1. Education Consultant- NDCS/Ear Foundation
Local Area Reviews
Early emerging findings and how the QI Tool can be used to demonstrate impact for SI services
Tina Wakefield
Education Consultant- NDCS/Ear Foundation
Wednesday 19

2. No, it’s an in depth local area inspection...
Is it a bird, is it a plane?
No, it’s an in depth local area inspection...

3. Local Area Reviews Early days for the reviews Rapidly changing times
Practicalities of a review
How to prepare

4. Background to Local Area Reviews
Inspecting the effectiveness of local areas in fulfilling their new duties.
Local Areas will be selected for inspection following a risk assessment carried out by Ofsted and CQC.
A Local Area inspection will take place after a Social Care CIF inspection.
It can be triggered by whistle blowing or emerging concerns.

5. Background to Local Area Reviews
Some local authorities seem very confident they are being inspected soon.
Ofsted were clear that there is no basis on which local authorities can assume this.
There are going to be inspections this term, of which 4 have already occurred. This is in addition to the 8 that took place over the summer.
Beginning with b

6. Background to Local Area Reviews
The lead HMI and the CQC inspector will consider all available evidence to develop an initial picture of the local area’s performance in fulfilling its responsibilities.
The lead HMI and CQC inspector will develop initial hypotheses and develop key lines of enquiry

7. Background to Local Area Reviews
Local Areas will be given 5 days notice before the 5 day inspection.
They will be evaluated on the effectiveness of their identification of SEND, (SEN Support and EHCP), how they meet the identified needs and how effective this action is in improving outcomes.
Also on their own evaluation of their effectiveness in these areas

8. Background to Local Area Reviews
The effectiveness of identification will be evaluated in the context of ‘so what?’
What did the local area do with this information?
What impact has the action had on the outcomes of the child or young person?

9. Background to Local Area Reviews
Inspection methodology will focus on eliciting the views of children, young people and parents/carers.
Service providers and users will be selected by the inspection team and visited, including schools, children’s centres, EY providers, colleges, health and social care providers

10. Background to Local Area Reviews
Outcomes information will be evaluated, and the effectiveness of the Local Areas knowledge and judgement of outcomes will be made.
How robust is their understanding of outcomes?

11. Background to Local Area Reviews
Inspectors will triangulate information provided by the Local Area with the views of children, young people, parents/carers and providers themselves.
The views of children, young people and parents/carers will be fundamental.

12. Background to Local Area Reviews
The Local Offer is a key focus. Both in terms of its content but also its application and perceived usefulness by children, young people, parents/carers.
Outcomes for different groups of children and young people with SEND will be explored. For example, are certain pathways, (autism, VI) more effective at identifying, meeting the needs and improving outcomes for children than others
Check your local offer

13. What should happen..
Inspectors will chose and visit a number of settings
They will meet with parents/carers
They will meet with children and young people
They will not undertake observations of teaching and learning or service delivery

14. What should happen..
They will meet with key staff in some educational settings and discuss with leaders, managers and staff their contribution to, and understanding of, the local area’s evaluation of its effectiveness
They will look at children and young people’s files held by schools and services including those within health

15. What should happen
The size of the inspection team is at least three inspectors: one HMI who will lead the inspection (the lead HMI), an Ofsted Inspector and a CQC inspector.
The lead HMI will normally contact the local authority’s director of children’s services (DCS) by telephone to announce the inspection five working days before the inspection. This notification call will normally take place between 9am and 10am.

