15 January 2024: Ofsted and CQC have announced their Inspection of Haringey SEND Services
Introduction and background
Ofsted inspects education services in England, such as schools and nurseries. The organisation also assesses children's social care and the support available for children and young people with SEND.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspects health and adult social care services like hospitals and care homes in England. Ofsted and CQC work together to inspect education, health and care services for children with SEND in a local area to ensure they are effective - this is called an area SEND inspection.
Local area partnerships use the information from our inspections to improve services for children and young people with SEND.
The inspections also provide information for children and young people with SEND and their families to help them make decisions about their education, health and care.
What happens during an area SEND inspection?
You can learn more about how Ofsted and CQC conduct inspections in detail in their inspection framework and handbook (external link).
During the inspection, inspectors will gather evidence about how effective the provision is for children and young people with SEND in the local area and evaluate how well the local authority commissions and oversees alternative provisions.
Inspectors will evaluate the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with SEND aged 0 to 25 who are covered by the SEND code of practice, whether or not they have an education, health and care plan, including children and young people who live in the local authority area but are educated or receive social care in other local authority areas.
Inspectors will review information from the local area partnership about the services provided for children and young people with SEND. They will also talk directly to children, young people, and families to understand their experiences. Inspectors will meet the local area's parent carer forum (PCF) and other groups representing families.
One of His Majesty's Inspectors (HMI) from Ofsted will lead the inspection team, including education and social care inspectors from Ofsted and Children's Services Inspectors from CQC.
How you can be involved
Your views are important to us. There are several ways you can be involved in the inspection.
Survey for Parents/Carers, Children and Young People, and Practitioners
Update: the survey closed on Tuesday, 23 January 2024.
Inspectors invited parents/carers, children, young people and practitioners to complete a survey before their on-site visit to our SEND services. The survey asked about any support children get for their education, health and care needs and social life and to prepare them for the next stage of their life.
More information:
- Area SEND inspection: survey information for parents/carers, children and young people and practitioners (PDF, 95.9KB)
- Easy read survey for parents and carers (PDF, 498KB)
Tracking meetings
Inspectors will hold tracking meetings with children and young people, their families (if appropriate) and the practitioners who work with them. Tracking meetings allow inspectors to hear directly about children and young people’s experiences and outcomes.
Inspectors will select approximately 6 children and young people for tracking meetings. They will choose children and young people with a range of needs, who access a range of services from a range of age groups and are at different stages in their involvement with health and social care services.
They will arrange for a practitioner who knows the child or young person well to approach them and their parents or carers in order to ask for their agreement to be involved. If your child is selected, inspectors will give you more information on what’s involved before you decide whether to agree.
Other inspection activities
Inspectors will visit education, health and social care providers to gather more information about the experiences of a wider group of children and young people. Inspectors may also contact families to ask about your experience with a particular aspect of the SEND system in your local area.
What happens after the inspection
Inspectors will write a report evaluating the impact of the local area partnership’s arrangements on the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with SEND. This report will include an inspection outcome, stating what the area partnership is doing well and what needs improvement. The report will also give clear recommendations for the area partnership to act on and the rough timing of the next inspection.
2021 Ofsted Inspection
Our last Ofsted inspection was in 2021. Visit the link below for information about our last inspection and to view the final inspection report, our co-produced SEND Strategy and Written Statement of Action.
More information
Ofsted and CQC do not have the power to investigate personal cases. However, they keep complaints on record and may use them to inform future inspections. If you want to complain about a service in your area, we recommend following local complaints processes.
If you think a child or young person is at risk of being abused or neglected, contact the children’s social care team.
You can also contact the NSPCC on 0808 800 5000 or visit the NSPCC website (external link).
If you are concerned about a young adult over 18, please contact the adult safeguarding team.