Setting

Area SEND inspection of Salford Local Area Partnership

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Inspection dates: 13 to 17 July 2026 Dates of previous inspection: 9 to 13 December 2019

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Inspection outcome

The local area partnership’s special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) arrangements typically lead to positive experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND. The local area partnership is taking action where improvements are needed.

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Inspection outcome

The next full area SEND inspection will be within approximately 5 years.

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Inspection outcome

Ofsted and the 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

Salford local area partnership consists of Salford City Council and NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board (ICB). They are jointly responsible for the planning and commissioning of education, social care and health provision for children and young people with SEND in Salford.

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Information about the local area partnership

In July 2022, NHS Greater Manchester ICB became responsible for the commissioning of health services in Salford, taking over responsibility from Clinical Commissioning Groups. There have been some changes to the partnership’s leadership since the previous inspection, including the executive director of children’s services, who took up their post in January 2023.

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Information about the local area partnership

The local partnership commissions a range of alternative provision (AP). AP provides education for children and young people who cannot attend school due to their social, emotional and mental health and medical needs. AP is also used for those who have been permanently excluded from school or are at risk of being excluded. Area SEND inspection report: Salford Local Area Partnership 13 to 17 July 2026

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

Children and young people with SEND in Salford typically have their needs identified early and accurately across education, health and social care. Help and support is appropriately targeted, leading to provision that meets a wide range of needs. As a result, children and young people with SEND experience sustained improvements in their outcomes and experiences.

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

Children and young people generally report positive experiences of support from teachers, support staff and wider services across education, health and social care. They value being listened to and having their needs understood, with many praising the personalised support available to help them. Children and young people with SEND also benefit from opportunities to develop independence, participate in activities in their community and prepare for adult life.

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

The views and ideas of children and young people with SEND are sought routinely through a range of engagement mechanisms, including children and young people’s panels and a highly active parent carer forum (PCF). Children, young people and their families play a key role in shaping and developing SEND services through effective co- production (a way of working where children, families and those that provide the services work together to create a decision or a service that works for them all). This collaboration has led to services generally being closely focused on providing the help and support that children and young people with SEND need.

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

Children and families benefit from responsive, well-coordinated early help and social care support. Practitioners know children well, understand their complex learning and care needs and place the child’s voice at the centre of assessment, planning and decision- making. Children in care who have SEND receive effective support for their social, emotional and mental health needs, alongside opportunities to participate in community activities and influence decisions about their lives.

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

Some children and young people with SEND wait too long for neurodevelopmental assessment and diagnosis. Despite these delays, practitioners, such as mental health support teams, ensure that children, young people, parents and carers can access information and emotional support as needs emerge.

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

Children and young people with SEND are typically well prepared for adulthood. The partnership’s preparation for adulthood team coordinates effective support across education, health and social care, ensuring a joined-up approach to transition. As a result, children and young people with SEND can access a growing range of education, training and employment opportunities, including supported internships. This proactive approach contributes to low numbers of young people with EHC plans who are not in education, employment or training.

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

Children and young people with SEND benefit from a range of opportunities in the Area SEND inspection report: Salford Local Area Partnership 13 to 17 July 2026

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community, such as evening dance clubs and a children and young people’s forum. These are communicated to families through the local offer. Although children and young people with SEND and their families appreciate these activities, they told inspectors that they would like a wider variety of opportunities.

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What is the area partnership doing that is effective?

◼ Leaders across the partnership are ambitious for children and young people with SEND and are committed to helping them to achieve their potential. Strong and well- established multi-agency collaboration across education, health and social care enables a coordinated, holistic and child-centred approach to planning and delivering services. Effective information-sharing helps to ensure that support is typically well coordinated, contributing to improved experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND. ◼ The dynamic support register (DSR) is well established and supported by strong multi-agency oversight. The DSR brings the right professionals together across health, education and social care to respond to risk and deliver bespoke support for children and young people. The keyworker model is also well embedded, with children allocated a named key worker promptly following identification of need.

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What is the area partnership doing that is effective?

◼ Specialist nursing services routinely make appropriate reasonable adjustments that improve access to healthcare for children and young people with SEND, for example desensitisation approaches and extended appointments to avoid hospital admission. Continuing care arrangements are strengthened through joint assessments and multi- agency decision-making. Tailored training and competency reviews also ensure that children with complex healthcare needs can safely access education. Clinical assessments from a wide range of health practitioners ensure children and young people are put on appropriate treatment pathways. ◼ There is a single point of access to the neurodevelopment pathway. Comprehensive information is provided to families when the referral is accepted on the waiting list. Families are supported and encouraged to contact services should their child or young person’s needs escalate and further support is needed. As part of the triage system,

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What is the area partnership doing that is effective?

practitioners ensure that the right children and young people are accepted for a diagnostic assessment. As a result, children and young people are generally supported effectively while waiting and have their needs met without a diagnosis. ◼ The effective multi-agency collection and use of data provide a clear understanding of strengths and areas for improvement across the local area. This is contributing to strong partnership leadership and governance arrangements that support dynamic planning, informed commissioning and effective future planning. For instance, a recovery strategy is firmly in place that is addressing excessive waiting times for children and young people on neurodevelopmental pathways swiftly and effectively. ◼ The PCF contribute to service development through strategic co-production. Parent feedback has influenced improvements across areas including speech and language therapy, transitions, the Local Offer and short breaks provision, such as holiday clubs.

