Setting

Lincolnshire Local Area Partnership

Inspection dates: 10 to 14 February 2025 Dates of previous inspection: 1 to 5 October 2018

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Inspection outcome

The local area partnership’s arrangements lead to inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). The local area partnership must work jointly to make improvements.

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Inspection outcome

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

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Inspection outcome

Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC) ask that the local area partnership updates and publishes its strategic plan based on the recommendations set out in this report.

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Information about the local area partnership

The commissioning of health services changed across England in 2022. At this time, the responsibility for health services in Lincolnshire passed to the Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board (ICB), taking over responsibility from Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

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Information about the local area partnership

Lincolnshire County Council and Lincolnshire ICB are jointly responsible for the planning and commissioning of services for children and young people with SEND in Lincolnshire.

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Information about the local area partnership

Since the previous inspection, in October 2018, leadership across the local area partnership has remained largely stable, with some changes to executive leadership positions in the local authority. This includes the appointment of the previous director of children’s services to be chief executive for the county council. As a result of this, an executive director of children’s services was appointed.

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Information about the local area partnership

The local area partnership commission a multi-academy trust to provide education for children or young people who are at risk of or have been permanently excluded from school. A small number of schools also commission their own alternative provision (AP). They are responsible for their own checks on the suitability of any AP that they commission independently.

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What is it like to be a child or young person with SEND in this area?

The impact of the partnership’s work to support children’s and young people’s lived Area SEND inspection report: Lincolnshire Local Area Partnership 10 February 2025 to 14 February 2025

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experiences is inconsistent. However, the partnership has a shared determination to improve the education, health and social care services that support children and young people with SEND across Lincolnshire.

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Children and young people with SEND are valued and well represented in their communities. The ‘Lincolnshire Young Voices’ confidently represent the views of children and young people with SEND in Lincolnshire to partnership leaders. As a result, children and young people feel listened to. Their views inform some partnership decision-making. For example, children and young people with SEND have developed guidance and training materials for professionals in inclusive language. They have informed the partnership about their mixed experiences of transport accessibility. They have told the partnership that they would like more opportunities to participate in community activities and to be able to socialise with their peers.

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The overall quality of education, health and care (EHC) plans is inconsistent. Some children’s and young people’s EHC plans do not reflect their views and aspirations consistently well. Equally, EHC plans do not represent the child’s or young person’s needs effectively. In addition, some children, young people and their families are not sufficiently included in all decision-making around the child’s or young person’s individual needs.

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Children, young people and their families do not consistently understand what services are available to support them. They are not well informed about the partnership’s provision to support children and young people with SEND across education, health and social care services. This includes how to access and navigate the partnership’s local offer to make informed choices independently.

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Some children and young people with SEND experience difficulties when accessing primary care services, such as doctors and dentists. This causes frustration. Furthermore, this results in some children’s and young people’s health needs not being met at the right time. In addition, the online triage system for accessing general practice health care is a barrier to some children and young people because their needs make accessing the system difficult.

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Children and young people with SEND experience swift specialist support for their health needs. This includes physiotherapy, occupational therapy and mental health support. They receive effective support for their mental health through the child and adolescent mental health services, Healthy Minds Lincolnshire, and through mental health support teams. However, in contrast, children and young people with SEND wait too long for neurodevelopmental assessments, speech and language assessments and related therapies. The partnership has plans for service transformation to reduce waiting times.

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Some children with SEND in primary schools are not identified and supported early enough. They receive more suspensions and permanent exclusions from school when compared to national averages for England. In addition, some children with SEND in primary schools do not achieve as well as their peers. Area SEND inspection report: Lincolnshire Local Area Partnership 10 February 2025 to 14 February 2025

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Children and young people with SEND receive targeted support from early help practitioners. Support is effectively delivered through children’s centres by able practitioners who are skilled at engaging children and young people with SEND. Practitioners consider the needs of the whole family. This includes how family networks can better support children with SEND. In addition, children and young people receive effective support to develop their emotional regulation, strengthen family relationships and improve their school attendance.

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Children and young people who are in care and have SEND experience continuity of care over long periods from a stable and diligent children with disabilities team. They are supported well. Their views are prioritised in professionals’ care planning. Many children, young people and their families have well-established trusting relationships with professionals who they have known for long periods of time. However, for a small number of children, some professionals do not demonstrate sufficient consideration of the impact on children’s and young people’s outcomes when care planning. As a result, some children’s and young people’s care plans are not consistently aspirational.

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What is the area partnership doing that is effective?

