NO record of children with special educational needs and disabilities in the county is kept by the council or the health authority, a councillor has revealed.

Councillor Fran Oborski, when reiterating what a joint Ofsted and Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection found, said no list of children currently exists between the county council and the county's clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) - which makes planning for the provision of care extremely difficult.

She said: "There is no central, or there appears to be no central list which says how many children there are with disabilities in the county. Obviously GPs know how many people there are.

"The problem is, and what worries me, is we only found this out when we were looking at the demand for care at [Kidderminster overnight respite centre] Ludlow Road.

"There is no joined up communication.

"We only find out about these children when the families themselves come forward and request respite care.

Cllr Oborski, chairman of the county council's children and families overview and scrutiny panel, was reiterating the findings of a joint inspection in June which slammed Worcestershire County Council and the area's CCGs and its handling of children with special educational needs and disabilities. The critical inspection highlighted the fact that no list of children exists.

The county council has regularly stressed the importance of joined-up thinking and during the discussion of the report by the council's cabinet in July, Cllr Marcus Hart, cabinet member for education, called on the CCGs to play its part.

Cllr Oborski again reiterated the need for the council and the CCGs to work together to improve but was concerned it was not yet happening.

"The health authority has always been bad at sharing information and it is not improving," she said.

"My concern is that there doesn't appear to be actually any joined up thinking.

"We have got to have joined up work and we have to share information. This is what they don't appear to be doing.

"Basically it is a case of they have absolutely got to share information."

The county council and the county's CCGs, in a joint statement, said registering a child to the disability register is voluntary.

The statement said: "Registering a child on the Children's Disability Register to help the county council and the CCGs identify and plan for the needs of children and young people with disabilities, their parents and carers is voluntary.

"We plan our places and placements and needs through our sufficiency assessments and the high needs commissioning plan. Both can be found on the council's website."