Waltham Forest SEND Plan: Focus on Early Intervention

Waltham Forest Council is intensifying its efforts to provide early intervention for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), following a recent inspection that highlighted inconsistencies in current provisions. The council aims to ensure inclusion is at the heart of what they do, so that the voices of children, young people, their families, and carers are incorporated into decision-making, demonstrated in individual Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) and Education Strategies. This includes co-producing needs assessments and EHCP reviews with youth, their parents and carers, and wider professionals without them having to repeat their stories, and planning and holding a Voices Day during Summer 2025.

The Children and Families Scrutiny Committee convened on Tuesday, 1 July 2025, to discuss the findings of the Ofsted/CQC SEND Inspection and the subsequent SEND Improvement Plan. The inspection, conducted between 27 January and 14 February 2025, revealed that the local area partnership's arrangements lead to inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND. The Scrutiny Report SEND Inspection detailed the findings.

To address these issues, the council has developed a SEND Improvement Plan, prioritising early identification and timely intervention for children with SEND. The plan outlines six key priorities:

1. All children in Waltham Forest with SEND have their needs identified early and receive timely intervention, in a child-focused way.
2. Strong communication and co-production with children, young people, and their families.
3. All children have a high quality outcome-focused education, health and care plans
4. All children attend a setting which improves education and life outcomes
5. All transitions prepare children and young people with SEND for their next life stages, including adulthood
6. All children with SEND in Waltham Forest have timely access to health services

The Children and Families Scrutiny Committee reviewed the SEND Inspection Findings and SEND Improvement Plan at their meeting.

The SEND Local Area Improvement Plan includes a two-year plan with strategic actions to meet the inspection's recommendations. The plan was developed with partners of the SEND Strategic Board, including representatives from the Waltham Forest Parent Carer Forum. The SEND Local Area Improvement Plan will be embedded within a broader Strategic SEND Improvement Plan, supported by performance, commissioning, and operational trackers.

The inspection team did identify several strengths including:

• 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
• 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
• Fair Access Panel supports children from Alternative Provision back into mainstream education
• The Alternative Provision strategy includes plans to improve provision in the Local Area

However, areas needing improvement were also identified. To address these, the council is implementing several key strategies:

• Waiting times for specialist health interventions, equipment and pathways (Including CAMHS, Wheelchair waiting times, continence services): The council plans to allocate additional resources (NHS Send Investment) to reduce waiting times for specialist health services and recruit additional clinical capacity. They also plan to streamline referral and diagnostic processes for neuro-developmental assessments and/or CAMHS treatment pathways and implement a tracking and escalation system to monitor progress and waiting times for equipment and wheelchair services.
• Strategic use of data is underdeveloped and not supporting strategic improvements: The council is working to evolve the data available and strengthen the ways in which it is used. There are 3 key data products that have been identified as a solution to this challenge; a strategic performance dashboard of high level trends and key metrics, a strategic commissioning dashboard showing analysis of demand and demographic, sociodemographic, and geodemographic patterns and where possible comparisons to similar local authorities and benchmarks, a suite of operational dashboards that allow practitioners deep insight into their caseload at both service, team and individual level.
• Preparation for Adulthood is not embedded with a coherent strategic plan
• Co-production work is not consistently understood across the partnership or underpinned by a shared strategy and understanding contained in an MOU or charter: To address inconsistencies, the council plans to develop and implement a Co-production Charter and training program to ensure a shared understanding of co-production across the partnership.
• The quality and timeliness of Education, Health and Care Plans and their Annual Reviews require improvements: The council will ensure that Statutory Assessment and Annual Review guidance on the Local Offer is clear and comprehensive and partners are trained in the legal requirements of the Statutory Assessment and Annual Review processes. They will also develop and implement a multi-agency quality assurance framework that includes regular audits and reviews of EHC plans.

The Scrutiny Report SEND Inspection 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.