SEND Ofsted and CQC inspections

Last updated: 8 September 2023

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) conduct joint inspections to judge the effectiveness of local areas in implementing the disability and special educational needs reforms as set out in the Children and Families Act 2014.

2022 Ofsted and CQC re-visit

Ofsted and the CQC conducted a re-visit to Kent in September 2022 to assess whether the local area (KCC, NHS Kent and Medway, and local schools and settings) had made progress in addressing the areas of significant weakness identified in their inspection of the local area in 2019.

Following the 2022 Ofsted and CQC re-visit in September, their findings were published in November 2022:

Our improvement plan for 2023 to 2024

In March 2023, we received a letter from Claire Coutinho MP, Minister for Children, Families and Wellbeing, informing us of her decision to issue an Improvement Notice.

The letter sets out a requirement for KCC and NHS Kent and Medway to develop a rapid improvement plan, called an Accelerated Progress Plan (APP). We published our APP in August 2023, outlining the changes and improvements we will be making for each of the nine areas of weakness.

Read our Accelerated Improvement Plan.

2019 Ofsted and CQC inspection

The inspection identified nine areas of significant weakness in SEND provision in Kent. These were set out in a letter which was published on the Ofsted website on 29 March 2019.

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