Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) will carry out jointly an inspection of your local area. Under the Children and Families Act 2014, the government placed new duties on the local health, social and education services that provide for children and young people with SEND. The inspection will evaluate how effectively the local area:

1. identifies the needs of children and young people with SEND
2. meets the needs of these children and young people so that their outcomes and chances of participating fully in society improve.

The views of children and young people with SEND, and the views of their parents and carers will be gathered during visits to a number of early years settings, schools, colleges and specialist services. These views are critical to the inspection process. During the inspection, Ofsted and CQC inspectors will be keen to speak to as many children and young people and their parents and carers as possible.

How can local children, young people, parents and carers contribute their views during this local area inspection?

There are several ways in which children, young people, parents and carers from your provision can engage with the inspection process and contribute their views:

1.The inspection will include an online recorded webinar to allow Blackburn with Darwen parents and carers of children with SEND to contribute. The webinar will take place from 12 noon on Monday 10 June 2019 until 11:59pm on Tuesday 18 June 2019.

Parents and carers who would like to take part in this webinar can follow this internet link to register: http://bit.ly/LASENDWebinarBlackburnwithDarwenBC.

2. Parents and carers can contact their local Parent Carer Forum to request details of how they can attend the discussions held between parents and carers and the Ofsted/CQC inspection team. The local authority must also provide the details of this meeting.  Which will be made available on www.bwd-localoffer.org.uk newsfeed.

3. Parents and carers can email their contributions to Lasend.support@ofsted.gov.uk.

4. Details about the local area SEND inspection will be available on your local authority’s website and distributed through the local area’s Clinical Commissioning Group/s (CCGs). Information about how children and young people with SEND can share their views about the local area’s effectiveness should be included in the local offer.

During this inspection, the inspectors will collect information about children and young people in the area. They will be looking at local area records, speaking to area officers and leaders at educational settings, and speaking to children, young people and parents or carers. No names will be recorded, but some of the information collected may be capable of identifying a particular child, young person or adult. Ofsted and CQC will use this information to prepare their report, and for the purposes set out in their privacy notices. No information will be published that identifies any individual in the inspection report.

More information is available in the Ofsted and CQC privacy notices which can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ofsted-privacy-notices/social-care-ofsted-privacy-notice#local-area-send-inspections

http://www.cqc.org.uk/about-us/our-policies/privacy-statement.

Ofsted’s Data Protection Officer is the Director, Digital and Information who may be contacted at informationrequest@ofsted.gov.uk.  CQC’s Data Protection Officer is the Head of Governance and Legal Services who may be contacted at information.access@cqc.org.uk

While we understand that many parents and carers may have views on their experience that extend before the introduction of the reforms in September 2014, it is important that this date is used as the start for gathering evidence about the impact of the reforms. We would also like parents and carers to understand that we will not be able to follow up or comment upon individual cases. The inspection team will consider all communication from parents as part of the evidence when evaluating the effectiveness of the local area.

Information on local area duties toward children and young people with SEND can be found on the Department for Education’s website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-guide-for-parents-and-carers.

Yours sincerely

Pippa Jackson Maitland

Her Majesty’s Inspector