WORK on a council response to a critical Ofsted report on services for children with additional needs in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole area is nearing completion.

The council has been asked to produce a written response about how it and partners will deal with the finding that it had a number of “significant areas of weakness”.

Eight key areas were identified for action although the inspection did find some good points about the service.

Wednesday’s Cabinet heard that the council response was now nearing completion and was expected to be signed off by an improvement board on December 2nd, going shortly afterwards for council approval.

The authority has already put additional funding into its Special Education Needs and Disability (SEND) provision across the BCP Council area.

Ofsted said the council had been slow to implement improvement plans agreed in 2014 with leaders “distracted and delayed from this important work by the reorganisation of the council and high staff turnover…”

“Many children and young people with SEND and their families continue to have a poor experience, and there is little sign of their outcomes improving,” said the report.

Portfolio holder Cllr Nicola Greene offered an apology to parents and children who felt that the services they received had fallen short when she spoke at the Wednesday cabinet meeting.

She said that some of the families had helped the council produce the formal written statement of action which Ofsted would be asked to approve – a process which would include re-inspection of the service as changes were made over the coming year or more.

She said the council had already started responding to the problems before the Ofsted report was issued.

In a statement at the time the report was published, Elaine Redding, interim corporate director of children’s services said: “The council accepts that a major transformation programme is needed locally to make services to children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) as strong and supportive as they need to be…This is now a compelling opportunity to develop a multi-agency service and offer to children and families and to develop that improved service with children and families themselves. at the heart of it.”

A similar commitment has also been made by the Dorset Clinical Commission Group which works alongside the council with children and families in need of extra support.

If the council’s proposals are not considered adequate or cannot be delivered the council risks intervention by the Department for Education.