School staff, pupils themselves and their families should agree the level of SEND support required to meet the needs of your child and an ‘Assess, Plan, Do and Review’ cycle should be put in place. This is also known as the graduated approach.
The graduated approach means that class teachers and/or the SENDCo will:
- Assess your child’s special educational needs
- Plan provision to meet the aspirations and agreed outcomes for your child
- Do – put the provision in place
- Review the support and progress, including more specialist expertise if required
SEND support should be reviewed at least three times a year with you and your child (where possible), with input from any professionals who are actively supporting your child at that time. This can include:
- Teaching and Learning Partner (TLPs) working with individuals or small groups
- Care workers for children with physical and medical needs e.g. moving & assisting, peg feeding etc.
- Outside professionals providing intimate care support or medical treatment e.g. physiotherapy or occupational therapy etc. (following training by specialists)
- Adults delivering extra-curricular activities
- Place2Be – Mrs. Sue Hardy, SPM
- Education Welfare and Attendance Officer – Mrs. Kathryn Maddison
Outside support from specialised agencies may provide a variety of services appropriate for the individual child which aren’t available in school. This includes:
- Autism and Communication Team
- Behaviour Intervention Teams/PRU (Pupil Referral Unit)
- Cognition and Learning Team
- EAL (EMTAS) English as an Additional Language
- Educational Psychology Service
- Equalities and Inclusion Education Development Advisors are part of the Early Years Development Team, Education Durham
- EWEL Team
- Sensory Team for Children with Visual or Hearing needs
- SENDIASS – Special Educational Needs and Disability Information Advice and Support Service
- Health Provision
- CAMHS
- Consultant Paediatricians
- Occupational Therapy
- Physiotherapy
- School Health
- Speech and Language Therapy
- Specialist Support Team for Children with Physical and Medical Needs
Education, Health Care Plans
In exceptional cases, school and families may decide to request:
- a place in an enhanced mainstream provision, if relevant to your child’s needs
- an Education, Health & Care (EHC) assessment
This type of support is available for children whose learning needs are, severe, complex and lifelong. This is usually provided via an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). This means your child will have been identified by professionals as needing a particularly high level of individual or small group teaching.
This type of support is available for children with specific barriers to learning that cannot be overcome through Quality First Teaching and intervention groups.
Your child will require specialist support in school from a professional outside the school to meet their needs within school.
For your child this would mean:
The school (or you) can request that Local Authority carries out a Statutory Assessment of your child’s needs. This is a legal process which sets out the amount of support that will be provided for your child.
After the request has been made to the ‘Panel of Professionals’ (with a lot of information about your child, including some from you), they will decide whether they think your child’s needs (as described in the paperwork provided), seem complex enough to need a Statutory Assessment. If this is the case, they will ask you and all professionals involved with your child to write a report outlining your child’s needs. If they do not think that your child needs this, they will ask the school to continue with the current support.
After the reports have all been sent in, the ‘Panel of Professionals’ will decide if your child’s needs are severe, complex and lifelong. If this is the case, they will write an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP). If this is not the case, they will ask the school to continue with the current level of support and also set up a meeting in school to ensure a plan is in place to ensure your child makes as much progress as possible.
The EHCP will outline the number of hours of individual/small group support your child will receive from the LA and how the support should be used and what strategies must be put in place. It will also have long and short term goals for your child.
Additional adults may be used to support your child within whole class learning, targeted individual intervention programmes or within a small group. An individual Costed Provision Map would indicate required levels of support above the £6000 threshold with a need for additional top-up funding from the LA.
