1. Overview
A joint Ofsted/CQC area SEND inspection of the Oldham partnership took place in June 2023. Following the inspection, the Managing Director of Children and Young People for Oldham Council and the Chief Executive of Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board received the inspection report, which highlighted priority areas that required addressing urgently.
To respond to this, the local area partnership, including the council, the integrated care partnership, parents/carers, and wider partners, came together to coproduce a Priority Action Plan, which details the actions that the local area will take to address the two priority actions identified by the inspection.
The Priority Action Plan forms part of the overall SEND and Inclusion Improvement Programme that underpins the SEND and Inclusion Strategy 2023 – 2027.
SEND and Inclusion Improvement Programme
Following completion of the previous SEND Strategy, the next phase, 2023 - 2027, has been coproduced with parents/carers, focusing on current issues and future priorities for Oldham’s children and young people with SEND and those who can be considered vulnerable.
Development of the new strategy has taken place during the last year, 2022 - 2023, with consultations taking place in the spring term 2023. The final strategy was approved by cabinet in September 2023.
The development of the SEND & Inclusion Strategy also coincided with the SEND & Alternative Provision Green Paper, and the Department for Education’s (DfE) proposals for local area partnership plans, which have also been considered in developing the strategy.
Development of the new strategy and underpinning improvement programme also aligns with the Oldham's participation in the Delivering Better Value Programme (DBV), the Change Partnership Programme (CPP), High Needs Provision Capital Allocations Projects (HNPCA) and Early Language Support for Every Child (ELSEC).
Since the strategy has been drafted, the joint area SEND inspection of the Oldham partnership took place, between Monday 26 June 2023 to Friday 30 June 2023, for which this Priority Action Plan has been developed.
Since the inspection, the partnership has:
- Sought input from DfE and NHSE regional advisors and acted on this to refine the PAP.
- Held multiple high level meetings with key strategic partners.
- Held three multi-agency partnership workshops to look at, develop and agree the actions that need to be taken as a partnership.
- Provided briefings to council members, strategic boards and to the wider SEND system.
- Attended follow up meetings with individual service leads to address specific actions.
- Conducted engagement sessions with system partners and stakeholders by working within and building upon existing communication forums and channels: including with parents, education and health partners.
- Reviewed and refined the governance systems across the council and the ICP.
- Reported formally on SEND at recent cabinet meetings (September 2023), including seeking approval for the SEND & Inclusion Strategy, 2023-2027.
- Sought Greater Manchester level support and produced a draft ICP Children & Young People's Health Transformation Tracker aligned to the Priority Action Plan, alongside the appointment of a dedicated Child & Young People's Associate Director.
- Reviewed the existing SEND & Inclusion Improvement Programme, which underpins the strategy, to ensure that all areas of the inspection letter are represented as areas for improvement within the programme.
The Priority Action Plan sits within a comprehensive SEND & Inclusion Improvement Programme, outlined below, with each priority and infrastructure having a detailed programme of work.
Areas for improvement identified in the local area inspection are embedded within the overall programme, aligned with existing actions.