros Somerville, Assistant Director for Inclusion. "We have been working hard over the winter to deliver the recommendations of our Integrated SEND Action Plan and whilst we are not there yet, I believe we are beginning to see the green shoots of progress, some of which I would like to update you on". |
April 2022In April 2022 we published an open letter to parent carers from Ros Somerville, Assistant Director for Inclusion. "Following my last letter in January, I wanted to update you about our ongoing work to develop SEND services in Suffolk. We have been very busy working with our partners across Suffolk to make changes and improvements to services". |
January 2022In January 2022 we published an open letter to parent carers from Ros Somerville, Assistant Director for Inclusion: "Following my last letter in November, I wanted to update you about our ongoing work to address SEND services in Suffolk. A lot of the work and plans we set out in the Autumn term will come to fruition in the Spring term and beyond, we are continuing to plan for our next steps as well. Here are some of the actions and achievements since my last letter." |
| Read the 2021 updates on the Lincolnshire Review here. |
| SEND Integrated Plan |