What we’re working on
Local Area SEND Inspection
What took place?
In July 2025, the services across the areas of Education, Health and Social Care in South Gloucestershire were inspected by OFSTED and the CQC, with a focus on SEND provisions.
The reason for this is so that inspectors can find out how support is working for children and young people aged 0-25 years with SEND in the local area.
We are currently awaiting the inspection report.
How parent carers were involved…
As part of the inspection, there was a survey that parent carers took part in to have their say on the local SEND services.
The views and experiences of families in our community were a crucial part of the inspection and were used to decide what areas the inspectors looked at.
There were also surveys available for children and young people with SEND (over 11 years) and practitioners working with children with SEND across education, health and social care.
As the local parent forum, we wanted to ensure that every parent carer in South Glos had the opportunity to share their views via the survey, so we used our website, social media, newsletter, emails, flyers and contacts to spread the word.
How the inspection works…
Notification
The Local Authority and the local parent carer forum are notified of the inspection on the first day.
Week 1
Preparation
Parent carers give their views, via an online survey.
Week 2
Gathering Evidence
The parent carer forum meets with inspectors to feed back the collective voice of parent carers in their community. The key lines of enquiry are decided by the inspectors based on the information provided.
Week 3
Inspection Report
Inspectors meet with the Local Authority and visit a variety of settings.
Outcome
The outcome from the inspection is published once the report has been finalised. The average time until a report is published is around two months. This will depend on whether any queries are submitted to the inspectors regarding their findings.
Other ways families were involved
The inspectors selected six children and young people with SEND to be involved in Tracking Meetings. Tracking meetings are an opportunity for inspectors to hear directly about children and young people’s experiences and outcomes.
The names of the children were chosen completely at random based on a list of all children and young people on the SEND data base, including those on the SEN Support Register.
The six children and young people were chosen to ensure that a broad range of experiences and needs were represented in their review.
In addition, the inspectors carried out ‘Case Sampling’ to evaluate the experiences and outcomes for children by reviewing documents and talking to practitioners directly involved in the decision-making and oversight of their support.
Useful Links
Information from Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission
Information from South Gloucestershire Council including the results of previous inspections
See below for the latest updates