◼ The partnership has a clear governance structure. It provides effective strategic oversight of services across education, health and social care. The partnership is ambitious for children and young people with SEND, with further plans and investment to increase places in provision, such as AP and special schools. ◼ The partnership actively engages stakeholders in decision-making. For example, the Lincolnshire Parent and Carer Forum (PCF) is a strategic partner in the development and implementation of the partnership’s SEND strategy. In addition, it is a member of the partnership’s SEND oversight board. As a result, the PCF holds the partnership to account for the local systems and processes that impact children, young people and their families. ◼ The partnership has implemented a new equipment and wheelchair service. It ensures disabled children and young people receive equipment at the right time to

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What is the area partnership doing that is effective?

meet their needs. This means children and young people with SEND are experiencing a reduction in waiting times for equipment, with an improving trajectory for those still waiting to have their equipment needs met. ◼ Children, young people, families and practitioners contact the public health children and families nursing service through a single point of access. All calls are triaged by a qualified children’s nurse. This ensures that prompt nursing decisions are made to determine whether a health needs assessment is carried out or if the child should be referred to a specialist pathway for further support. ◼ Children and young people with a complex physical disability who are also at risk of being admitted to hospital with a chest infection are routinely monitored by a specialist rapid response community respiratory service. This service has prevented over 200 hospital admissions for children and young people since its implementation.

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What is the area partnership doing that is effective?

◼ The dynamic support register (DSR) provides families with timely and effective support to access a key worker for the most vulnerable children and young people. Area SEND inspection report: Lincolnshire Local Area Partnership 10 February 2025 to 14 February 2025

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The DSR ensures that complex mental health needs are met by the right practitioner at the right time, preventing hospital admissions. ◼ The school attendance of children and young people with SEND is well managed by a partnership multi-disciplinary team. They closely monitor the attendance of children and young people with SEND and provide support across a range of schools. This ensures that the attendance of children and young people with SEND matches national averages for England. ◼ Young people with SEND are supported effectively in reaching appropriate next steps to education and employment. A partnership multi-disciplinary team ensures that those children and young people with SEND who wish to remain in education are well supported. As a result, most children and young people with SEND secure positive post-16 destinations. ◼ Lincolnshire’s AP offer is expanding with plans for further capital investment. In

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addition, there are a range of effective options to support children and young people with SEND to transition back into education. These include working at home with a well-established tutor service that supports children and young people with SEND to develop positive routines towards their education. ◼ Children, young people and their families access a range of children’s centres. These provide a variety of support opportunities to enhance children’s and young people’s lived experiences. Partnership working is strongly embedded within children’s centres. For example, they provide useful support and resources for children and young people when they are waiting for services, such as speech and language therapy. ◼ The partnership secures appropriate assurance about the quality of care and education when commissioning an external placement for disabled children in care. This includes when a disabled child in care moves out of area. The partnership

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maintains regular oversight of the commissioned placement, including to residential special schools, to provide assurance that the child or young person has their needs met and are safe.

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What does the area partnership need to do better?

◼ The quality of EHC plans is variable. This includes the review of EHC plans. The partnership has recognised this area for improvement. They are implementing recovery plans to strengthen the quality of EHC plans and professionals’ contributions to provision planning. ◼ Frequently, transition planning in EHC plans is unclear. It is not considered sufficiently well or in a timely way. Too often, EHC plans lack aspirational and personalised targets when transition planning to better prepare children and young people with SEND for their next steps in education and towards adulthood. Children’s and young people’s EHC plans do not consistently contain professionals’ current advice, to enable effective planning for their next steps into education and preparation for adulthood. ◼ The online ‘EHC plan hub’ is being embedded and is yet to demonstrate a consistently positive impact. Users experience points of frustration in its implementation. This

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What does the area partnership need to do better?

includes how EHC plans are managed on the system. Some EHC plans are not swiftly Area SEND inspection report: Lincolnshire Local Area Partnership 10 February 2025 to 14 February 2025

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allocated between professionals that manage the plan. In addition, some professionals who provide advice to the EHC plan do not see the draft version. ◼ There are gaps in the use of data in a small number of areas of the partnership, for example systems to scrutinise national data for annual health checks of 18- to 25- year-olds. As a result, the ICB cannot consistently assure themselves of the effectiveness of annual health checks for young people by evaluating the number and quality of needs assessments. ◼ Children and young people with SEND wait long periods for assessment and specialist support on neurodevelopmental pathways and for speech and language therapy. The partnership has plans to improve capacity and strengthen the service offer. These plans are waiting for financial agreement before they are implemented. In the interim period, the partnership is mitigating waiting times, for example by using children’s

