Special Educational Needs Support (SEN Support) is available in early year’s settings, mainstream schools and further education colleges.
A SEN Support Plan is the first level of additional support for pupils with SEN in a mainstream setting. It involves:
- assessing the needs of the pupil
- planning how they can be met
- providing additional support
- reviewing progress.
Through this cycle the right additional support is provided to help the child achieve at school. This is known as the graduated approach.
This can help a pupil who is struggling compared to their peers. SEN Support may involve having extra staff, using different learning materials or special equipment or adopting a different approach to teaching.
All schools have a Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO), a teacher who is responsible for Special Educational Needs. They work with other teachers and parents to make sure that pupils with special educational needs get the right support and help they need at school. The SENCO will work alongside a pupil’s teacher to find ways of supporting and improving the pupil’s learning. This may include working with other professionals, for example, a Speech and Language Therapist. The SENCO will also ensure that the pupil’s progress is regularly monitored and reviewed.
If a pupil does not make progress with additional assistance through SEN Support, the school and parents might consider requesting an Education Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA).
SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disability) Support Service
What we are and what we do
The SEND Support Service is made up of four teams of SEND Officers and plan writers, supported by a business support team, based at the Council Offices, Quadrant West.
Staff in SEND Support Service have a range of professional experience mainly from education and social care. They carry out the Local Authority’s duties in relation to children and young people who have special educational needs and/or disability as defined in the Children and Family Act 2014 and the SEND Code of Practice 2015. (In this context young people are those beyond statutory education age and under 25.)
They receive requests for assessment from schools, settings and parents/carers; children and young people can also be brought to the attention of the team which means that a professional other than staff at the setting can alert the team if they believe a child or young person may need provision through an EHCP.
The teams of SEND Officers/plan writers are as follows: the New Assessment Team which deals with requests for assessment and carries out new assessments and re-assessments; the Primary Review and Phase Transfer Team (years -2 to yr4) and the Secondary Review and Phase Transfer Team (yr5-8) deal with all reviews for children in the relevant year groups. The Preparation for Adulthood Team deals with reviews for children and young people from yr 9 onwards.
All four teams of SEND Officers are supported by a diligent team of business support officers led by a business support co-ordinator. The Education Health and Care Plan processes have tight timeframes which are defined by legislation and involve the processing of a huge number of documents, all of which also need to be recorded in our electronic systems.
The service works closely with colleagues across health, education and social care and most decisions are informed by recommendations from the SEND Panel which is a multi-agency panel of professionals who meet every week.
Officers appreciate the importance of good communication and strong relationships and adopt a relational approach to their work, recognising how important their relationships are with children and young people, parents and carers, and the schools and settings they are in. the Primary and Secondary Teams have been set up to provide consistency to families across phases of education and preparation for phase transfer when students move from one phase of their education to another.
Family members and professionals may contact a duty officer available each week day between 8.30am-1.p.m on (0191) 643 3131