Webchat with Ofsted’s lead inspector for special educational needs, Charlie Henry, on Wednesday at 12.30pm

[BojanaMumsnet]

Hello

We’re pleased to welcome HM Inspector Charlie Henry for a webchat on Wednesday 2 December, for an hour at 12.30pm.

HM Inspector Charlie Henry is a qualified teacher and has further advanced qualifications in the education of pupils with special educational needs and in educational psychology.

Charlie has worked in the field of special educational and disability for more than 30 years as teacher, special school manager and educational psychologist. Since joining Ofsted in 2004, Charlie has led many school inspections in mainstream primary schools, secondary schools, special schools, pupil referral units and specialist colleges. He has held responsibility for leading Ofsted’s inspection policy development for disabled children and those who have special educational needs.

Do join us on Wednesday at 12.30pm or post your question in here in advance if you can’t make it on the day.

UPDATE: Just to let you know that there is a consultation on Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission's proposals for inspecting how effectively local areas fulfil their responsibilities towards disabled children and young people and those with special educational needs.

Please click here for more information about the consultation.

Thanks

MNHQ

Hello everyone,

Thanks for all your questions for today. Here's one final thing from Charlie - Ofsted has organised a webinar about the special educational needs and disabilities inspection framework proposals for parents and carers. It will take place at 12.30pm on Wednesday 9 December.

If you are interested, you can register here.

I have come back to this thread, having previously posted, but couldn't attend live chat because I was at work.

I feel very disappointed.
He seemed very nice but he didn't really answer many of the questions and I'm left wondering what we really got out of it.

Me too 3Kingy. It was good to have the chance to raise some questions and concerns, and for Ofsted to be approachable, but far too short to be given all the answers. Perhaps registering for the Webinar might be helpful, both in finding out more information AND in hopefully having an opportunity for further comments and questions.

Goodness, this was pretty depressing.

A thread showing how powerless the advocates of our vulnerable are, and will remain.

Yes depressing.
I can't see anything he's promising us that makes any of it any better.
Goodness, that sounds terrible, doesn't it?
But it all comes across as him being very powerless, lots of admin, no real progress, leaving us even more powerless.

How utterly depressing.

I understand he is a good person, with a passion for SEN and on-the-ground understanding.

But I'm not sure why we should be happy because people are good when it makes no tangible difference to the life chances of our kids. This being fundamentally tied up in accountability and adherence to the law.

I'd like to see EHCPs monitored for specificity and quantification with an LA failed if % drops below 80%. That won't address the common practice of failing to deliver provision and hiding this from parents whose communication-disordered child is unable to inform, but it will demonstrate at least an expectation of compliance with the law and give staff with integrity less of a justification for non-delivery of services.

I understand that OFSTED is currently unable to deal with complaints about individual schools, but this thread shows it's not individual schools. I've experience now in various capacities of loads of schools, and it's all of them.

Agreed. And he pointed to the complaints procedure, which is useless. So where does that leave us?