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:
- the Ofsted letter
- our open letter to parents and carers (PDF, 111.7 KB)
- our media release
- our letter to schools and settings (PDF, 80.2 KB).
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.
- Written Statement of Action (PDF, 509.0 KB)
- Written Statement of Action - plan on a page (PDF, 105.3 KB)
- Written Statement of Action - response letter (PDF, 119.0 KB)
- Written Statement of Action - measures and indicators report (XLSX, 60.6 KB)
To keep up-to-date with the latest news, subscribe to our newsletter.