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centres to provide support for speech and language therapy. ◼ Despite the partnership’s investment in provision, the need for special school places exceeds the number of available places. Due to the high demand for places, some special schools receive a significant number of consultation requests for places. This is a challenge for special schools to manage when many consultation requests are made at once when determining which school can best meet a child’s or young person’s needs. ◼ Children with SEND in primary schools receive more exclusions than national averages for England. In addition, children and young people with SEND in secondary schools receive more suspensions than national averages for England. There is a reducing number of suspensions and exclusions year on year. However, the numbers do not meet the partnership’s expectations. ◼ Frequently, children, young people and their families travel long distances to access

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specialist support that is not consistently available to all schools in Lincolnshire. Some children and young people with SEND can access specialist nurses in one special school. Other schools receive training and guidance from nurse trainers where needed. However, the supervision of this support is not in place. ◼ Some children and young people with SEND have insufficient access to specialist community nurses to provide support for autism and learning disabilities. The partnership has a plan to increase capacity in the service. The impact of this plan is too early to evaluate. ◼ Referrals to Lincolnshire’s Special Educational Needs and Disability Information, Advice and Support Service, called Liaise, have grown significantly. However, the capacity of the service has not increased. As a result, the service is limiting face-to- face support. ◼ The partnership is not sufficiently aware of the number of children and young people

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with SEND that attend AP that is commissioned by schools. This includes unregistered provision. While these schools are responsible for monitoring the suitability of these placements, a small number of schools do not consistently report the number of AP placements to the partnership. Area SEND inspection report: Lincolnshire Local Area Partnership 10 February 2025 to 14 February 2025

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Areas for improvement

The partnership should continue at pace to strengthen the quality of EHC plans. This includes improving the planned outcomes for children and young people through aspirational and personalised targets. The partnership should: • ensure the information that informs the content of EHC plans is reflective of children’s and young people’s current needs; • ensure that the current voice of the child or young person and their families is captured accurately to inform provision planning and future service delivery; • ensure that EHC plan targets are quantified and specific; • ensure preparation for adulthood and transition planning in EHC plans is clear and considered sufficiently well in a timely way; and • ensure that the partnership’s own EHC plan quality framework captures the breadth of a child’s or young person’s needs, including their social, emotional and mental health needs. The partnership must continue to take action to reduce waiting times across

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Areas for improvement

neurodevelopmental pathways and speech and language therapy. In the intervening waiting period, the partnership must continue to mitigate the impact for children and young people. The partnership should continue to support and challenge schools in the early identification of children’s and young people’s needs. They should further collaborate with school leaders to support and challenge schools to provide early intervention to reduce suspensions and permanent exclusions of children and young people with SEND in the local area. The partnership should strengthen the effectiveness of its communication with stakeholders. The partnership should: • engage with education professionals to inform them about the partnership’s systems and processes to support children and young people with SEND effectively. This includes the availability of outreach services, the SEND graduated approach and the consistent use of the ‘Lincolnshire Ladder of

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Areas for improvement

Intervention’, which includes making appropriate referrals to alternative provision; • ensure parents and carers are well informed about the partnership’s provision to support children and young people with SEND. This includes ensuring that the local offer is accessible and understandable; and • ensure that parents and carers understand the range of activities and services available to children and young people. This includes support for next steps in education and towards adulthood, access to community activities, availability of transport and health care. Area SEND inspection report: Lincolnshire Local Area Partnership 10 February 2025 to 14 February 2025

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Local authority Integrated care board

Lincolnshire County Council NHS Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board

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Local authority Integrated care board

Heather Sandy, Executive Director of Children’s Services John Turner, Chief Executive

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Local authority Integrated care board

www.lincolnshire.gov.uk https://lincolnshire.icb.nhs.uk

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Local authority Integrated care board

County Offices Newland Lincoln LN11YL Bridge House The Point Lions Way Sleaford NG34 8GG

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Information about this inspection

This inspection was carried out at the request of the Secretary of State for Education under section 20(1)(a) of the Children Act 2004.

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Information about this inspection

The inspection was led by one of His Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) from Ofsted, with a team of inspectors, including: two HMIs from education and social care; a lead Children’s Services Inspector from the Care Quality Commission (CQC); and two other Children’s Services Inspector from the CQC.

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Ofsted Care Quality Commission

David Mills, Ofsted HMI Lead inspector Harriet Doran, CQC Lead inspector Mary Cook, Ofsted HMI Deana Fowle, CQC inspector Jo Warburton, Ofsted HMI Jessica Taylor-Beirne, CQC inspector Area SEND inspection report: Lincolnshire Local Area Partnership 10 February 2025 to 14 February 2025

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excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children’s social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, further education and skills, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked-after children, safeguarding and child protection.

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