UPDATE ADDED: Ofsted Monitoring Report for Oxfordshire + OxPCF Parent Carer Survey
- Oxfordshire Parent Carers Forum
- 8 hours ago
- 6 min read
19 November 2025
Dear Parent Carers,
Thank you once again to the many of you who shared your experiences with us ahead of the recent Ofsted SEND Monitoring Visit in Oxfordshire. Ofsted’s report has now been
published and, as promised, we are sharing it with you today.
Read the full Ofsted report here:
This was not a full reinspection. It was a monitoring inspection, where Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission returned to check whether progress is being made in the five areas they identified as needing urgent improvement in 2023. Ofsted has indicated that a full reinspection of the local area will be due within the next two years.
We know many families are coping with significant daily pressures, long waits, and systems that can feel overwhelming and difficult to navigate. Reading an Ofsted report while living through those challenges can feel heavy. With that in mind, we have included a clear summary of the key points below.
Our aim is to reflect what Ofsted reported, acknowledge the reality that families are experiencing, and highlight where your feedback has made a difference and where it shows more work is still needed.
Background
The monitoring inspection focused solely on the areas that Ofsted and the CQC had previously identified as needing urgent improvement. This means some of the issues raised by families although very real were not included in their conclusions because they sit outside these five priority areas.
Inspectors thanked Oxfordshire’s parent carers for their openness and persistence. They recognised that family voice is now more present and visible across the Local Area Partnership
OxPCF Survey Report and the Local Area Partnership Response
Ahead of the inspection, OxPCF undertook a comprehensive parent carer survey to ensure inspectors received an accurate and unfiltered picture of families’ experiences. This summer, OxPCF carried out one of the largest pieces of parent carer engagement in recent years. We received 1,055 responses, with 954 fully completed surveys included in the analysis. Families from across the whole of Oxfordshire took part, representing children and young people aged 0–25, with most responses coming from families with at least one primary or secondary-aged child. The survey generated an exceptionally rich dataset, including 4,695 written comments and 96,091 words, reflecting the depth of detail and the strength of feeling families wanted to share.
Read the full OxPCF Survey Report here:
We shared this survey with Ofsted inspectors during the monitoring visit in September 2025. We also shared it separately with leaders from the Local Area Partnership (LAP) in October 2025.
The LAP provided the following response:
“The Local Area Partnership has reviewed the findings of this survey and is committed to listening to families’ experiences and delivering further improvement. We are working as a Local Area Partnership, including with OxPCF, to embed these findings into our new SEND Improvement Plan.”
OxPCF welcome the Local Area Partnership’s intention to include these findings in the new SEND Improvement Plan and hope this leads to tangible, sustained improvements for families. We remain committed to working collaboratively while providing clear, honest challenge to ensure that the voices of families are meaningfully represented and that the Local Area is held accountable for taking this work forward.
The Five Priority Actions
Ofsted assessed whether the Local Area Partnership had taken effective action in the following five areas:
Gathering the views of children and young people and using those to improve the lived experience of them and their families.
Developing effective communication systems across the partnership to ensure co-ordinated approaches.
Improving the timeliness and quality assurance of Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans.
Commissioning services that meet the needs of children, young people, and their families.
Producing plans that are co-produced with children, young people, and families, and ensuring these plans are rigorously monitored.
What Was OxPCF’s Role?
OxPCF’s role was to bring your voices directly to inspectors. We shared our full parent carer survey and met with the inspection team to present what families told us not only through the survey, but also through our feedback forms, conversations at events, and the experiences you share with us throughout the year.
In addition to what OxPCF shared, Ofsted also spoke independently with a number of parents. Family voice formed one part of a wider evidence base. Inspectors also reviewed a number of individual cases and spoke directly with the families and professionals involved.
Overall Summary of Report
Ofsted found that the Local Area Partnership has taken effective action in all five areas of the Priority Action Plan.
However, Ofsted noted in the report:
“Effective action does not mean that the area for priority action is no longer a concern or that the local area can stop taking action to address it. Inspections are a point-in-time evaluation. Areas for priority action that receive an effective action outcome may still be identified as areas for priority action in future inspections. This can happen if the local area does not continue to take action and/or the action has not continued to have a positive impact on the experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND.”
The local area has taken important steps forward, and there is still a way to go.
What We Took from the Report
Where progress is being made
Ofsted noted:
Faster decision-making in parts of the EHC process
Improvements in the timeliness of many new EHC plans
Reductions in some health-related backlogs
More joint working across education, health, and care
New pilots, including enhanced pathways in schools
Stronger governance and more consistent partnership working
Where challenges remain
Inspectors also highlighted several continuing difficulties that mirror what we hear from families:
Quality of EHC plans remains too variable
Annual reviews are still not consistently effective
Communication is improving but remains inconsistent
Families’ experiences depend heavily on individual practitioners
Many parents continue to feel unheard or misunderstood
There are concerns about the sustainability of new pilots and services
These challenges show how much work is still needed to ensure improvements are sustainable and experienced consistently.
Although the Ofsted report states that “the quality assurance processes for EHC plans include broad representation of stakeholders, including the PCF”, we want to be clear that OxPCF is not currently involved in any formal processes related to the quality assurance for EHC plans. We continue to advocate for parent carer involvement in these processes so that lived experience genuinely informs how plans are reviewed and improved.
Communication and Co-Production
Inspectors recognised stronger opportunities for children, young people, and families to share their views such as the SEND Together event and increased involvement of parent carers across key boards.
At the same time, OxPCF feel:
Many parents still experience poor or inconsistent communication
Families often struggle to understand processes or what support to expect
Co-production needs clearer definitions and more consistent practice
This reflects exactly what parent carers continue to tell us. Ensuring that communication is clear, timely, and respectful and that co-production is meaningful rather than tokenistic remains central to our advocacy.
OxPCF View on Looking Ahead
Improvement takes time, and that progress must be built on firm foundations to last. This is the beginning of a journey and there is still much to do. We recognise that:
Progress must continue
Some developments are still fragile
Some inconsistencies remain
Families continue to have uneven experiences across services
Many families may not yet feel the benefits of the changes underway, and for some, day-to-day experiences remain extremely difficult. We want to acknowledge that honestly.
We also want to recognise the many practitioners, leaders, and service providers who are working hard to improve the system. Both realities can exist at once: families are facing significant challenges, and there are also people who are genuinely committed to making things better.
Your voices continue to shape what happens next. We will keep advocating for change and working to make sure the lived experience of Oxfordshire’s SEND families is considered throughout Local Area Partnership discussions and decisions.
Get Involved: Volunteer or Share Your Feedback
OxPCF is run by volunteers who are also parent carers. If you would like to:
share feedback about your experiences,
take part in future surveys or focus groups, or
volunteer with us, whether for a small task or a specific project,
We would be very grateful for any time you can spare. Every contribution large or small helps strengthen family voice and influence meaningful change.
To get involved, please visit: www.oxpcf.org.uk/get-involved or email info@oxpcf.org.uk
Thank you for continuing to share your experiences with us.
With appreciation and thanks,
The OxPCF Team
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