Waiting records for a few uncommon educational needs and inabilities (SEND) administrations remain high a year on from a condemning Ofsted report.
The controller said final year that children and young individuals with SEND in Worcestershire “wait an unacceptable time to have their needs precisely distinguished, evaluated and met”.
Authorities were told to address long waiting times for community pediatrics, word-related treatment, physiotherapy, and neurodevelopmental evaluations, and to move forward the bolster accessible for children’s wait.
But district councilors have been told the number of children holding up has risen since September 2024 and presently sits at 7,800.
The NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB) is contributing £2.6 million to move forward SEND provision.
This incorporates £1.2m to handle neurodivergence appraisals where children and young individuals have been holding up longer than two years.
Neurodivergent conditions include extreme introvertedness, ADHD, dyslexia, and dyspraxia.
Adam Johnston, chief of children’s administrations in Worcestershire, said despite the endeavors being attempted, “waiting records still stay a matter of concern”.
The reality is the numbers are still not moving in the right direction,” he told the council’s children and families diagram and examination panel.
He said Ofsted and the CQC would likely be back in October for a follow-up inspection.
The committee heard that there were 7,500 children with instruction, wellbeing, and care plans (EHCPs) in Worcestershire.
Mari Cheerful, overseeing chief of NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire, said the rise in referrals since 2021 was “one of the biggest I’ve seen in any NHS benefit in my career”.
“If they proceed to rise at the same rate, we’ll have an even greater problem,” she said.
“There basically aren’t sufficient specialist pediatricians in the country.”
Mr Johnston said: “There is trouble in those pro-wellbeing professionals in arranging to increase the capacity, in arranging to do something profitable around those holding up list numbers.
“Put basically, this isn’t working. We need to attempt something else as well as contradict, instead of other strategies we can have in put that center on children’s needs.”
