Area SEND Inspection for the Buckinghamshire Local Area Partnership
Inspection of the Buckinghamshire Local Area Partnership from 10 November to 28 November 2025.
Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) will jointly inspect the Buckinghamshire local area. The Children and Families Act 2014 places duties on the local health, social care and education services that provide for children and young people with SEND. The purpose of inspection is to:
- provide an independent, external evaluation of the effectiveness of the local area partnership’s arrangements for children and young people with SEND
- where appropriate, recommend what the local area partnership should do to improve the arrangements
The views of children and young people with SEND, and the views of their parents and carers, will be gathered during visits to several early years settings, schools, colleges and specialist services. These views are critical to the inspection process.
The inspection will take three weeks. The inspectors will be on site from 24 to 28 November 2025.
How can local children, young people, parents and carers contribute their views during this local area inspection
There are several ways in which children, young people, parents and carers from your provision can engage with the inspection process and contribute their views.
Surveys
The inspection will include a survey of parents and carers. The surveys are open from 10 November until 9am on Tuesday, 18 November 2025. Parents and carers who would like to take part in this survey can follow this link https://ofsted.smartsurvey.co.uk/p/AreaSend/10389069
You do not have to take part if you do not want to. We do not ask for your name.
If you complete the survey, you agree to SmartSurvey sending your information to Ofsted.
If you are a young person with SEND, please fill in this survey.
If you are a parent or carer of a child or young person with SEND, please complete this survey. If you have more than one child with SEND, you can use the same link to complete a separate survey for each child.
If you are a practitioner working with children or young people with SEND in education, health or care services, please complete this survey.
During the inspection
During this inspection, the inspectors will collect information about children and young people in the area. They will be looking at:
- local area records
- speaking to area officers and leaders at educational settings
- speaking to children, young people, and parents or carers.
No names will be recorded, but some of the information collected may be capable of identifying a particular child, young person or adult. Ofsted and CQC will use this information to prepare their report, and for the purposes set out in their privacy notices.
No information will be published that identifies any individual in the inspection report.
CQC and Ofsted Privacy Policies
To learn about how CQC and Ofsted collect and use information during inspections, please see their privacy policies:
The contact details for Ofsted's Data Protection Officer are [email protected]
The contact details for CQC’s Data Protection Officer are [email protected]
Local Area SEND Inspection guidance for families
While we understand that many parents and carers may have views on their experiences that extend back several years, the focus of the inspection is on the effectiveness of the local area since the last inspection in 2022.
We would also like parents and carers to understand that we will not be able to follow up or comment upon individual cases. The inspection team will consider all communications from parents as part of the evidence when evaluating the effectiveness of the local area.
Information on local area duties toward children and young people with SEND can be found on the Department for Education’s website.