Presentation by Paul Brooker HMI, Regional Director for the East of England, to the Annual Vulnerable Groups Conference in Cambridge on 7 February 2017.

1. Ofsted: ‘vulnerable groups’
Paul Brooker HMI
Regional director, East of England
February 2017
Ofsted: vulnerable groups 1

2. Our remits
2Ofsted: vulnerable groups
Schools
Further
education
and skills
Social care Early years

3. East of England regional priorities 2016/17
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2. Focus on literacy and numeracy skills
Inspectors will focus on how well children and learners acquire literacy and numeracy skills:
 in early years
 across the curriculum in schools
 as part of 16-19 study programmes.
Inspectors will evaluate how well foster carers and staff working in children’s homes, support
children looked after to develop these skills.
1. Secure high quality inspection and regulation
Inspection quality will improve through bespoke training for inspectors and robust regular
checks on all inspection activity and inspection reports.
The regional support team will ensure the inspection workforce is efficiently deployed.

4. East of England regional priorities 2016/17
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3. Improve outcomes for disadvantaged children and learners
Inspectors will scrutinise and report on outcomes for disadvantaged children and learners,
especially looked after children (children looked after) and care leavers.
We will challenge responsible stakeholders including; local authority (LA) senior officers, Virtual
School heads, leaders of schools and other providers, to have a greater impact on improving
outcomes for children looked after and care leavers.

5. East of England regional priorities 2016/17
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4. Promote the safety and well-being of children and learners
We will inspect and regulate all aspects of safeguarding. We will focus on safeguarding
issues relating to:
 child sexual exploitation
 trafficking
 mental health
 radicalisation.
5. Improve the proportion of good and better providers
Inspectors will challenge and support leaders, managers and governors in driving improvement.
We will raise our concerns about underperforming providers with key stakeholders including LA
senior officers, multiple academy trusts, the regional schools commissioners and politicians.

