A child or young person has special educational needs and disabilities if they have a learning difficulty and/or a disability.
This means they need special health and education support, which we shorten this to SEND.
The Local Offer website is the central place of information for children and young people with special educational needs (SEND) and their parents or carers. It shows families what they can expect from a range of local agencies including education, health and social care.
SEND Team
Send Team have two distinct roles:
- to assess education, health and care (EHC) needs
- monitor education, health and care plans (EHCP)
SENDIASS (used to be SEND Advice)
SENDIASS are different to the SEND team (above) and operate at 'arm's length' from the Council. They offer impartial and confidential advice if your child or young person has special education needs and disabilities (SEND).
SEND inspection
Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission inspected the local area of Bedford Borough on 5- 9 February 2018 to judge how effective we were in implementing the special educational needs and disability (SEND) reforms as set out in the Children and Families Act 2014.
Bedford Borough Council and Bedfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group were required to jointly submit a Written Statement of Action which explained how the local area would improve outcomes for all children with SEND.
SEND Statement of Action Bedford Borough (PDF) contains the detailed actions that the Council and our partners will take to address the areas of improvement identified in the inspection and to improve services across Bedford Borough.
Re-visit by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) February 2020
Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors conducted a re-visit of the Council on 3-5 February 2020 to evaluate how effectively we have addressed the areas of concern in our Written Statement of Action.
What kind of information was gathered
During the re-visit, Ofsted and the CQC inspectors collected information about children and young people in the area. They may have:
- looked at local area records
- spoken to area officers and leaders at educational settings
- spoken to children, young people and parents or carers
The re-visit team considered how well leaders have addressed each of the areas of concern.
Privacy and use of personal data
No names were recorded, but some of the information collected may identify a particular child, young person or adult. Ofsted and the CQC will use this information to prepare their re-visit outcomes letter, and for the purposes set out in their privacy notices. No information will be published that identifies any individual in the outcomes letter.
Find out more about how the information is used:
If you have any concerns about our use of personal data, please email informationrequest@ofsted.gov.uk and/or the CQC at information.access@cqc.org.uk.
You can also read GOV.UK's SEND: guide for parents and carers.