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What is the area partnership doing that is effective?

Salford Information Advice and Support Service (SIASS) is also valued by families for providing independent, impartial advice and support to help them navigate SEND Area SEND inspection report: Salford Local Area Partnership 13 to 17 July 2026

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processes and access available services. ◼ The partnership provides bespoke education packages for those educated other than at school, including AP, tutoring and direct payments. Regular oversight ensures support meets individual needs well. ◼ Early identification of need is a particular strength, with families receiving advice and support while assessments are underway. Weekly multi-agency triage processes and collaborative working across education, health and social care help ensure needs are identified and responded to promptly. The partnership provides early years settings with a range of effective support that helps practitioners to identify, assess and meet the needs of children with SEND at an early stage in their education journey. An extensive offer of training is available to practitioners across the area to further enhance understanding and partnership work. ◼ The area’s AP strategy and framework have brought together a broad range of

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providers who offer extensive, quality-assured short and longer-term placements for children and young people with SEND. Consequently, more children and young people with SEND are attending educational settings that are able to meet their educational and emotional needs. ◼ Children placed in specialist or out-of-area residential settings are well supported through transitions and benefit from strong, multi-agency oversight. This helps to ensure that their education, health and care needs are met and their placements remain safe and suitable.

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What does the area partnership need to do better?

◼ Over recent years, the need for SEND services has increased significantly and the partnership has been agile in increasing capacity. Parents and carers still find that capacity in some services, including within neurodevelopmental pathways and in some specialist education provisions, is not sufficient. The partnership understands this fully and is working to increase services as necessary while recognising that some gaps remain. ◼ The quality of some EHC plans is variable, and some do not accurately reflect the current needs of children and young people with SEND. Despite the advantages and emerging strength of practitioners and parents using the EHC plan information- sharing hub, there is underrepresentation of the views of social care practitioners evident in EHC plans. In some EHC plans, the amount of information contained makes the plans difficult to navigate and therefore difficult for practitioners to swiftly locate

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What does the area partnership need to do better?

the information they need. The partnership is also aware that some outcomes stated within EHC plans are overly generic, which makes it difficult to measure impact. ◼ Children and young people wait too long for a neurodevelopment assessment. Though there is offer of support available while they wait, children and young people and their families are being negatively impacted by the long waits. Improving these waits is a priority for the local area and there is a focus on increasing capacity for additional neurodevelopment assessments to be undertaken. It is intended that this will lead to more timely assessment and identification of needs. Area SEND inspection report: Salford Local Area Partnership 13 to 17 July 2026

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◼ Some parents still report difficulties in finding out what services are available in the local area or have a lack of clarity about the services in some pathways. Organisations, including SIASS and the PCF, are active partners in continuing to disseminate information and offer support and a helping hand to parents to access the help they are seeking. Furthermore, some families face challenges accessing information shared through QR codes, hyperlinks and other digital communications to help them to engage effectively with some services. ◼ When young people are approaching adult life there is a variability in the quality of some joint working between adult and children’s social care services. For a small number of children and young people with SEND, their education, care and health needs are well understood and met successfully. However, for other young people, there is a disparity between the adult and leaving care assessment, which leads to

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gaps in arrangements and support for young people. ◼ Increased needs across Salford continue to place significant pressure on some services. Delays are present in some speech and language therapy pathways, dysphagia and access to video fluoroscopy assessments. The partnership has provided successful mitigating actions through additional resources and effective training for practitioners to help meet need while children and young people wait for specialist assessment and intervention.

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Areas for improvement

Leaders across the partnership should strengthen the multi-agency quality assurance of EHC plans and annual reviews, ensuring that: ▪ EHC plans accurately reflect current needs, provision and ambitious outcomes ▪ social care practitioners consistently contribute to the development and review of children and young people’s EHC plans ▪ the quality of outcomes in EHC plans is improved so that progress and impact can be clearly measured and evaluated The ICB should continue to work closely with partners in education and social care to deliver the local neurodevelopmental transformation programme to ensure that alongside reduced waiting times for assessment and diagnosis, children and young people’s needs are identified and responded to promptly. Area SEND inspection report: Salford Local Area Partnership 13 to 17 July 2026

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Local authority Integrated care board

Salford City Council NHS Greater Manchester ICB Melissa Caslake, Executive Director of Children’s Services Colin Scales, Acting Chief Executive

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Local authority Integrated care board

www.salford.gov.uk www.gmintegratedcare.org.uk/nhs-gm Salford Civic Centre Chorley Road Swinton M27 5AW 4th Floor Piccadilly Place Manchester M1 3BN

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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: an HMI from social care; an Ofsted Inspector from education; a lead Children’s Services Inspector from the CQC; and two other Children’s Services Inspectors from the CQC.

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Ofsted Care Quality Commission

Gareth Morgan, Ofsted HMI, lead inspector Jacqui Hornby, CQC lead inspector Nick Bennison, Ofsted HMI Lea Pickerill, CQC inspector Keith Tysoe, Ofsted Inspector Harriet Doran, CQC inspector Area SEND inspection report: Salford Local Area Partnership 13 to 17 July 2026

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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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