Oxfordshire County Council press release
Read on Oxfordshire County Council’s news webpage, or below:
On Friday 28 February, the county council’s Education and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee received an update on progress by Oxfordshire’s local area partnership (LAP) to improve services and support for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
The LAP includes the county council, NHS Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West Integrated Care Board (BOB ICB), Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Oxfordshire Parent Carer Forum (OxPCF) and professional subject matter leads.
It has been working together on delivering a priority action plan and programme of improvement following an Ofsted and Care Quality Commission inspection of services in July 2023¹.
The committee noted progress made by the LAP in addressing the issues raised from the inspection including the establishment of the SEND youth forum (July 2024) to integrate the voices of young people into future service delivery; improvements in the quality and timeliness of education, care and health plans and needs assessments; improved guidance and support for schools on alternative education provision; and reduced median waiting times for assessments for neurodevelopmental conditions, with successful webinars and workshops being delivered in partnership to over 2,000 people on living well with neurodivergence.
The committee also recognised the continued challenges, both national and countywide, in delivering SEND service improvements.
Councillor Kate Gregory, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for SEND Improvement, said: “We have been working hard as a partnership to build and deliver real and lasting impacts for families. We have always said this will take time and not all families will feel or recognise that improvements are being made yet. We still have a long way to go.
“But progress is being made. We have the foundations in place and are building on them. We care deeply about improving the lives of children and young people and supporting them, along with their families, to thrive. We are determined to continue to deliver the changes needed so we can provide families with a better quality of service at the time they need it most.
“This will involve us continuing to work closely as a partnership to review, reset and rebuild services and listening to what matters most to children, young people with SEND and their families.”
There is a commitment to listening to the voice of children, young people and parent carers at the heart of the improvement programme and using that feedback to help shape future services.
In June 2024, a SEND youth forum was established, with a representative invited to attend meetings of and provide feedback to the SEND Strategic Improvement and Assurance Board – a partnership board established to drive the action required to deliver better services for SEND children, young people and their families.
The SEND youth forum provides a safe space for young people to share their thoughts and lived experiences and to work together to change the system. To date the forum has produced an animated video outlining the role of the forum and how young people can get involved; created a forum quality mark used as a seal of approval to kite mark services across the county, an example being the council’s youth offending service, which has been awarded the SEND quality mark in recognition of its efforts to steer young people away from crime; and has provided vital feedback into the development of the young people’s section of the online Local Offer of SEND services.
In November, two young people were also appointed as co-opted members² of the council’s Education and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee with the first meeting being 28 February.
There are also a number of established opportunities for parents, carers and young people to have their say and input into service change and delivery and to access up to date information. These include termly Oxfordshire SEND Conversations, an annual SEND Together event with practitioners, e-newsletters for information and updates supported by a range of online service and progress information.
The scrutiny committee heard progress updates across three main improvement programme themes across LAP services.
Some of these highlights include:
- A collaborative alternative education provision (AEP) board has been established and an internal review of AEP has taken place with an external one commissioned. Key findings will shape a targeted action plan for enhancing provision. Guidance has been provided to help schools establish and sustain their own alternative education pathways and, together with OxPCF, a dedicated parent/carer guide is being developed.
- The quality of educational health and care plans (EHCP) is improving: 44 per cent rated good or outstanding in November 2024³, compared with 21 per cent in July 2023.
- The backlog on completing annual reviews of the needs, provision and outcomes in an EHCP has reduced dramatically, from over 200 last September to less than 50 in January 2025.
- For pupils moving into statutory school age, or year 6/7 transfer, every one of them had their final EHCPs issued by the deadline of 15 February 2024. SEND students moving into a post 16 setting, 94 per cent had final EHCPs finalised by the deadline of 31 March 2024.
- At key stage 5 in 2024, the average points score per A Level entry for pupils with an EHCP has seen a notable increase from 25.18 in 2023 to 34.57 in 2024. This is above the national average and places Oxfordshire in the second quartile nationally (previously in bottom quartile).
- A TellMe app for young people to support their mental health and wellbeing has been commissioned and the community wisdom project was launched in February 2025. This project is led by community paediatrics, children’s community services and OxPCF where ten families waiting for support from community paediatrics have been invited to meet with professionals and other families to access early universal support activities – communications, play, interaction, sensory, feeding – while they might be waiting for more specialist support or diagnosis.
- The WellComm pilot has been launched in January 2025 in 46 primary schools, which is a programme used to identify children who may be experiencing barriers to speech and language development at an early stage. Children in these settings waiting for speech language therapy support will benefit from access to the programme and all children will benefit from upskilling of teaching in this area.
- The median time that people are waiting for an assessment for neurodevelopmental conditions has reduced since April 2023. Over 2,000 people have accessed living well with neurodivergence workshops and webinars delivered by Autism Oxford in collaboration with the child and adolescent mental health services.
The full list of progress updates can be accessed by reading the scrutiny papers online.
The LAP runs termly SEND Oxfordshire Conversations where progress updates are shared and there is an opportunity for parents and carers to ask questions and provide feedback. The next online sessions are 18 March (7.30pm - 9pm) and 25 March (12 noon -1.30pm) and people can book now on Let’s talk Oxfordshire to join.
There is also an annual SEND Together event for parents, carers and SEND coordinators to connect and take part in workshops, information sessions, advice clinics and a question and answer panel discussion. Parents can visit OxPCF’s website to book for the next event taking place on 13 March (9am - 3pm) at the King’s Centre, Oxford.
Parents and carers can sign up to receive a SEND e-newsletter to get the latest news from us. Families can read previous updates online.
Parents and carers can also read OxPCF’s SEND Connect newsletters, which include news and information from across the local area partnership. And SEND coordinators can sign-up to receive a dedicated e-newsletter.
SEND partnership improvement information can be found on the council’s website where people can also access the highlights of activity discussed and agreed at the Strategic Improvement and Assurance Board.
Online support for parents and carers of children with SEND can be found on the county council’s local offer webpages.