Kent’s SEND system is getting better, but not for everyone

Kent’s SEND system is getting better, but not for everyone

For the first time in years, Kent County Council can say it is no longer systemically failing children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.

That is undeniably significant. It is also quite a long way from saying the system now works.

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission have published the results of their latest inspection of SEND services across Kent, giving the county the middle of three possible outcomes. Instead of finding “widespread and systemic failings”, as Kent has become rather accustomed to over the years, inspectors found that children and families now have “inconsistent experiences and outcomes.” Which is progress, but perhaps not the kind you put on a banner.

The inspection found genuine improvements after years of intervention, criticism and attempted reform. Newer Education, Health and Care Plans are generally better, schools are becoming more inclusive, services are working together more effectively, and there is increasing emphasis on supporting children based on what they need rather than making them wait for a diagnosis first.

Inspectors also singled out Kent's Dynamic Support Register, which brings different services together around children and young people at risk of being admitted to hospital or having their existing placement break down, as an example of things working well.

That is a substantial change from where Kent was a few years ago. A 2019 inspection found nine significant weaknesses in SEND provision, and a revisit in 2022 concluded that enough of those problems remained for the government to issue a formal Improvement Notice the following year. That notice was finally lifted in 2024 after the Department for Education concluded sufficient progress had been made.

This inspection was therefore something of a test of whether all of that improvement work had actually changed what happens to families.

The answer is sometimes.

Inspectors found that too much still depends on where in Kent a child happens to live, which service they need and, in some cases, how persistent their family is in trying to get help.

Some children and young people still face lengthy waits for specialist assessments, while the support available during those waits varies. Families told inspectors about having to repeat information to different services and repeatedly advocate for their children. Communication is not always good enough, annual EHCP reviews are not consistently completed or updated on time, and preparation for adulthood remains patchy.

Children with more serious needs often face problems before help arrives. Inspectors found some entering alternative provision only after their circumstances had escalated significantly, while some young people remain in hospital longer than necessary because the right community support or placements are not available.

Perhaps the most striking finding for a county the size of Kent is that geography still matters too much.

Inspectors said children and families do not yet receive consistently equitable support across the county. Two families dealing with similar needs can still have very different experiences depending on where they live and which services happen to be available around them.

That is a real problem when Kent stretches from Dartford to Dover and from Tunbridge Wells to Thanet, covering nearly two million people and a collection of communities that often have little in common beyond being administered by the same county council.

KCC itself is not pretending everything is fixed.

Beverley Fordham, the council's cabinet member for education and SEND, described the inspection as a fair assessment and acknowledged that some families would recognise the continuing problems it identified. But she also highlighted the milestone the council has been working towards for years.

“For the first time in many years, KCC is no longer systemically failing children and families with SEND”, she said.

That sentence does quite a lot of work.

It reflects real progress from a genuinely dreadful starting point, and inspectors clearly found evidence that years of reform are beginning to have an effect. The Improvement Notice has gone, the additional monitoring which followed previous failures will now end, and Kent will move on to a new strategic plan focused on six remaining areas inspectors say need improvement.

Those include reducing geographical variation, improving communication with families, making EHCP reviews more timely, improving preparation for adulthood and doing more for children waiting for specialist assessments.

For KCC and NHS Kent and Medway, escaping the worst possible inspection category is an important moment after years spent trying to get the SEND system under control.

For parents still waiting for an assessment, repeatedly explaining their child's needs, or discovering that support available elsewhere in Kent doesn't exist where they live, it may feel far less transformative.

Both things can be true.

Kent's SEND system is demonstrably better than it was. The problem now is making sure families no longer need an inspector to tell them so.

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