A JOINT inspection of Worcestershire SEND Local Area Partnership by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Ofsted has found children are still waiting too long for autism and ADHD assessments in the county.
The SEND Local Area Partnership is made up of Worcestershire County Council, NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB) and Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust.
The inspection, which took place from May 5 to 7, reviewed progress against two priority areas identified during the full SEND inspection in 2024 – reducing waiting times for health services and strengthening co-production with children and young people.
Inspectors found that insufficient progress had been made in relation to reducing waiting times for health services and judged the response to this priority action as ‘ineffective action’.
This was because many children still face long waiting times for services such as the autism and ADHD diagnostic pathway, and families are not receiving consistent support while they wait for an appointment.
The report did recognise the partnership’s work to reduce waiting times showed some positive progress, including recovered waiting times in occupational therapy and physiotherapy services and fewer children waiting for neurodivergent assessments and community paediatric services.
The report also recognised the efforts of education and social care services to provide support based on children’s needs rather than waiting for a diagnosis.
For the second priority action, inspectors stated the partnership had taken ‘effective action’ to improve co-production with children and young people with SEND – meaning there has been good progress made to involving children and young people in high-level decision making.
The report highlighted that children and young people were increasingly involved in discussions and decision-making across education, health and social care. Inspectors also recognised that their views are helping to shape priorities, service design and improvement planning.
On behalf of the SEND Local Area Partnership, Jane Friswell, Independent Chair of the SEND and Alternative Provision Executive Board said: “We welcome the findings of the report, and we are sorry that children and young people in Worcestershire continue to experience long waits for some services.
“We appreciate this can bring uncertainty and inconsistent support for some families and the SEND partnership will endeavour to focus on improving this experience.
“While the report recognises progress, including improved waiting times in some services and stronger involvement of children and young people in decision-making, it is clear that more needs to be done to ensure all families feel the benefits of these improvements.
“We remain committed to working with our partners to deliver the improvements needed to provide more timely and consistent support for everyone who needs it.”
Coun Dan Boatright-Greene, Worcestershire County Council’s cabinet member for education, SEND and skills said: “I’m really pleased that the report recognises the clear progress made and the growing role children and young people are playing in shaping the services that affect them.
“We know we still have some way to go and will continue to reach out to everyone to ensure we put the voice of all young people in the centre of our work.
