“We have made a lot of progress but there is still a very long way to go” is the message as Sutton authorities race to improve after being strongly criticised by Government watchdogs.

The borough’s special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) services were condemned earlier in March this year, citing “significant” areas of weaknesses and concerns.

That forced organisational bodies – including Sutton Council – to outline ways they will become better in a written statement of action.

READ MORE: Sutton's SEND services strongly criticised after CQC and Ofsted inspection

But they don’t have long as the objectives set out must be met within a year, while the Government’s Department for Education (DfE) will grill their progress at a meeting in December.

On September 27, the people committee saw Fiona Phelps, Sutton Council’s new assistant director for education and SEND, field a raft of questions from councillors since joining in May.

She said: “We have made a lot of progress on this but there is still a very long way to go.

“We are essentially looking at both practice - about identifying, assessing, and meeting SEND throughout the local area - and we're also looking at the culture because we can't change one without the other. They are dependent on each other.

“We are still rather in the stormy phase of the moment, identifying all the issues that we need to address under the umbrella of the written statement of action, but nevertheless there's a great deal of activity and the key thing about this is that it's a multi-agency activity.

“We have our four work streams, which have representatives from a wide range of services, and each of those are working on a particular area on one of the three areas of weakness with an overarching quality assurance strand also being focused on.”

READ MORE: Resignation calls rejected after strongly critical SEND services inspection

It comes as the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Ofsted published a report in March which reviewed SEND services in the borough.

The people committee heard that the authorities involved have already held early crunch talks with the DfE, which Ms Phelps described as “quite challenging”.

Though a “significant amount of work” has taken place since the written statement of action, ordered by inspector Andrew Wright, was published in July this year.

And the meeting with the DfE before the New Year demands that “impact evidence” is produced as a way to see if things are improving.

Ms Phelps added: “We have no choice but to [do this] and we have only a year in which to meet all these actions.”

The people committee meeting is the first since June 14.