6. Vulnerable groups
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7. Ofsted’s role?
 Inspection and regulation
 Engaging, challenging and holding key stakeholders to
account.
 Improvement work
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8. Ofsted (SIF) inspection of children’s services:
Cambridgeshire County Council, June 2014
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9. School inspections
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10. Leadership and management
Inspectors will report on the achievement of disabled pupils and those who
have special educational needs.
Inspectors will gather evidence about the use of the pupil premium in
relation to the following key issues:
the level of pupil premium funding received by the school in the current
academic year and levels of funding received in previous academic years
how leaders and governors have spent the pupil premium, their rationale
for this spending and its intended impact
any differences made to the learning and progress of disadvantaged pupils
as shown by outcomes data and inspection evidence.
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11. Teaching, learning and assessment
Inspectors will make a judgement on the effectiveness of teaching, learning
and assessment by evaluating the extent to which:
teachers and other staff have consistently high expectations of what each
pupil can achieve, including most-able and disadvantaged pupils
assessment information is used to plan appropriate teaching and learning
strategies, including to identify pupils who are falling behind in their learning
or who need additional support, enabling pupils to make good progress and
achieve well.
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12. Personal development, behaviour and
welfare
 Inspectors evaluate the experience of particular individuals and groups, such as pupils
for whom referrals have been made to the local authority (checking how the referral was
made and the thoroughness of the follow-up), pupils who have special educational
needs and/or disabilities, children looked after, those with medical needs and those with
mental health needs. Inspectors must look at a small sample of case studies about the
experience of these pupils.
 If the school runs (on its own or in partnership with other schools) an off-site unit for
pupils whose behaviour is poor or with low attendance, an inspector must visit the unit.
Inspectors will assess safeguarding procedures, the quality of teaching and how
effectively the unit helps to improve pupils’ behaviour, learning and attendance.
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13. Outcomes
Disadvantaged pupils
Inspectors will take particular account of the progress made by disadvantaged pupils from
their starting points, especially the most able. They will consider the progress made by the
end of the key stage compared with that made nationally by other pupils with similar starting
points and the extent to which any differences in this progress, and consequently in
attainment, are diminishing.
Disabled pupils and those with special educational needs
Inspectors will consider the progress of pupils who have special educational needs and/or
disabilities in relation to the progress of all pupils nationally with similar starting points.
Inspectors will examine the impact of funded support for them on removing any differences
in progress and attainment. The expectation is that the identification of special educational
needs leads to additional or different arrangements being made and a consequent
improvement in progress.
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14. Inspectors will consider
Leadership and management:
how effectively leaders monitor the progress of groups of pupils to ensure
that none falls behind and underachieves, and how effectively governors
hold them to account for this.
the effectiveness of leaders’ and governors’ work to raise awareness and
keep pupils safe from the dangers of abuse, sexual exploitation,
radicalisation and extremism and what the staff do when they suspect that
pupils are vulnerable to these issues.
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15. Inspectors will consider
Teaching, learning and assessment:
If teachers and other staff have consistently high expectations of what each
pupil can achieve, including most-able and disadvantaged pupils.
Outcomes:
if the progress of pupils, who have special educational needs and/or
disabilities, is comparable in relation to the progress of all pupils nationally
with similar starting points
the impact of funded support for them on removing any differences in
progress and attainment
if published data for very small groups of children needs to be treated with
caution.
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16. The importance of achievement of key
groups
Cromwell Community College
February 2015 (RI): Attainment gaps between this (disadvantaged) group of pupils and
others do not narrow during their time at the college. This means that disadvantaged pupils
leave the college with, on average, a grade lower than other pupils in GCSE mathematics,
and half a grade less in English.
September 2016 (good): Leaders have built on the improvements noted during the
Ofsted monitoring inspection in February 2016 by raising the achievement of the most
disadvantaged pupils. Assessment information clearly shows that differences in the
progress of disadvantaged pupils compared with others are diminishing.
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17. The importance of achievement of key
groups
Hinchingbrooke
February 2014 (RI): On average, these (disadvantaged) students finished
their GCSE studies more than one grade behind their peers. Effective
support is narrowing these gaps for current students.
April 2016 (good): The learning and progress of disadvantaged pupils and
those who have special educational needs or disability have hitherto lagged
behind that of their classmates. However, current school information and the
evidence seen during the inspection confirm that these groups are now
making significantly better progress because of the effective interventions
employed by the school. Gaps in performance are narrowing, both for Year
11 pupils and particularly for younger pupils, who will have more time to
benefit as recently introduced strategies are becoming embedded.
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18. Children looked after:
evidence from our focus EFs
Autumn term 2016
(67 children looked after in 27
schools)
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19. How well do children looked after achieve
at the end of key stage 4 (2015)?
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20. Positive findings
 All providers have an identified person accountable for achievement of
children looked after and provide regular, good-quality careers advice.
 In almost all cases, children looked after feel well supported by their school.
 Children looked after said that they feel safe in school. None reported
feeling isolated or subject to bullying.
 In 25/27 providers a leader for children looked after ensures the PPG is well
targeted to meet pupils’ academic needs, as outlined in the PEP.
 Governing bodies are aware of the PPG rationale and keep an oversight of
its expenditure.
 Three quarters of PEPs have short-term, long-term and aspirational
achievement targets and involve the children looked after in their
formulation.
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21. Negative findings
 Only one fifth of PEPs are judged to be ‘high quality’, with a quarter
simply a basic, up-to-date record of those children looked after’s progress
and achievements.
 Oversight of children looked after is not always the responsibility of a
senior member of staff.
 In only 25% of providers do the governors monitor closely the PPG
spending for children looked after.
 Only one third of schools provide ‘successful counselling and guidance’
for children looked after.
 In one school, children did not feel adequately supported.
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22. Recommendations
 Ensure that responsibility for the welfare and achievement of
looked after children rests with a senior leader.
 Establish high quality PEPs for all
 Ensure that governors monitor closely the impact of pupil
premium expenditure on children looked after
 Ensure that in all providers, children looked after have a key
worker overseeing their PEP, who can provide them with help
and counselling services when required.
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23. Local area SEND inspections
www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-area-send-inspection-outcom
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24. The background
 New duties regarding disability and special educational needs came into
force in September 2014. It placed responsibility on the local area, which
includes: the local authority, health commissioners, providers (all of the
area’s early years settings, schools and the post 16 further education
sector), to identify and meet the needs of disabled children and young
people and those who have special educational needs aged 0−25.
 In July 2016, Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) conducted a
joint inspection of the local area of Hertfordshire to judge the effectiveness
of the area in implementing the disability and special educational needs
reforms, as set out in the Children and Families Act 2014.
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25. Inspection arrangements
 All local areas will be inspected, with an inspection interval of up to five
years.
 Inspection teams will include an HMI, a CQC inspector and a local
authority inspector.
 Inspectors will review available national data as part of their preparation,
including within area inspection outcomes from CQC and Ofsted.
 It is expected that local areas will know how effective they are and will be
able to demonstrate this.
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26. Hertfordshire LA SEND inspection:
July 2016
Parental concerns:
Support for parents and their children is inconsistent across the local area, because the
joint commissioning of services for education, health and care is more advanced and
effective in some areas delivering special provision locally (DSPLs) than others.
Parents are very critical of the support for their children, the extent of co-production of
plans and their influence on improving the local area’s work. ...the local area was not aware
of the full extent of parental dissatisfaction.
Parents are not convinced that the reforms have improved services for them or their
children. Parents are very frustrated about the quality of information and guidance, the
timeliness of responses to concerns, the fairness of access to specialist services and
sufficient recognition of the breadth of their children’s and family’s needs.
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27. Hertfordshire LA SEND inspection:
July 2016
Strengths
The local area embraced the government’s reforms and sensibly took the
opportunity to coordinate the changes in the special educational needs and
disability code of practice alongside its other work.
Leaders of the two clinical commissioning groups provide strong
leadership.
The nine regional areas delivering special provision locally (DSPLs) are
well established and starting to make a positive difference to the outcomes
for children and young people.
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28. Ofsted on the web and on social media
www.gov.uk/ofsted
http://reports.ofsted.gov.uk
www.linkedin.com/company/ofsted
www.youtube.com/ofstednews
www.slideshare.net/ofstednews
www.twitter.com/ofstednews
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