A renewed commitment to improving SEND services

The partnership that provides and oversees special educational needs and disability (SEND) services in Bracknell Forest, has today promised to continue to make urgent and sustained improvements.

 

The recommitment to continued improvement from Bracknell Forest Council and NHS Frimley Integrated Care Board (ICB), follows an inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in February 2025. The inspection report was published on 1 April. 

 

The partnership apologises and recognises that urgent additional improvements need to be made. They also recognise that the local SEND system does not have sufficient school places and acknowledges the impact this has on meeting the needs of children and young people with SEND.

 

A number of positive steps have been made by the local area partnership in providing improved services including: 

• Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) now being issued on time. 
• A new social emotional and mental health (SEMH) school is being built and will open for 10 children in September 2025 (at a temporary site). 
• Plans for a new autism school for 100 children in Crowthorne are now with the Department for Education. 
• Developed two secondary specialist resource provisions (SRP) so up to 50 children can have their needs met within their local schools
• A stabilised SEND team and workforce including extra staff and enhanced specialist skills, training and knowledge.  
• Improvements to wait times for mental health services, as well as the improved support for children awaiting both mental health and neurodiversity assessments. 
• Redesigned and recommissioned East Berkshire Children’s Therapy Service to address wait times for certain therapy services which come into effective from 1 July 2025.

Inspectors recognised these improvements and noted several other areas of strength, including: 

 

• Leaders have restructured services to help families while they wait for specialist services
• Disabled children and young people who need specialist statutory social care support, including children and young people in care, have their needs assessed in a timely way. They are provided with support, help and access to services to meet their needs, which is influenced by their views.
• The Child Development Centre provides useful training to early years practitioners to help them identify children’s needs. 
• The effective delivery of the healthy child programme, and all mandated contacts, further supports the early identification of needs. 
• The local area’s ‘team around the school’ approach is providing schools with helpful guidance on inclusive support and practices. 

 

In addition to the areas of strength recognised by the inspectors, several areas for improvement were also identified:  

• To create a more effective partnership to ensure there is a clear process established to better identify the needs of children and young people with SEND across the local area. 
• The local area partnership needs to develop more effective and cohesive systems to identify and bridge gaps in commissioning arrangements to help children and young people with SEND to achieve the best possible outcomes.
• The local area partnership should take immediate action to improve the quality of children and young people’s EHC plans and annual reviews. 

The partnership is now implementing urgent actions to improve services which will be developed with children, young people and their families.

 

Cllr Roy Bailey, cabinet member for children and young people, said: “First, and foremost, I would like to offer my sincerest and profound apologies to those children and young people with SEND and their families in Bracknell Forest who have not been receiving the services they need and deserve. I regret the upset caused by the issues raised in this report and I apologise unreservedly on behalf of the council. The inspectors have conducted a thorough review of the local area’s SEND services, for which I thank them. We accept their findings without reservation.

 

“While we have made some positive and important strides in the past couple of years in improving our SEND services for children and young people, we need to continue our sustained efforts to ensure all children and young people with SEND and their families feel confident their voice is being heard and acknowledged. This is a priority.  

 

“I am confident that the local area partnership will deliver a significantly improved level of service, which is empathetic, timely and effective. The new team is working hard, and I thank them for their efforts.

 

“We want the best possible start to life for all our children and young people and so we know we must continue with our improvement plans so they get the right, education, health and care support. We are absolutely determined in our commitment to improve.”

 

Tracey Faraday-Drake, director for children, mental health, and learning disabilities NHS Frimley, said: “Supporting children and young people is a priority for the Frimley Health and Care Integrated Care System. We will continue to strengthen our partnerships to prioritise actions and improve services for children and young people and their families.”

 

 

A monitoring inspection will be carried out in around 18 months and the local area partnership is required to prepare and submit an action plan to address the identified areas for priority action