BRADFORD Conservatives have spoken of their “deep concerns” following an inspection of the district's SEND (special education needs and disability) provision.

Inspectors from Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) visited in March and a report from the visit, published earlier this week, said there are “significant gaps” in services for children and young people with SEND in the district.

Parents and carers were said to have “lost faith” in the system and a statement of action must now be produced by Bradford Council and the Bradford District and Craven Clinical Commissioning Group to explain how the areas of weakness will be tackled.

Councillor Rebecca Poulsen, Leader of the Conservative Group said: “When my Conservative Group colleagues and I receive external inspection reports about the services provided by the council, for vulnerable children and young people, we increasingly feel that we can anticipate the key messages within the report and our predictions are getting more accurate each time.”

She added: “The lack of communication at a strategic and operational level between the Council and its partners again came as no surprise, as didn’t the fact that communication with schools, children, parents and carers was also poor and that the Council didn’t listen to them, leaving all frustrated.”

She said it was “absolutely no wonder” that people had lost faith in the system and added: “If one was to read the Council’s statement regarding the latest findings on their website, you could be forgiven for not realising that there was and still is an ongoing problem, as it paints such an unrealistic picture of the inspection findings.”

Cllr Poulsen said she and her Conservative Group colleagues remain sceptical about the Council’s ability to improve the lives of vulnerable children.

Councillor Imran Khan, Bradford Council’s portfolio holder for Education, Employment and Skills, said: “There is nothing more important than providing excellent services and support for children in our district. 

“SEND services are provided by a partnership in Bradford, the Council provides support for Educational Health and Care Plans and the NHS provides the therapeutic support for those children, including children with mental health needs. 

“The inspection was of the NHS services and of the Council services, not the Council alone.”

He added: “I acknowledge that the Conservative Group and other political parties probably need to be given a more detailed briefing of the SEND services and how they are delivered in the district. 

“It’s clear from their comments that they are not fully sighted on the service in the Council and the services in the NHS and we probably need to remedy that. I’m happy to introduce them to the people in the health system who are working to make the improvements we all want to see.”

Cllr Khan said there is a national issue in supporting children with special educational needs.

He said: “Post-pandemic the demand for these kinds of services in our young population is greater than ever.

“Nationally the Local Government Association has reported that there is a £600 million funding gap for SEND, Government cannot ignore this.

“Regardless of the national picture, we are clear here locally that we need to do better. 

“Plans across all partners are in place to act quickly on the areas for improvement, whilst building on the 12 areas of strength identified by the inspectors.

"It’s also very important we listen to the voices of parents and children as we work with health service and education partners in driving forward the improvements.

“They will always be the best judges of how we are doing.”

In a joint statement, Helen Hirst, chief officer at the Bradford District and Craven CCG, and Marium Haque, Strategic Director of Bradford Council’s Children’s Services, said the report confirmed its own findings and work is underway to address the issues which have been identified.

“Our teams have been working hard to fix these and will continue to make improvements to these areas of service,” said the statement.

“Ofsted and the CQC acknowledge that we know what the areas of concern are and that we have plans in place to put these right.

“We are determined as a partnership to make the changes that are needed so that we can provide better services for families. We have an opportunity to demonstrate to Ofsted and the CQC how we can work together, and at pace, to put in place the improvements that are required to deliver safe, effective, and responsive services.”