Education

Special Educational Needs (SEN) support

Guide to SEN Support

This page includes information on:

What is SEND?

A child or young person has SEND if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her. Special educational provision for a child over 2 years old, is defined as:

"Educational or training provision which is additional to or different from that made generally for other children of the same age by mainstream schools, maintained nursery schools, mainstream post-16 institutions or by relevant early years providers"

Children and young people with SEN may need extra help because of a range of needs. These needs fall within four broad areas:

Cognition and Learning

  • Specific areas of learning like reading, writing and number work
  • Memory difficulties
  • Learning at a slower pace
  • The gap between your child and their peers widening

Communication and Interaction

  • Difficulties with understanding what others are saying
  • Difficulties expressing themselves
  • Speech & Language difficulties
  • Difficulties with social interaction (particularly for those with ASD)

Social, emotional and mental health difficulties

  • Problems managing emotions and/or behaviour
  • Difficulty making friends and relating to other people
  • Mental health such as anxiety and depression

Sensory and/or physical needs

  • Problems with sight or hearing
  • Problems moving around
  • Medical problems that have an impact on learning

Medical Needs

Those children and young people with medical needs may not require special educational provision to meet their needs. However, schools have a duty to make such arrangements. This is normally through an Individual healthcare plan – there is statutory guidance available (Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions). It is important to remember that:

  • Not all children with a disability and/or medical needs have SEN
  • Not all children with SEN have a diagnosis

Disability

Whilst there is often an overlap, having a disability does not necessarily mean a child/young person has SEN.

However, there are legal obligations on educational settings to provide for disabled pupils to ensure they are not substantially disadvantaged. This includes making reasonable adjustments and publishing accessibility plans.  

How do education settings give help to children with Special Educational Needs - SEN Support

Mainstream early years settings, schools, and post-16 settings have a duty to identify and support children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

"Early years providers, schools and colleges should know precisely where children and young people with SEN are in their learning and development and are having the required impact on progress (paragraph 1.25)" SEN Code of Practice.

Unless stated, “educational settings” relates to: maintained nursery schools, mainstream schools including academies and free schools, 16-19 academies, alternative provision academies, pupil referral units, school sixth forms, sixth form colleges, and further education colleges.

They should:

  • Ensure decisions are informed by the insights of parents and those of children and young people themselves
  • Have high ambitions and set stretching targets for them
  • Track their progress towards these goals
  • Keep under review the additional or different provision that is made for them
  • Promote positive outcomes in the wider areas of personal and social development, and ensure that the approaches used are based on the best possible evidence

There are three important chapters of the SEND Code of Practice 2015 that sets out this process in full:

Chapter 5 focuses on the actions that early years providers should take to meet their duties around identifying and supporting SEN in their settings.

Chapter 6 focuses on the actions that mainstream schools should take to meet their duties around identifying and supporting SEN in their settings.

Chapter 7 focuses on further education - including FE colleges, sixth form colleges 16-19 academies and some independent specialist colleges.

The SEND Code of Practice is available to download at www.gov.uk/government/publications/send-code-ofpractice-0-to-25 

There is also a Special Educational Needs and Disability Guide for Parent/Carers Code of Practice available for you to download.

What does SEN Support look like - Assess, Plan, Do, Review?

If your child has been identified as having SEN, the Code of Practice is very clear that parents (and the child/young person where appropriate) must be informed and their views listened to.

The educational setting should follow a four-part cycle which is called “the graduated approach”. These four parts are called “Assess”, “Plan”, “Do”, “Review”.

Assess

In identifying a child as needing SEN support, a teacher or keyworker, working with the Special Educational Needs Co-Ordinator, should carry out a clear analysis of the pupil’s needs with input from parents and the views of your child/young person.

In some cases, outside professionals from health or social services may already be involved with the child/young person. These professionals should liaise with the setting to help inform the assessments. If necessary, where professionals are not already working with the child/young person the SENCO should contact them if the parents agree.

The information gathered in assessment should be available to, and discussed with, the pupil/parents, normally as a written record. This may be known as an “IEP”, “Pupil pathway”, or “My Support Plan”.

A written record can then be used to review support for the young person, especially during transition from one setting to another (e.g. nursery to school, primary school to secondary school, school to college).

