Work starts on the Shropshire Written Statement of Action

15/06/2020

Work has recently started on Shropshire’s Written Statement of Action (WSOA).  The WSOA resulted from the Local Area SEND inspection, carried out jointly by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission in January 2019.  The inspection identified a number of significant areas of weakness that need addressing locally, these are;

• Inconsistent strategic leadership and weak strategic planning across the area, most notably in the Clinical Commissioning Group (Health), including the ineffective use of data to accurately commission and plan services
• The lack of inclusion of health services’ input into the area’s SEND action plan
• Significant waiting times for large numbers of children and young people on the ASD and ADHD diagnostic pathways
• Significant waiting times for those needing assessment and treatment from the speech and language therapy service
• Inconsistency in the quality of input from education, health and care into EHC assessment and planning
• The high rate of exclusions for children and young people with an EHC plan and the high rate of repeat fixed-term exclusions for those receiving SEND support.

You can read the full inspection report here

The work on the WSOA will be monitored by advisers from the Department for Education and NHS England and a further inspection will be carried out to look at the progress made, in approximately 12 months from the agreement of the WSOA.  The WSOA will be developed during the next 3 months and submitted to Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission by the 25^th September 2020.

PACC will be fully involved in developing the WSOA, ensuring that Shropshire parent carers have a voice in addressing the issues identified.  There will be parent carers representation at all meetings relating to the WSOA and both the DfE and NHS England will be looking for clear evidence of co-production with SEND families. PACC will continue to work closely with the Shropshire SEND community to listen to their experiences and to ensure that they are aware of how they can influence and inform this work.  If you are interested in contributing to this work please follow us on Twitter or join one of our Facebook chat groups @ShropsPACC, or sign up to our mailing list www.paccshropshire.org.uk/join-pacc