The Children's Scrutiny Panel met to set their work programme for the 2025/26 municipal year, and to discuss out of area specialist provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). The panel agreed to include reviews of out of area specialist provision, the educational attainment of children in care, and support for children who are being exploited in their work programme.

Scrutiny Panel Work Programme 2025/26

The panel agreed to a work programme for the 2025/26 municipal year. The programme will include reviews of:

• Out of Area Specialist Provision
• Educational Attainment of Children in Care
• Supporting Children who are being exploited

The panel also requested updates on:

• South Tees Safeguarding Children Partnership Annual Report
• Performance Data
• Children's Services financial information
• SEND Local Offer¹

The agreed work programme will be submitted to the Overview and Scrutiny Board for approval on 30 July 2025.

Out of Area Specialist Provision

The Interim Executive Director of Children's Services and Director of Children's Care provided an introduction to the panel's new scrutiny topic: out of area specialist provision.

Out of area specialist provision refers to residential or educational placements located outside of the Middlesbrough local authority boundary that provide education for children and young people with complex needs or SEND.

Reasons for using out of area specialist provision include:

• Gaps in local provision
• Individual needs of a child
• Specialism offered by the provider
• The child is in the care of the local authority and lives outside of Middlesbrough
• The child has moved into Middlesbrough from another local authority
• Parental preference for children with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP)²

The majority of children in out of area specialist provision have an EHCP, and local placements are always considered first.

According to the Public reports pack 15th-Sep-2025 16.30 Childrens Scrutiny Panel, the split by special educational need is:

• Autistic Spectrum Condition: 23 (20%)
• Social, Emotional and Mental Health Needs: 62 (55%)
• Moderate Learning Difficulties: 1 (1%)
• Speech and Language Needs: 9 (8%)
• Hearing Impairment/ Visual Impairment: 1 (1%)
• Severe Learning Difficulties: 12 (11%)
• Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties: 2 (3%)

22% of children are of primary age, 71% are of secondary age and 6% are post 16. 55% are placed within Tees Valley, 21% in the North East, 8% in North Yorkshire and 15% nationally.

The council uses both other local authority special schools and independent provisions. There are 53 children educated in other local authority special schools at an average cost of £16,000 per placement, with total spending of £1.176m in 2024/25. There are 60 children in independent day placements, at an average cost of £65,000, with total spending of £4.786m in 2024/25.

The council also has 84 children looked after living in private residential children's homes outside the local authority. 15 of these children receive their care and education in a residential specialist education placement, and 12 of these children have an EHCP.

Middlesbrough's use of independent special schools is the lowest in the Tees Valley at 2.97%, below the national average of 4.64% and the regional average of 3.28%.

Quality assurance checks are in place for out of area schools, including a S41 approved list of independent special schools and specialist post-16 institutions published by the Secretary of State for Education, contracts and individual placement agreements, regulatory oversight from Ofsted³ and the CQC⁴, and regular visits by local authority staff.

The council intends to continue reducing reliance on out of area placements by building local capacity and specialism, as outlined in the new SEND & Inclusion Strategy due to be published in January 2026.