Find out what steps we are taking to improve SEND services in Torbay.
In November 2021, a team of inspectors from Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) spent five days in Torbay. They talked to children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). They also talked to their parents and carers and education, social care and health partners.
They found significant weaknesses in services. They said Torbay Council and NHS Devon had to produce a plan explaining how we will improve services. It is called a ‘Written Statement of Action’.
We worked with SEND Family Voice Torbay, led by local parents, to produce the plan. Local families had their say through Family Voice Torbay, group engagement sessions and a survey. Ofsted approved the plan in April and it has now been published.
The improvement work is being led by Torbay’s Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Strategic Board. This brings together social care, education, health and local families in Torbay.
The improvement plan explains the steps that we will take to improve services. As part of this, we will work together (or co-produce) an aspirational vision for SEND services. We will have a shared set of values and develop a Local Inclusion Plan.
The report specified eight areas for improvement.
Our improvement work is built on four ‘pillars’. Taken together this will address those eight areas.
Within each pillar are several Focus Areas broken down into the smaller actions. Each has a lead person, an agreed timescale and a description we will measure success.
Every three months the Department for Education and the Care Quality Commission review our progress towards our Written Statement of Action. You can read their reports on our quarterly progress here: