Between 28 June 2021 and 2 July 2021, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC), conducted a joint inspection of the local area of Tower Hamlets to judge the effectiveness of the area in implementing the special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) reforms as set out in the Children and Families Act 2014. 
 
Inspectors spoke with children and young people with SEND, parents and carers, and local authority and National Health Service (NHS) officers. They visited a range of providers and spoke to leaders, staff and governors about how they are implementing the SEND reforms. Inspectors looked at a range of information about the performance of the area, including the area’s self-evaluation. Inspectors met with leaders for health, social care and education. They reviewed performance data and evidence about the local offer and joint commissioning.
 
Find out more about the outcome in the final inspection letter    
 
Tower Hamlets Council and the NHS north-east London Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “Whilst we continue to monitor, evaluate and improve the services we provide as a partnership, we recognise that there is still significant work to do to support our children, young people and families with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). We are grateful to Ofsted for endorsing our self-evaluation as ‘accurate, clear and honest’, and for highlighting both our relative strengths and areas for development. We are particularly pleased to see that our ‘accelerated improvement since 2019’ has been identified, and that this improvement continued through the pandemic. Plans are in place to build on our strengths whilst improving the quality and delivery of our SEND provision to better establish and meet the needs of our children and young people.”

Tower Hamlets response to Ofsted Local Area SEND inspection — for parents, carers, children and young people feat. James Thomas and Warwick Tomsett.