16. What happened in one authority
Her Majesty’s Inspector phoned the LA on the Monday
Agreed the timing of a Webinar call, usually Wednesday evening around 7 or 8pm
LA notified parent organisations straight away via all communication methods
Ofsted/CQC notified the LA which Educational/Health settings they wished to visit
Agreed a time table with the LA for Wednesday/Thursday

17. What happened in one authority
LA “Kick Start” meeting held Friday am
Following Monday CQC/Ofsted attended
Held Meetings Monday/Tuesday with the Local Area
Wednesday/Thursday they visited the schools, children’s centres, college, Health clinics etc
Friday am they collated their findings and fed back to the L A in the afternoon

18. Contact with parents and young people
Agree with your LA how parents and young people should be contacted
Make sure contact details are up to date
Do you have evidence of recent surveys with parents and young people?
Establish regular contact via newsletters etc

19. Contact with parents The webinar
It should be made clear to parents what a Webinar is and that they can’t be seen on any cameras
Their details are logged but the information raised is then anonymised
There are number of questions asked. Participants are asked to vote or respond yes/know/don’t know using their keyboard
They can hear the facilitators/Inspectors but participants don’t speak but respond via computer (It’s not a discussion)
It lasts around mins
It’s a fairly easy way to contribute and if they have specific issues or examples to raise, this can be done via their computer.
These are logged/noted

20. Contact with parents The webinar
Ofsted have recently started tweeting about the webinars
‘If the webinar was in the evening it was accessible to those with jobs but many parents could not attend at such short notice. Ofsted shared the details of inspectors so that any parent that could not make the inspection could still get involved.’
‘The inspector simply asked the parents a series of questions.’
‘Parents in the webinar were given a very clear firm message that Ofsted couldn’t consider any individual cases.’

21. Contact with parents Feedback from the first few Reviews
Ofsted replied
If a parent can’t make the webinar and/or really wants to have their say, they can request a phone call with the lead inspector.
They want to establish a process where national groups – like NDCS – are automatically alerted about any new inspection immediately after the local authority is notified.
NDCS is now doing alerts to members where they find out about an inspection
NDCS has also produced a parent factsheet – you can find this via

22. Contact with young people Feedback from the first few Reviews
Huge challenges of engaging with young people in each area.
It has been suggested that Ofsted produce information specifically for young people, using simple and visual language, so that young people know what an inspection is and understand what feedback would help the inspectors.

23. Contact with young people Feedback from the first few Reviews
NDCS has just produced a series of videos for young people on the inspections –
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24. Comments about inspection procedures
Ofsted and CQC will only give a ‘narrative’ judgement rather than indicate if a local area is outstanding, good etc
The narrative judgements should give a clear sense of the quality of provision overall.
If significant concerns are identified, the Local Area will be required to produce a written statement of action, to be submitted for sign off. This may be triggered if the area are not meeting their legislative duties or illegal practice is identified.
Written statements will be required if serious failings are found and there is no clear plan of improvement

25. Comments about inspection procedures
Ofsted and CQC, in looking at provision for a “wide range of different groups”, may end up effectively treating children with SEND as if they were single homogenous entity.
This fails to recognise that a local area may be good at supporting some children with SEND but not others.

26. Comments about inspection procedures
Of the 7 letters so far, 4 have included a specific mention of deafness – usually either about screening service or the education service.
One letter specifically highlighted parental concern about recent cuts to Teachers of the Deaf.
No local areas have yet been asked to issue a written statement on how they will address the concerns raised

27. Comments about inspection procedures
Some of the inspection letters highlight whether children with SEND are achieving good outcomes or making good progress. It is being noted where this data isn’t being collected or where local authorities have unreliable data sets on numbers of deaf children.
Reinforces importance of NatSIP outcomes benchmarking and knowing numbers of deaf children (as requested by CRIDE).

28. Comments about inspection procedures
Inspection letters have had mixed response from stakeholders – NDCS, for example, calling on Ofsted to introduce consistent more detailed structure to letters with the areas for development being set out in a SMARTer way, and with graded judgements.

29. Necessary reading?
The handbook for the inspection of local areas’ effectiveness in identifying and meeting the needs of children and young people who have special educational needs and/or disabilities
Page 16 NatSIP QS for Services

30. From the handbook
While it is expected that the Local Area will have a thorough understanding of its effectiveness in fulfilling its responsibilities, Ofsted and CQC do not require the production of a self-evaluation document or summary in a particular format.
Any self-evaluation that is provided should be part of the Local Area’s usual business processes and not generated solely for inspection purposes.

