Waltham Forest's services for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) require significant improvement, according to a recent inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The inspection, which took place between 27 January and 14 February 2025, found that arrangements lead to inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND.

The findings were discussed at a meeting of the Children and Families Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday 01 July 2025, where members reviewed the inspection report and a draft SEND Improvement Plan. The plan is a comprehensive two-year plan to address the issues raised in the report.

The inspection team identified several areas of strength within Waltham Forest, including:

  • A shared ambition for children with SEND across the area partnership
  • Some high quality, inclusive settings with strong multi-agency support for children, especially those with complex health or medical needs
  • A strong multi-agency Family Hub offer
  • Integrated neuro-diversity assessments
  • Good adult health transitions, including high-quality health checks for young adults with learning disabilities
  • The strengths of the 'All talk' communication programme
  • Good oversight and understanding of children who have residential education and care placements
  • Early Help adult link workers reduce isolation for some young adults with SEND
  • A Fair Access Panel that supports children from Alternative Provision back into mainstream education
  • An Alternative Provision strategy that includes plans to improve provision in the Local Area

Infographic showing key statistics about children and families in Waltham Forest
Infographic showing key statistics about children and families in Waltham ForestSource: Children and Families Scrutiny Committee papers, 1 July 2025

However, the report also highlighted key areas needing improvement:

  • Waiting times for specialist health interventions, equipment and pathways, including CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services), wheelchair waiting times, and continence services
  • Underdeveloped strategic use of data to support improvements
  • Preparation for Adulthood not embedded with a coherent strategic plan
  • Inconsistent understanding of co-production work across the partnership
  • Need for improvements to the quality and timeliness of Education, Health and Care Plans and their Annual Reviews

To address these issues, the council has developed a SEND Improvement Plan, which outlines six key priorities:

  1. Ensuring early identification and timely intervention for all children with SEND. Success will be measured by metrics such as the percentage of children taking up mandated health visitor development checks.
  2. Strengthening communication and co-production with children, young people, and their families. The council plans to Create and strengthen opportunities to ensure inclusion is at the heart of what we do so that the voices of children, young people, their families, and carers are incorporated into decision-making and this is demonstrated in individual EHCPs and Education Strategies. (Action 2.02). This will be measured by regular surveys with parents following assessment and review of plans.
  3. Providing high-quality, outcome-focused Education, Health and Care Plans.
  4. Ensuring all children attend settings that improve education and life outcomes.
  5. Preparing children and young people with SEND for their next life stages, including adulthood.
  6. Ensuring timely access to health services for all children with SEND. To address long waiting times, the council will Allocate additional resources (NHS Send Investment) to reduce waiting times for specialist health services and recruit to additional clinical capacity. (Action 6.01)

The SEND Local Area Strategic Board will monitor the implementation of the improvement plan, managing any risks and issues that arise. The Local Authority SEND Improvement work continues to be underpinned by the ASCEND programme which is overseen by the Council's Senior Leadership Team.

The SEND Improvement Plan also includes the development and implementation of a Co-production Charter and training program to ensure a shared understanding of co-production across the partnership (Action 2.01).

The next full area SEND inspection will be within approximately three years.

The Scrutiny Report also included a review of the draft Forward Plan for the 2025/26 municipal year, as well as action and recommendation trackers from previous meetings. The committee is using these tools to monitor progress and ensure accountability in addressing the identified areas for improvement.