We, along with education and NHS partners, have pledged to improve the support offered to children with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND).

In November last year, a report from Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) identified significant weaknesses in services for children with SEND and said that improvements must be made.

Alongside our partners, we carried out an online survey to find out first-hand the experiences of parents, carers, children and young people using the service.

The outcomes of the survey informed the co-creation of a plan - known as a Written Statement of Action - explaining how the partnership will improve services.

Since then, we and the NHS have been working with the newly-established SEND Family Voice Torbay, led by local parents, to produce the plan. 

The plan was submitted to Ofsted in April and was approved with no changes required. It has now been published.

Read the plan

As part of this plan, the partnership has been working with children, young people and their families to create a Pledge setting out how people can be expected to be treated when engaging with services provided for children. This will help improve the culture across the local area services and will be the basis of practice and training.

Read the Pledge

Torbay Council’s Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Councillor Cordelia Law, said: “It was crucial that before we moved ahead with plans, we needed to pause to listen to the voices and experiences of the children, young people, parents, and carers to help co-create and co-produce the support and services they want and need.

“We would like to thank all those who took the time to share their experiences in the survey. We appreciate whole-heartedly that nobody knows the individual needs of a child as well as their parents and carers.”  

Pictured left to right: Rachel Williams, Divisional Director Education, Learning and Skills, Becky Thompson, Divisional Director of Safeguarding, Nancy Meehan Director of Children's Services and Councillor Cordelia Law Cabinet Member for Children's Services