31. Ofsted/CQC requirements
Accurate and robust self evaluation – strengths and areas for improvement across identification of needs, action to meet needs and outcomes of action
Expectation that internal monitoring systems will generate evidence for self- evaluation as a whole, and drive service improvement.

32. Data

33. OFSTED Docs such as… Communication is the key - A good practice
survey of services for deaf children.
Published: October Reference no:
Handbook for the inspection of LA arrangements
for supporting school inclusion.
Published May 2013 Ref Number
Useful Effective Descriptors List for supporting school improvement
in appendix.

34. Questions What do we already use? What works well?
How do we evidence it?
How do we moderate this evidence
and the conclusions we have come to??

35. Quality Standards for Sensory Support Services in England, June 2016 Edition
24 pages

36. Quality Standards
These quality standards replace those published by NatSIP in The standards have been updated to take account of changes in education policy and, in particular, the Ofsted/CQC handbook for the inspection of local areas’ effectiveness in identifying and meeting the needs of children and young people who have special educational needs and/or disabilities (April 2016)

37. QS designed to:
Support services in self evaluation of the provision they make
Enable staff, leaders and managers to consider responsibilities and roles etc add here
Help parents and carers to understand what they might expect to be in place
Support service improvement planning
Include their partnership working with CYP, parents and carers and other agencies.

38. The standards
The standards have been grouped under four quality domains.
The first three domains are based on the evidence inspectors will gather to answer three primary questions relating to the quality of arrangements for supporting children and young people with SEND.

39. The domains
How effectively does a local area identify of children and young people with SEND.
When evaluating effectiveness the inspection team will be considering-
the timeliness of the identification and
the quality of identification and assessment information

40. The domains
C. How effectively the needs of children and young people are assessed and are met D. How effectively are local arrangements improving outcomes for children and young people with SEND

41. The final domain
In making judgements the inspectors will also be considering
Leadership,
Joint commissioning,
The local offer
Improvement planning.
These standards therefore include a fourth quality domain related to the effectiveness of leadership and management.

42. Quality Improvement Support Pack September 2016 Edition
Very popular almost downloads, 64 pages

43. The support pack
The support pack provides a framework by which you can evaluate the quality of your service’s provision. It lists each of the quality standards and the requirements to meet under each standard.
Examples of sources of evidence
Links to documents in use by services

44. Example – Domain C
Domain C: The effectiveness of the service in improving outcomes for children and young people with a sensory impairment QS C1: The service can demonstrate it is making an effective contribution to ensure that the child or young person’s needs are being met and their outcomes are improving This is one of the most critical standards and the key requirements related to this standard have been grouped under four sub-headings: 1. Those that relate to progress and attainment outcomes. 2. Those that relate to social and emotional development outcomes. 3. Those that relate to post-16 outcomes. 4. Those that relate to key aspects of the work of the service that contribute to positive outcomes, that are not covered in other sections.

45. Example – Domain C
Requirements that relate to progress and attainment outcomes C1 (i) The service regularly and rigorously monitors progress and has data showing that the progress of children and young people with sensory impairment is age-appropriate and at least in line with other learners of similar ability, and that they make good progress relative to their starting point and that any attainment gaps are narrowed. C1 (ii) There is an expectation that progress is age-appropriate in line with other learners of similar ability, and, for learners with complex needs, it is commensurate with their sensory impairment and their additional learning needs. C1 (iii) Progress is evaluated using national assessment data as well as teacher assessment and specialist assessments. The service participates in the NatSIP national outcomes benchmarking exercise to compare its outcomes with national benchmarks.

46. Evidence

47. Self audit tool Part of the QI support pack document
Also available on the NatSIP website as a word document to type into
Although this document has been developed with reference to quality standards developed in England, it is based on principles for quality provision that may be equally relevant in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

48. Qs Self Audit Tool

49. QI - next whole day workshop
York 19th January 2017

50. Don’t just wait for the call.....