Lancashire SEND improvement notice and updates
NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) and Lancashire County Council, as part of the Lancashire SEND Partnership, are jointly responsible for the planning and commissioning of services for children and young people with SEND in Lancashire.
In December 2024, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited to undertake an inspection of the partnership support in Lancashire for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The report findings showed widespread and/or systemic failings leading to significant concerns about the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND).
The letter from Minister Daby has been received, informing us that an Improvement Notice has been issued and was published on GOV.UK on 5 June 25.
This Improvement Notice was expected and presents an opportunity to acknowledge the findings of the joint Ofsted and CQC inspection of our SEND services, and say we are deeply sorry that children and families have been let down. The experiences highlighted in the report are unacceptable, and we are determined as a partnership, to put things right.
We are working closely across the Integrated Care Board, Lancashire County Council (LCC) and the Parent Carer Forum to drive change and deliver the improvements required within the timescales set out.
Our SEND Staff have worked relentlessly and pulled together in challenging times, that have seen unprecedented demand. This was a partnership inspection and therefore a collective responsibility; not that of individuals or standalone teams. They have continued to work incredibly hard to support children and young people with SEND and their families.
Improvement updates
Improvement to our SEND services is an absolute priority across the entire Partnership and since the inspection many changes have been implemented, with many more to come.
These include:
- Benefiting from independent oversight through our SEND Improvement Board, chaired by Kathryn Boulton, and supported by advisors from the Department for Education and NHS England.
- An additional £5 million invested into LCC SEND staffing. We have recruited new senior leaders, caseworkers, and SENDIAS officers to strengthen capacity and improve the experience for families. A new Designated Social Care Officer has also been recruited to ensure high-quality social care advice is integrated, where necessary, into EHCPs.
- The launch of a new SEND staff academy, providing high-quality training and development for both current and new staff.
- Plans for an additional 1200 Educational Psychologist assessments to be delivered within the next 9 months.
- A new EHCP portal to improve transparency and communication. This will be rolled out gradually from September 2025.
- More than 200 additional specialist school places will be delivered by September 2025. A new special school site has been identified, and plans are being drawn up for a 2027 opening. These will be funded through grants provided by the DFE to expand / increase specialist places and SEND places in mainstream schools.
- Improvement support sourced from other local authority areas to help improve the quality of EHCPs.
- A new EHCP audit tool rolled out with the number of EHCP audits being completed increasing by more than 200%.
This is about real change, rebuilding trust, raising expectations, and delivering results. We will be honest about progress, transparent about challenges and the impact for our families, and relentless in our focus on outcomes. We will not stop until this system works for every parent, carer, and young person affected.