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SEN Provision in School

SEN Provision in School

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SEN Provision in School Information

Special Educational Needs Provision in Schools and Early Years Settings

The 1996 Education Act and the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice 2001 set out guidance for schools, early years settings and councils. Provision for pupils with special educational needs is a matter for the school or early years setting as a whole. The governing body, school’s head teacher, the SENCO or SEN team and all other members of staff have important responsibilities. The division of day-to-day responsibilities is a matter for individual schools to determine in the light of the school’s circumstances, size, priorities and ethos.

Parents hold key information and have a critical role to play in their children’s education. It is important that parents, schools, the local authority and others work in partnership to enable children and young people with SEN to achieve their potential. All parents of children with special educational needs should have access to information, advice and support that enables them to:

  • recognise and fulfil their responsibilities as parents and play an active and valued role in their children’s education
  • have knowledge of their child’s entitlement within the SEN framework
  • make their views known about how their child is educated
  • have access to information, advice and support during assessment and any related decision-making processes about special educational provision.

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Graduated Response

In order to help children who have special educational needs, schools and early years settings should adopt a graduated response to a continuum of special educational needs , encompassing an array of strategies. Schools and early years settings should, where necessary, access specialist expertise but should, other than in exceptional cases, make full use of all available classroom and school resources before expecting to call upon outside resources.

The Code of Practice sets out a model of action and intervention that is designed to help children towards independent learning, In many cases this will mean that the child is able to make satisfactory progress. Additional action should only be taken for those children whose progress continues to cause concern.The Code recommends that when a child is identified as having special educational needs the school should intervene at Early Years or School Action and Early Years or School Action Plus.

These interventions will not usually be steps on the way to statutory assessment, nor are they hurdles to be crossed before a statutory assessment can be made. Some children will require less rather than more help if the interventions work successfully. The interventions are a means of matching special educational provision to the child’s needs, and are therefore part of a continuous and systematic cycle of planning, action and review .. Good practice can take many different forms and t schools may need to make adjustments to the Code’s model to reflect their particular circumstances. The model nonetheless embodies the principles set out in the Code and to which all schools should have regard:

  • provision for a child with special educational needs should match the nature of their needs
  • there should be regular recording of a child’s special educational needs, the action taken and the outcomes.

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SEN Provision in School Leaflets & Letters

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SEN Provision in School Documents

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SEN Provision in School FAQs

  • If my child is identified as having special educational needs, what happens next?

    It is likely that their needs can be met in a mainstream school. The school should include you in discussions and decisions about your child and they should also try to get your child's views. It may be decided that extra help, a different way of teaching or special equipment is required. In early education settings this help is called Early Years Action and in schools it is known as School Action.

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  • If my child doesn't make any progress under School Action?

    The class teacher or the SENCO should talk to you about getting advice from other people outside the school. This might be from a specialist teacher, an educational psychologist or a speech and language therapist. This kind of help is called Early Years Action Plus in early education settings, or School Action Plus in schools.

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  • What happens if my child needs more help than the school can provide under SA+?

    Help through School Action or School Action Plus may not enable your child to make adequate progress. You or the school can ask the local authority (LA) to carry out a Statutory Assessment of special educational needs. This will take account of specialist advice and your views as well.

    If the LA decides that your child needs more help - and only around 3% of children nationally require this - it must write a 'statement' (Statement of Special Educational Needs). This describes all the child's needs and special help requirements. With the LA's support, the school can usually provide this.

    The statement is reviewed annually, and you will be invited to take part in review meetings.

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  • What is the definition of SEN or Learning Difficulties?

    The Education Act 1996 says that 'a child has special educational needs if he or she has a learning difficulty which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her.' It also says that 'a disability, which prevents or hinders them from making use of education facilities', amounts to a learning difficulty if it calls for special educational provision to be made. Special educational provision is provision that is additional to or otherwise different from that normally available in the area to children of the same age.

    The definition includes more children than those who have 'learning difficulties' in the commonly accepted sense. This is because the definition of learning difficulties in the legislation includes children who have a disability and who need something additional or different to be provided for them. So, for example, a child with a visual impairment who needs materials to be provided in an enlarged font is defined in the legislation as having a learning difficulty even if they are not behind in their learning.

  • How do I get help for my child who seems to be struggling at school?

    If the parents are unhappy with anything the school does when dealing with their child, they should talk first to the child's class teacher or subject teachers or the SENCO. They may also talk to the head teacher. They may take a friend or relative or an independent parental supporter with them. Representatives of the local parent partnership service or local voluntary organisations or parents' groups may also be able to help.

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  • How are Local Authorities and schools financed for SEN?

    The question of the resources available for SEN provision in schools is linked to the wider question of the level of resources available for education generally. Each year the Government sets out what it considers to be a reasonable and affordable level of spending on education. It then ensures funding to local authorities for this amount: this is distributed to individual local authorities through Standard Spending Assessments (SSAs). Each local authority must set its own education budget, taking account of local priorities.

    LAs allocate resources between maintained schools in their area under schemes that must follow regulations under the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. It is for each LA to devise and revise its own scheme having regard to local needs and circumstances. Schemes require budgets to be delegated to schools; once budgets are delegated, schools' governing bodies take decisions on precisely how to deploy the resources available but the budget statements that LAs are required to produce must show each school's notional budget for SEN. Regulations also require that from April 2002, LAs must publish details of the kinds of support arrangements they expect maintained schools in their areas to normally provide from their budgets under School Action and School Action Plus. LAs are also required to publish their own plans for providing appropriate SEN support - particularly under School Action Plus.

    Children whose needs cannot be met out of a maintained mainstream school's budget share - that is, the child's needs cannot be met through School Action or School Action Plus - are likely to need assessment and a statement. For a child with a statement of SEN, LAs have a duty to arrange the provision specified within the statement. This means that the LA is responsible for providing the support and additional expenditure that is required, either through employing staff to provide the additional hours of support and supplying any equipment specified in the statement, or through identifying extra funding for the school educating the pupil, whether funding for statements is held centrally by the LA or the LA devolves funds to schools on an earmarked basis or delegates funds to the schools.

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