SEND local offer - SEN support guidance for mainstream schools

Mainstream schools (including academies), PRUs, early years and post-16 providers must have due regard to:

• Children and Families Act 2014
• Equality Act 2010
• Special Educational Needs and Disability Code of Practice: 0 to 25 Years (SEND Code of Practice)

The above legislation and statutory guidance make it clear that children and young people with SEND have a right to expect their needs to be met and not to be disadvantaged.

Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council expects all mainstream schools (including academies), PRUs, early years and post-16 providers to:

• comply with SEND legislation and statutory guidance
• change policy and practice to reflect the SEND reforms
• use their best endeavours to provide an inclusive education for all children and young people with SEND
• make all anticipatory reasonable adjustments to enable children and young people with SEND access to an appropriate curriculum

Please note, best endeavours is a legal term defined as prudent, determined and reasonable.

Anticipatory reasonable adjustments is defined in the Equality Act as a requirement for service providers to think about and make reasonable adjustments in advance and not just for an individual.

In Stockton-on-Tees, the expectation is that communication with families is integral to all decision making.

Across Stockton-on-Tees, SEN Support refers to the special educational provision that is readily available to meet the needs of children and young people with SEND either as part of mainstream schools, early years or post-16 provider's core offer and accessible through the Local Offer. Across schools, early years and post-16 providers the child or young person and their parent's or carer's voices need to be listened to and be instrumental in the development of SEN Support regarding their aspirations, desired outcomes and views.

In early years settings it is particularly important that there is no delay in making any necessary special educational provision. Settings must work in partnership with parents / carers to establish the support and early intervention that the child needs in order to access provision and make progress.

In schools, it is essential to take action to identify and remove barriers to learning and put effective special educational provision in place. Parent(s) or carer(s) must be formally informed by schools that special educational provision is being made.

In post-16 colleges it is important to involve the student and, particularly for those aged 16 to 18, their parent(s) or carer(s) closely at all stages of the SEN Support cycle and planning for the needs of the young person.

High quality teaching, differentiated for individual children and young people, is the first step in responding to pupils who have or may have special educational needs. Additional intervention and support cannot compensate for a lack of good quality teaching (Quality First Teaching).

In deciding whether to make special educational provision, a teacher and SENCO should consider all of the information gathered from within the setting about the child or young person's progress. This should include high quality and accurate formative assessment, using effective tools and early assessment materials. This could include:

• views of the child or young person
• views of the parent(s) or carer(s)
• end of Key Stage Attainments
• Cognitive Abilities Tests (CATS) Scores at Secondary Level
• assessment for learning materials
• standardised tests
• teacher observations
• advice, information and recommendations from other agencies

To support assessment, settings will have access to a range of:

• diagnostic tests
• observational checklists
• dynamic forms of assessment which could involve:
  • observing and recording responses in different environments
  • identifying strengths and weaknesses
  • identifying learning rates and learning styles

The above could be carried out by schools or other professionals.

The SEND Code of Practice suggests that there is a continuum of special educational needs and disabilities and that where necessary, a setting should have arrangements in place to draw on more specialist assessments from external agencies or professionals.

SENCOs should have a good knowledge of assessment (including standardised) and how to use this in baselines and progress reporting. This will help determine the support that is needed and whether it can be provided by adapting the settings core offer or whether something different or additional is required. This is the start of a graduated approach to SEN Support and if a setting makes special educational provision for a child, they should inform and work with their parent(s) or carer(s) at every stage.

Settings should adopt a graduated approach with four stages of action: assess, plan, do and review.

Assess, Plan, Do and Review

1. Assess - to ensure that a child or young person's needs are fully understood.
2. Plan - discuss, agree and plan the appropriate support strategies that will help the child or young person to progress and achieve identified outcomes.
3. Do - put the strategies in place and allow them time to work.
4. Review - after an agreed period of time, assessment information about the child or young person's progress to achieving identified outcomes is considered. Are the strategies helping?

This is called the graduated response or approach because it may take several cycles of intervention and different strategies being tried, before it is possible to identify the strategies that work.

Funding

In making special educational provision for children and young people, settings are expected to draw on their normally available resources. Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council expects schools, PRUs, early years and post-16 providers to use their direct and delegated funds to:

• provide SEN support using delegated SEND funding responsibly to meet needs of children with SEND and or Disability within their school community
• commission additional support from external agencies or services available under the Local Offer
• meet the needs of children and young people with additional needs

We would class this as what is ordinarily available (if needs are identified) at SEN support (notional element 2 funding and High Needs Funding).

Schools receive funding to support children and young people with SEN (notional SEN budget), of £6,000. Schools are expected to use this money to provide additional teaching support, to involve other professionals with specialist skills, such as educational psychologists and speech and language therapists or they may buy specialist equipment to support the child.

If costs of providing this support (for the identified need) exceeds the £6,000 then the schools can apply to the Local Authority for additional High Needs support in the form of a top-up. Supporting evidence and further information will be required as part of the application process to be considered by the One Point Panel.

Equipment

Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council expects schools, PRUs, early years and post-16 providers to use their budgets (including the notional SEN budget and any allocated High Needs Funding) to provide for children and young people with high incidence SEND requiring low cost, noncustomised equipment; for example, IT equipment. It is recognised however, that some specialist customised equipment may need to be provided centrally to ensure that children and young people with low incidence, high needs have access to appropriate specialist aids and equipment. Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council provides more specialist equipment through liaison with NHS occupational therapy services.

Training

Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council expects schools, PRUs, early years and post-16 providers to provide appropriate SEND training for their staff. Settings are expected to understand the needs of their children and young people and to identify how best to ensure that their staff are equipped to understand and meet their needs. It is important that schools, when asked, can provide information regarding training their employees have undertaken focusing on SEND. This also needs to be kept up to date on the school's SEND information report (comprehensive training opportunities are available via Stockton SEN and Engagement Service).