Dec 1, 2021, tes: One in three councils targeted by DfE over SEND https://www.tes.com/news/one-three-councils-targeted-dfe-over-send
MPs told DfE is working 'really closely' with 49 councils across England to improve SEND services
The Department for Education is working "really closely" with around one in three local authorities in England to improve services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), MPs have been told….
Committee chair Robert Halfon said that the DfE had allowed a situation "to go on" where local councils were found to be failing on SEND….
And Indra Morris, the DfE director general for children’s services, communications and strategy group, revealed that the government was working directly with around one in three councils in the country to secure improvements.
Last month, the DfE appointed a commissioner to take over SEND services in Birmingham after an inspection report found that failings had not been addressed.
Ms Morris said: “There are 49 local authorities that we are working really closely with to varying degrees and Birmingham obviously is one of the most significant councils, where we have put in a commissioner John Coughlan, who is the former chief executive of Hampshire [County Council].
“Then there [are] another 31, although there is a bit of an overlap between those two categories of local authorities, where their timeliness is below par – and again we are engaging with them and we do vary it depending on the seriousness, and indeed the engagement and commitment, of local leadership.”
SEND area inspections were introduced as part of 2014 government reforms….
An investigation by Tes revealed that more than half of the first 100 inspections to be carried out identified significant weaknesses in provision. …
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