Pupils with disabilities making ‘weak’ academic progress in Brum

BIRMINGHAM pupils with disabilities make “weak” academic progress and are excluded from school more often than other areas according to Ofsted inspectors.

This is just one of a string of criticisms of the city’s Special Education Needs and Disablities (SEND) service contained in a damning report from Ofsted published today.

The inspectors found “significant areas of weakness” and have demanded that Birmingham City Council and health care providers produce an action plan to improve. Criticism included: A lack of coordinated leaderships means pupils fail to achieve as well as they should, pupils make weak academic progress, attend school less and are more frequently excluded;

Not enough young people with special needs are entering employment;

The proportion of adults with learning disabilities in work is below the national average;

Health, education and social care teams have only recently started working together effectively and reforms proposed in 2014 have not been implemented;

A lack of strategic planning and only isolated areas of good work;

Health services for special needs are under-resourced;

Engagement with parents is poor – they frequently have to repeat their issues over and over again to different people; Waiting times are too long. Both Birmingham City Council’s children’s services department and the Birmingham and Solihull Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which runs NHS services in the city, have agreed to produce a joint action plan and make improvements.

The city council cabinet member for children Kate Booth and the CCG’s chief medical office Dr Richard Men- delsohn issued a joint statement :

It said: “The report has highlighted several areas of strong and positive practice; however, a number of significant improvements urgently need to be made. This work is being prioritised by all organisations involved, to ensure a clear focus on improving standards and addressing the concerns that have been identified.

“In order to make the improvements required, we are very aware that there needs to be a fundamental change in how we work together, and also with children, their families and carers.

“We will do this by engaging with the people who are already using the services, and working with them to co-produce the solutions with us, to ensure that they work for everyone; by ensuring more effective joint working between frontline staff across the NHS, in education, and social care; and by addressing the difficulties that are currently being experienced with accessing the right local services, in a timely way.

“We are absolutely clear that services need to improve significantly, and rapidly, so that children and young people in Birmingham have their needs met and are properly supported; this is to ensure that they can achieve their full academic potential and can lead fulfilling lives.”