Dear Parents and Carers Inspection of Plymouth City Council local area’s effectiveness in identifying and meeting the needs of, and improving outcomes for, children and young people who have special educational needs and/or disabilities from 10 October 2016 to 14 October 2016. Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) will carry out jointly an inspection of your local area. The local area is the geographical area of the local authority. However, the responsibility of the local area for children and young people who have special educational needs and/or disabilities extends to those who are residents of the local area but attend educational establishments or receive services outside the local authority’s boundaries. The inspection will evaluate how effectively the local area: • identifies the needs of children and young people who have special educational needs and/or disabilities • meets the needs of these children and young people so that their outcomes and chances of participating fully in society improve. Inspectors will be visiting your son/daughter’s school during the morning of Thursday 13 October 2016. The views of parents and carers play an important part in the inspection process. If you are a parent or carer of a child or young person with special educational needs and/or disabilities, we would very much like to speak with you during this visit. A meeting has been arranged for 9:30am. It is expected that this meeting will last about 45 minutes. Can you please confirm with the school if you are able to attend so that appropriate arrangements can be made. While we understand that many parents and carers may have views on their experience that extend before the implementation of the reforms in September 2014 it important that this date is used as the start for the judgements made by the new inspection. We would also like parents and carers to understand that we will not be able to follow up or comment upon individual cases. In addition to the meeting detailed above we are also hosting an online webinar at 8pm on Tuesday October 11 2016 that you may wish to take part in. If you would like to take part in this webinar then please follow this internet link http://bit.ly/LASEND-Plymouth. Information on local area duties toward children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities can be found on the Department for Education’s website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-guide-for-parents-and-carers Yours sincerely Andrea Hemmens, Headteacher