15th Sept 2021
Inspection of Barnsley local area’s effectiveness in identifying and meeting the needs of, and improving outcomes for, children and young people with SEND from 20 September 2021 to 24 September 2021.
Dear Parents and Carers
Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) will carry out jointly an inspection of your local area. The local area is the geographical area of the local authority. However, the responsibility of the local area for children and young people with SEND extends to those who are residents of the local area but attend educational establishments or receive services outside the local authority’s boundaries.
The inspection will evaluate how effectively the local area:
identifies the needs of children and young people with SEND
meets the needs of these children and young people so that their outcomes and chances of participating fully in society improve.
Inspectors will be visiting Springwell Special Academy, during the morning of 23rd Sept 2021. The views of parents and carers are an important part of the inspection evidence. If you are a parent or carer of a child or young person with SEND, we would very much like to speak with you during this visit. A meeting has been arranged for 11.00am. It is expected that this meeting will last about 45 minutes. Please confirm with Springwell Special Academy if you are able to attend so that appropriate arrangements can be made. This meeting may be held remotely.
How else can local children, young people, parents and carers contribute their views during this local area inspection?
There are several ways in which children, young people, parents and carers from your provision can engage with the inspection process and contribute their views:
The inspection will include a survey of Barnsley’s parents and carers of children with SEND. The survey will be open from 12noon on Monday, 13 September 2021 until 11:59pm on Tuesday, 21 September 2021. Parents and carers who would like to take part and share their experiences with the inspectors can follow this link to complete the survey: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/BarnsleyLASENDInspection/
We strongly recommend that, before completing the survey, parents and carers watch the short video at the start of the survey which gives information about the inspection and what inspectors will focus on.
Parents and carers can email their contributions to Lasend.support@ofsted.gov.uk.
Details about the local area SEND inspection will be available on your local authority’s website and distributed through the local area’s Clinical Commissioning Group/s (CCGs). Information about how children and young people with SEND can share their views about the local area’s effectiveness should be included in the local offer.
While we understand that many parents and carers may have views on their experiences that extend back several years, the focus of the inspection is on the effectiveness of the local area since the introduction of reforms in September 2014. We would also like parents and carers to understand that we will not be able to follow up or comment upon individual cases. The inspection team will consider all communication from parents as part of the evidence when evaluating the effectiveness of the local area.
During this inspection, the inspectors will collect information about children and young people in the area. They will be looking at local area records, speaking to area officers and leaders at educational settings, and speaking to children, young people and parents or carers. No names will be recorded, but some of the information collected may be capable of identifying a particular child, young person or adult. Ofsted and CQC will use this information to prepare their report, and for the purposes set out in their privacy notices. No information will be published that identifies any individual in the inspection report.
More information is available in the Ofsted and CQC privacy notices which can be found here:
http://www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/our-policies/privacy-statement.
Ofsted’s Data Protection Officer is the Director, Digital and Information, who may be contacted at informationrequest@ofsted.gov.uk. CQC’s Data Protection Officer is the Head of Governance and Legal Services, who may be contacted at information.access@cqc.org.uk
Information on local area duties toward children and young people with SEND can be found on the Department for Education’s website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-guide-for-parents-and-carers
Yours sincerely
Patricia Head
Her Majesty’s Inspector