A review of special education needs and disability (SEND) services in County Durham ruled there are "inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people".

Following the review earlier this year, Durham’s local area partnership officials were told to outline how it plans to improve within 35 days.

An inspection report read: “The local area partnership’s arrangements lead to inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND. The local area partnership must work jointly to make improvements.”

Yet, they found the local area partnership’s arrangements typically lead to positive experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND. Inspectors also said children and young people feel “valued, visible, included in their communities and listened to.”

Health officials have created a strategic action plan in response to the inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Ofsted earlier this year. 

The NHS Integrated Care Board and Durham County Council are jointly responsible for the planning and commissioning of services for Children and Young People with SEND from 0 to age 25. ‘Local area partnership’ refers to those in education, health, and care who are responsible for the strategic planning, commissioning, management, delivery, and evaluation of arrangements for children and young people with SEND who live in a local area.  

The purpose of the inspection was to provide an independent, external evaluation of the effectiveness of the local area partnership’s arrangements for children and young people with SEND. 

Following the review, the local area partnership was urged to continue strengthening work to further reduce delays in accessing Child and Adolescent Mental Health services (CAMHS) and neurodevelopmental pathways across the age range of children and young people. Ensuring that children and young people and their families can access easily identifiable needs-led services was also highlighted. 

A Durham County Council Health and Wellbeing Board meeting on Wednesday was told how the local authorities plan to improve:

Across education, health, and care, we will try and ensure that assessments and plans are consistently high quality so that children’s needs are well understood and met.

We will provide help quickly in a joined-up way, based on children and young people’s needs.

We will make it easier for people to find and get help and support quickly.  We will also offer more resources for those working in education, health, and care to make this happen.

We will build on how we monitor our partnership progress and ensure that we target support to those who need it most.

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“More support is in place for children and young people waiting for neurodevelopmental assessments with an extra focus on needs-led approaches, ensuring any priority cases are progressed to assessment more swiftly,” a report added. 

It is hoped by Autumn 2025 there will be additional specialist education provision in place across North and East Durham.