SEN Support
SEN support is the term used for the help that children with additional needs, can access in their educational setting. It describes a four part process to help meet childrens needs, which is set out in Law.
Educational settings need to identify and support children and young people with SEN and/or disabilities. If a child or young person has SEN but does not have an EHC plan, they are still entitled to the support necessary to meet their needs.
Children and young people attending mainstream settings may be supported from within the setting’s own resources. This means they receive special educational provision (additional help or support) This additional support is called SEN Support. Schools get funding to help them to pay for special educational provision.
The SEND Code of Practice 2015 says that the school should use a graduated approach following the cycle of Assess, Plan, Do and Review:
- Assess: The class teacher or subject teacher (working with the SENCO) is responsible for carrying out a clear analysis of a pupil’s needs, drawing on teacher assessments and experience of the pupil.
- Plan: Where it is decided to provide a pupil with SEN Support, the parents must be notified. All teachers and support staff who work with a pupil should be made aware of their needs, the outcomes sought, the support provided and any teaching strategies that are required.
- Do: The planned interventions should then be put into place. The class or subject teacher should work closely with any teaching assistants or specialist staff involved and the SENCO should support the class or subject teacher.
- Review: Reviews should take place and inform feed back into the analysis of the child’s needs. The Code is not prescriptive about how often reviews should take place, but given the Code suggests schools should meet with parents three times a year, good practice would indicate that such reviews will be at least termly. The decision to involve specialists can be taken at any time and should always involve parents
In Bolton, all settings have been issued with The Bolton SEND handbook, devised by professionals and parent carers in Bolton, that sets out what things school can do within he graduated response, and how to contact and consult other professionals (such as the educational psychologist) for more help and support. it is based on what the law says children should be accessing, and gives educational settings all the tools they need to help support your children. All educational settings in Bolton are expected to utilise the resources in here. This is available on our downloads section for you here.
The educational setting should record what SEN they have identified a child or young person as having, what outcomes they expect the child or young person to achieve, and what provision they are putting in place to help the child reach those outcomes. This should be written down in a record. All schools do this differently as there is no national template. Some settings call it an IEP (an individual education plan), and some may use an Early Help form, or a provision map.
One of the key duties is for the nursery, school or college to use their ‘best endeavours’ to support children and young people with SEN. This means settings must do everything that could reasonably be expected of them to ensure your child has their needs met.
You are entitled to meet with your childs school at least three times a year to discuss your childs progress and needs. This means that once per term as a minimum, you should be getting together with school to discuss how your childs SEN support is working for them.
For more information about SEN support, get in touch via our website
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IAS operate a free helpline for families Mon- Thurs, 9.30am until 12.30pm, term time only. Please give us a call on 07591853756 when the helpline is open, and we will do our best to help. For hep outside of these times, please go to our 'contact IAS' page.