Cheshire East local area SEND inspection 

We are currently on high alert for an area special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) inspection in Cheshire East.

The main purpose of the inspection is for Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to:

• evaluate the effectiveness of the local area partnership’s arrangements for children and young people with SEND
• where appropriate, recommend what the local area partnership should do to improve the arrangements

Inspectors will review how effectively we work together as a partnership in our local area of Cheshire East to improve the experiences and outcomes of children and young people with SEND.

Our ‘local area partnership’ includes everyone in education, health and care involved in the strategic planning, commissioning, management, delivery and evaluation of arrangements for children and young people with SEND in Cheshire East.

What happens during the inspection

The inspection will last for 3 weeks in total. The inspectors will usually contact us on a Monday morning to announce the inspection. We will then have two weeks (ten working days) before the inspectors arrive on-site here in Cheshire East.

The inspection team will be led by an Inspector from Ofsted, and will include Children’s Services Inspectors from the CQC, and education and social care inspectors from Ofsted.

The inspection will include:

• Surveys for children and young people with SEND, parents and carers, and practitioners
• In-depth tracking of 6 children and young people, including interviews with the children involved, their parents/carers and relevant practitioners
• Sampling and reviewing children’s case records, including discussing cases with practitioners
• Visits to providers and services across education, health and care to review the experiences of a wider group of children and young people
• Meetings with leaders across education, health and care.

Where to find more information about the inspection

We will update this page with further details and links to the inspection surveys once we are notified that an area SEND inspection will be taking place in Cheshire East.

In the meantime:

• we have created a SEND inspection guide (PDF, 155KB) with everything you need to know about area SEND inspections
• Ofsted and CQC have online guides for parents, carers, children and young people about inspections of local services for children and young people with SEND.
• You may also find it helpful to look at the online area SEND inspections: framework and handbook published by Ofsted and CQC.

Previous Cheshire East SEND inspections

Previous SEND inspection activity in Cheshire East is set out below:

• May 2021 – Local area SEND inspection revisit (sufficient progress made)
• March 2018 – Local area SEND inspection (written statement of action required)

All the inspection reports for these inspections are available on the Ofsted website.

Page last reviewed: 24 January 2024