Wirral's journey to improving SEND services: changes for the better

Members of Wirral’s Area SEND partnership respond to latest OFSTED and CQC report.

“We have a lot of work to do, but we’re committed to our young people,” said the Leader of Wirral Council, Cllr Paul Stuart.

An inspection by OFSTED and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) notes that “things are changing for the better”, but Wirral’s Area SEND Partnership has “considerable work remaining” to ensure a consistently positive experience for children and young people with SEND.

The report, published today, follows Wirral’s Area Special Educational Needs and/or Disability (SEND) Inspection in January 2025. Following the rating, the Local Area SEND Partnership will prepare and submit a priority action plan to His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills (HMCI) to address the areas identified for immediate action. 

The Local Area SEND Partnership brings together all the agencies that provide SEND services for families, children and young people in Wirral. This includes health services, education and social care. The partnership also includes representatives from parents/carers who use the services.

Cllr Paul Stuart, Leader of Wirral Council and member of the Local Area SEND Partnership Board said: “We have made progress in recent months, which has been recognised by the Department for Education. While we continue to work across the partnership board to make large scale improvements for SEND children and their families, we recognise that these improvements are not yet consistently being felt by families themselves.

“There are still changes needed to improve these vital services and provide positive outcomes for all children and young people with SEND across Wirral. We have a lot of work to do, but we’re committed to our young people.”

Inspectors noted positive areas of improvement within the partnership, including the introduction of the Local Area SEND Partnership Board in April 2024. This refreshed governance benefits from the strategic leadership and oversight of Wirral Council’s Chief Executive, Paul Satoor, and includes representation from council leaders, Wirral’s Parent Carer Forum, health, education and social care.

Cllr Stuart added: “There are a lot of dedicated and passionate staff across the partnership working hard to continue to drive that change and I’d thank them for their commitment to our borough and our young people.

“The momentum that Wirral’s Local Area SEND Partnership has already built and the pace of work will continue to ensure that families feel the benefits of these changes and the needs of all children and young people with SEND across Wirral are met – and exceeded.”

Family Hubs were identified as examples of “strong and effective multi-agency working that stand out positively in the local area partnerships work”. 

BRANCH, an online mental wellbeing hub for children and young people across the borough, was described as “a helpful tool that matches local services to needs”. It was also cited to be a “well-organised process for multi-disciplinary triage” that “identifies the most urgent cases” ensuring children and young people can swiftly receive the care that they need. 

The report also makes specific mention of the creative opportunities and activities available to young people with SEND, noting that Pilgrim Street Arts Centre, which engages young people in music, arts and crafts, “enables young people to discover and pursue talents and interests, and to build positive relationships with the adults who support them.”

 The report notes the steps made by the partnership in creating an environment of coproduction, citing the borough’s first SEND Preparation for Adulthood Festival as an example of service providers, young people and their families working together to ensure that SEND young people in Wirral can access the right support at the right time. 

The report shows three areas for priority action by the partnership including: -

• “Improvements made to Education Health and Care (EHC) plans so that they consistently identify and meet the needs of children and young people effectively. Ensuring that the timeliness of initial plans and subsequent reviews comply with statutory guidance.”

The EHC recovery plan currently being implemented by the partnership has already resulted in changes to address these issues, including the growth and restructure of the Statutory Review and Assessment team, SENDSTART. The team is working hard to unpick and move forward the backlog of EHC assessments and reviews. SENDSTART is also making the assessment process clearer and more efficient, and this will help speed up decision-making and improve communication for families and schools. By June, these changes will start to show in the number of EHC plans being completed within the 20-week timeframe.

• “The partnership needs to work together to develop and embed a joint framework on preparation for adulthood to ensure a fully co-ordinated approach across all services for young people with SEND.”

Coproduction work is underway within the partnership to map a new way of working together for preparation for adulthood. This work will be reviewed by the partnership board later this year.

• “Inspectors noted that health leaders should ensure that waiting times for specialist speech and language and neurodevelopmental assessments are reduced and that consistent support is in place for those waiting.”

As well as focussing on bringing down waiting times, the work being undertaken by the partnership to create inclusive environments across schools that are needs led will ensure that children are supported right from the start of their journey.

Simon Banks, Place Director (Wirral), NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, said: “Recovery plans for speech and language services and the neurodevelopmental pathway have been endorsed by the Local Area SEND Partnership Board. Wirral is an early adopter in the northwest of a new neurodiversity profiling tool that will ensure that neurodevelopmental needs are identified early and support put in place across all areas of a child or young person's life. The tool will also form part of a new online neurodiversity hub that is being built for Wirral’s Local Offer website, SENDLO. The hub will provide advice and resources for parents, carers and professionals.”

Cath Griffiths, chair of Wirral's Parent Carer Forum, Parent Carer Participation Wirral (PCPW), commented: "PCPW would firstly like to thank the 1,200 parent carers who took their time to give feedback on the OFSTED parent carer survey. We would also like to thank the lead inspector and her team who met with us to enable us to give our feedback from the parent carer community locally.

"We welcome the report and its contents and look forward to continuing to work in partnership with the Local Area to continue the work of the improvement notice and the new priority plan.
We acknowledge that there is much work ongoing throughout the partnership and that it is going to take time for the ‘feeling on the ground’ to change for the better." 

To learn more about the recovery plans put in place by the partnership visit www.sendlowirral.co.uk.