SEND support is the extra help offered to a child or young person to enable them to learn and make progress in their learning, alongside other children of the same age.
It might be:
- adapted teaching methods and materials to suit the child’s style and rate of learning
- one-to-one support from a teaching assistant
SEND support is tailored to a child’s particular needs and should be agreed with parents and carers in a SEND support plan. This plan should be regularly reviewed.
For further information read chapters 5 and 6 of the SEND Code of Practice 2015 – GOV.UK.
Read about how your child's place of learning supports children who have special educational needs in their SEND information report.
How SEND support works
You and your child should be at the centre of any decision-making. This is called person-centred planning and can include person-centred reviews. It may be useful for a one-page profile to be drawn up so your child's voice can be heard.
The early years' keyworker or teacher, and the place of learning's special educational needs and disabilities coordinator (SENCO), will all work together using the graduated approach to create an SEND support plan.
This plan identifies your child's needs, the action needed and planned outcomes. However, if your child's needs are severe or complex they may go straight to the next step and request an education, health and care assessment.
What SEND support may include
SEND support could include teaching differently or help from an extra adult.
Sometimes your child may get help from:
- Ordinarily Available Provision - this refers to the support that all H&F early years, schools and post 16 settings should be able to provide for children/young people, including those with SEND, from within their own resources
- educational psychologists
- child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS)
- specialist teaching and learning services or SEND support services through the Inclusion and Specialist Intervention Outreach Service (INSPIRE)
- therapists such as speech and language therapists or occupational therapists.
Reviewing the SEND support plan
The education setting will review the SEND support plan regularly. The review will help identify whether your child's progressing and if the amount of support needs to change.
Involving you and your child
You and your child are central to deciding what action to take, what you want it to achieve and whether it's working.
The education setting must:
- work closely with you and your child to identify your child's needs and support
- take into account you and your child's concerns, views, agreed outcomes and next steps
- include you in any decision to involve specialists
- share details of the support plan with you and agree a review date
- ask you and your child for your views when reviewing the SEND support plan
If you feel your child is not making progress
SENDIASS can offer impartial advice on your situation. They can support you in getting your views across.
Find out more about SENDIASS
Education, Health and Care plan (EHC) plan
For those that have tried many different support options and adjustments but still need more help, the next step could be to apply for an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plans. Find out more about Education, Health and Care (EHC) needs assessments.