Some Cornwall Families Wait So Long for an Autism Diagnosis That They Teach Their Children at Home Instead. The Government Has Just Put the Council on Notice, for Problems It Flagged Three Years Ago.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
In short. The Department for Education issued Cornwall Council an Improvement Notice on 19 October 2026, published 30 October 2026, covering special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services the council runs jointly with NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Integrated Care Board [1]. It lists four areas for improvement, taken from an Ofsted and Care Quality Commission inspection in March 2026, and says three of the four repeat concerns raised at the previous inspection, in February 2023 [1]. The inspection report itself records that some families, waiting years for a neurodevelopmental assessment, "resort to electively home educating their child until appropriate support is secured" [3]. The council and the NHS say they accept the findings and have submitted an updated improvement plan [1] [4].
Three of the four problems the government has just told Cornwall Council to fix are problems it was told to fix in 2023. The notice says so itself: several of the areas for improvement identified this year are "substantially similar to concerns identified in the February 2023 inspection", and the Improvement Board it now requires must keep "a clear focus on evidencing the impact of actions" precisely because progress has not been secured consistently since then [1].
What inspectors found in March
Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission inspected Cornwall's SEND arrangements between 23 and 27 March 2026, as a joint local area partnership inspection covering Cornwall Council and the integrated care board together [3]. Their report, published 27 May 2026, gave the partnership the middle of three possible outcomes: "the local area partnership's arrangements lead to inconsistent experiences and outcomes for children and young people with SEND. The local area partnership must work jointly to make improvements" [3].
The report credits real strengths: early identification of younger children's needs, particularly those with complex conditions, where health visitors and specialist teachers "work collaboratively with parents and carers" from birth [3]. Families and professionals describe staff across education, health and social care as "compassionate, knowledgeable and responsive" [3].
Set against that, inspectors describe waiting times "particularly for children and young people's neurodevelopmental assessment and access to support services" that are "too long", despite a profiling tool introduced to speed up diagnosis [3]. "Some schools now have waiting lists" just to complete the initial profiling step, before a child even reaches an autism or ADHD assessment [3]. The report's starkest line describes what some families do while they wait: "some families resort to electively home educating their child until appropriate support is secured" [3]. Separately, children receiving SEN support who experience gaps in provision are, the report says, "over-represented in the local youth justice system" [3].
Communication is the other recurring theme. Many staff across the partnership, inspectors found, "lack up-to-date knowledge of the help and support available to families" because information is not shared well between the council's locality partnerships, family hubs and neighbourhood teams, leaving families "insufficiently informed about how and where to access additional support for their child" [3]. The quality of Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans is "not consistently effective": when plans go out of date, children stop receiving support that matches their current needs [3].
The notice, and what it requires
The Improvement Notice, signed by a DfE senior civil servant on 19 October 2026, is issued under section 28(2) of the Children and Families Act 2014 [1]. It sets out the same four areas for improvement as the inspection report, word for word: accessibility of commissioned services and families' knowledge of them; communication across the partnership; the quality and consistency of EHC plans; and waiting times for a neurodevelopmental diagnosis [1].
To comply, the council and its partners must stand up an Improvement Board with an independent chair, attended by the council's and the integrated care board's chief executives, children's services and health leaders, elected members and the local Parent/Carer Forum [1]. A DfE-appointed SEND adviser and an NHS England adviser must be invited to every meeting as external attendees, and the department will carry out stocktake reviews of progress at least every six months [1]. The council should aim to deliver the actions in its updated strategic plan "by the end of December 2027 or sooner" [1]. The notice itself stays in force "until sufficient progress against expected improvements has been evidenced ... and the Minister agrees" [1].
Behind that sits a sharper power the notice is careful to name. If the council is "unwilling or unable to comply", or the Secretary of State is not satisfied with progress at any stage, she may use section 497A of the Education Act 1996 to direct the council to take whatever further action is needed [1]. That is a step beyond an Improvement Board: a ministerial direction the council would be legally required to follow.
What the council and the NHS said
Cllr Hilary Frank, Cornwall Council's Cabinet Member for Children, Schools and Families, responded to the May inspection report by saying she was "pleased that inspectors have recognised the commitment and professionalism of staff across Cornwall", while accepting that "we recognise the areas where improvement is needed and fully accept the importance of addressing them" [4]. She added that the council recognises "the frustration many families feel when support is delayed or communication is unclear" [4].
Susan Bracefield, chief clinical officer at NHS Cornwall and Isles of Scilly, said the integrated care board "fully acknowledge[s] the areas where improvement is needed, particularly around waiting times, access to services and how we communicate with families", adding: "we know the impact delays and unclear information can have, and we are determined to address this" [4].
Neither statement, issued when the inspection report itself was published in May, mentions that most of the ground covered was the same ground raised in 2023. That comparison appears only in the Improvement Notice, five months later [1].
What to watch
The Improvement Board is where this now plays out, in meetings that, unlike most of this council's committees, were never designed with a public seat: the notice requires elected members and named officers to attend, but sets out no requirement for the board's papers, minutes or action log to be published [1]. Three documents are worth asking the council for, through a scrutiny committee question or a WhatDoTheyKnow request: the Board's terms of reference and membership once it is constituted; the "action and impact log" the notice requires it to keep and update at every meeting [1]; and the department's own six-monthly stocktake findings, which the council receives but is not required to publish.
The next full area SEND inspection is due within roughly three years of March 2026 [3]. On the timetable the notice itself sets, that inspection will land not long after the December 2027 date by which the council is meant to have delivered the improvements it was first asked for in 2023.
Sources
- Department for Education, Improvement Notice to Cornwall Council (signed 19 October 2026, published 30 October 2026). https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6ae0babb16428df537606221/Improvement_notice_issued_to_Cornwall_Council_October_2026.pdf
- GOV.UK, "Improvement notice issued to Cornwall Council: October 2026" (30 October 2026). https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/improvement-notice-issued-to-cornwall-council-october-2026
- Ofsted and Care Quality Commission, "Area SEND inspection of Cornwall Local Area Partnership" (inspection 23 to 27 March 2026, published 27 May 2026). https://files.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50302846
- Cornwall Council, "Education and health leaders in Cornwall welcome findings of SEND services inspection" (27 May 2026). https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/council-news/together-for-families/education-and-health-leaders-in-cornwall-welcome-findings-of-send-services-inspection/