Plan

The setting, in consultation with the parent and the pupil, should agree:

• The adjustments, interventions and support to be put in place

• The expected impact on progress, development or behaviour

• A clear date for review

All staff working with the pupil should be made aware of their needs, the outcomes sought, the support provided and any teaching strategies or approaches that are required. The type of support and intervention provided should be selected to meet the outcomes identified for the pupil, based on reliable evidence.

The information gathered in the assessment should be available to and discussed with the pupil/parents, normally as a written record e.g. IEP, Pupil pathway, My Support Plan.

Do

The teacher or keyworker is responsible for working with the pupil on a daily basis. Where interventions involve group or one-to-one teaching away from them, they still retain responsibility for the pupil.

They should work closely with any teaching assistants or specialist staff involved, to plan and assess the impact of support and interventions and how they can be linked to classroom teaching. The SENCO should support the class or subject teacher in the further assessment of the child’s strengths and weaknesses, in problem-solving and advising on the effective implementation of support.

Review

The effectiveness of the support, interventions and their impact on the pupil’s progress should be reviewed in line with agreed dates. This should normally be three times per year.

The pupil and their parents should have clear information about the interventions provided and the impact of the support (a written record is advisable). This enables them to be involved in planning the next cycle.

How can the educational setting support my child?

All pre-school settings, schools and post 16 settings must have a clear path to identifying and responding to SEN. For schools, this must be published in their “SEN Information Report”, available on the school’s website.

As well as high-quality teaching and adapting work to suit, children and young people with SEN may need extra help. This may involve the use of specialists to support the setting, either to help identify SEN or suggest effective interventions.

The types of specialist that may be involved include:

  • Educational Psychologists (EP)
  • Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)
  • Specialist Teachers, in areas like early years, ASD, hearing and vision impairment, emotional well-being.
  • Therapists - speech and language (S<), physiotherapy, occupational therapy (OT)

Referrals to these types of specialists cannot normally be made directly by a child/young person or their parent – discuss this with your educational setting or GP.

Who do I speak to in my child’s setting?

All early years settings and schools must have a Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) who arranges and co-ordinates provision for children with SEN. The SENCO will work closely with other staff, parents and external support services.

Colleges usually have a named person who is responsible for making sure that young people with SEN have support and provision in place to help them.

How is SEN Support funded?

Educational settings (not including early years providers which are not maintained nursery schools) receive an allocation of funding often referred to as “element 2 funding”, “SEN notional budget” or “disadvantage funding”. This is used by settings to provide SEN provision which is “additional to and different from” and is used to meet the first £6,000 of additional support for an individual.

This does not mean that the school will spend £6,000 on every child with SEN. Sometimes schools use funds to help groups of children. Some children will need less help – and some children may need more.

What if my child’s needs cannot be met with SEN Support?

The majority of children and young people with special educational needs will have their needs met at ‘SEN Support’ within a mainstream setting. Some children and young people, however may still struggle and the setting will talk to you about making a request for an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Needs Assessment.

An EHC needs assessment (EHCNA) is an in-depth assessment of a child or young person’s special educational needs (SEN) and brings together information about:

  • What your child or young person can or cannot do
  • The special help and support he or she needs to learn and progress

The Local Authority (Coventry City Council) is responsible for carrying out EHCNA in Coventry under the Children and Families Act 2014.

For more information, see our pages on EHC needs assessments and downloadable guide “Your guide to EHC Needs Assessments”.

 

Other information sources you may find useful:

  • ACE - information is based on current education law and guidance and covers state funded education for children aged 5-16 years in England only
  • DfE Guidance Mental Health and Behaviour in Schools and Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions
  • IPSEA - trained volunteers give free, legally based independent advice and support in England and Wales to help get the right education for children with SEN/D.
  • Child Law Advice provides free legal information, advice and representation to children, young people, their families, carers and professionals, as well as international consultancy on child law and children's rights.
  • The Coventry Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Local Offer brings together information for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities and their families. The SEND Local Offer will cover services available to the public across education, health and social care:
    • Education: such as nurseries, playgroups, schools and colleges and support services like educational psychologists and SEN services
    • Health: children's and adult services including GPs, therapists and hospital services.
    • Social care: such as short break services and children's and adult disability services. 
  • Council for Disabled Children - The umbrella body for the disabled children's sector bringing together professionals, practitioners and policy-makers.