Haringey given highest rating for special educational needs and disabilities services | News

Haringey has received the highest rating for delivering high quality services for young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) following a joint local area inspection by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

The report highlighted that the voices and opinions of families ‘are heard and acted on’ by leaders who ‘are ambitious and focused on improving the lives of children and young people’.

Haringey Council works closely with our Partnership's Children and Young People's Mental Health Services (CYPMHS, formerly CAMHS) Division and the North Central London (NCL) Integrated Care Board (ICB), as well as other partners across the education, health and care sector, to plan, commission and deliver SEND services.

Commending those services, inspectors said: ‘Children and young people with SEND and their families benefit from a culture of listening, flexibility and cooperation from professionals who support their best interests.  The outcomes and experiences of the most vulnerable are central to planning and decision-making in Haringey.’

The report, published on Wednesday 3 April following an inspection over three weeks in late January and early February 2024, concludes that services ‘typically lead to positive experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND’ – the highest rating possible under a new inspection framework introduced in 2023.

Inspectors said ‘Multi-agency working flourishes in Haringey,’ found ‘considerable improvements’ in key areas since the last inspection in 2021 and commended the ‘commitment to co-production’ of services with children, young people and families.

Ben Mensah, Managing Director of our CYPMHS Division, said: "We are thrilled that our efforts to strengthen CYPMHS's divisional leadership and the development of effective collaboration between Haringey CYPMHS and the borough council has contributed to the success of our area partnership.

"Inspectors noted, 'the local area partnership’s SEND arrangements typically lead to positive experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND'. This was a great partnership effort with all colleagues across a host of agencies and frontline staff contributing to the excellent inspection outcome."

Tim Miller, Assistant Director of Place for Haringey at NCL said: “We are delighted by the SEND inspection report’s positive findings. This reflects our strong partnership working and the commitment shown by staff in the NHS. Haringey’s children and young people should receive the help and support they need and deserve.

“Our priorities now are to continue to improve information and engagement and access to health services and to reduce waiting times so the experiences and outcomes of children, young people and their families continues to improve.”

Thank you to all our CYPMHS staff whose hard work has contributed to this fantastic result!

You can read the report online here for more details and to find out the other strengths the inspectors observed in the service.