Understanding how schools manage Special
Educational Needs and Disability (SEND)
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By the end of this session you will
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Understand what is meant by Special Educational Needs
Know what the new Code of Practice expects of schools
Know who the key people are that support SEND
Understand which interventions are most effective for helping children with
SEND
• Understand what is meant by EHC plans
• Have learnt about some examples of good practice in relation to SEND
Dr Jo Lyons
Deputy Regional Director
Achievement for All
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What is meant by SEND?
A child and young person has SEN if they have learning difficulty
or disability which calls for special educational provision to be
made.
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A child or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if
they have significantly greater difficulty in learning than the
majority of others of the same age, or has a disability which
prevents or hinders them from making use of facilities of a kind
generally provided for others of the same age in mainstream
schools.
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How do we decide if a child has SEND?
The new Code of Practice say that schools might identify a child as having a special
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educational need where their learning
difficulty or disability needs special
provision that is different from, or additional to, that which is normally available
to children of the same age to enable them to make progress
Whether a child needs special provision depends on what outcomes need to be
achieved. For many learning difficulties, good teaching by class teachers and
interventions that available to all children will enable a child to make progress.
A school will involve a specialist where a pupil continues to make little or no
progress or where they continue to work at levels substantially below those
expected of pupils of a similar age despite evidence-based SEN support delivered
by appropriately trained staff
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What are the categories of SEND?
The new code of practice identifies 4 main areas of special
educational
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Communication and interaction: speech, language and
understanding others
Cognition and learning: thinking and learning new skills
Social, emotional and mental health difficulties:
Sensory and or/ physical needs: includes hearing and there
sensory problems.
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Activity
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In small groups look at each of the 16
symptoms and decide which category of
SEND each belongs to
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Who will be involved with SEND at a school?
• The class teacher or subject teacher: this is the most
important person. They are responsible for the
learning and progress of the child no matter who, or
where, they are being taught. In a secondary school,
the form tutor is also important
• SENCo: special educational needs co-ordinator. This is
the person who is responsible for making sure ALL
SEND children achieve as well as they can
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Who else might be involved?
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Specialist teacher
An HLTA
A TA
Educational psychologist
Speech and language therapist
Occupational therapist
Clinical Psychologist
Psychiatrist
Counsellor
Child’s social worker
Designated teacher
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How do schools plan for SEND
Schools use a tiered or ‘wave’ approach to support special education needs
Enfield good quality teaching. This is sometimes called
Most learning needs can be tackled using
‘Quality First Teaching’ and means that the learning need of the child is clearly identified,
and using good teaching practice the child is supported to take the next step in their
learning. These are what needs to happen for QFT to help learning
• Adults have high expectations
• Lessons deepen the knowledge and understanding of the child
• Lessons develop the whole child, across the curriculum and their social, psychological
and emotional development
• Teachers listen carefully and ask questions that enable the child to learn
• Teachers know what every child’s next learning step is, and plan tasks that enable them
to make these steps
• Learning tasks are well matched to the pupil’s needs. This might include small group
tasks or intervention groups
• The child and their carers know what they need to do to improve their work and make
the next learning steps
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Activity
Schools use a range of ways to help children make good progress.
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Which do you think are the most effective?
You have 11 cards. Each one gives a possible method a school might
use to support children with SEND to learn.
Put aside 2 that you don’t think will have much impact on learning.
Then arrange the others in a diamond, with the most effective at the
top, and the least effective at the bottom
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Should my foster child go to a special school or
PRU?
It depends on what outcomes are needed for the child. The table below shows some
of the advantages and disadvantages of special schools and PRUs
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Advantages
Disadvantages
• Might get specialist staff
• Individual attention
• A sense of community
• The curriculum will not be as broad
• The school may not be in the child’s
community
• Less role models
• Less social interaction with a range of
people
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Educational Health and Social Care plans
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The new Code of Practice has introduced Education, Health and Social Care
plans to replace ‘Statements’
Education, Health and Social Care must now legally work together to meet the
needs of children with an EHC plan
EHC plans will only be for children and young people whose needs cannot be
met by support that is usually available in school or college or through the local
offer
EHC plans will continue until age 25
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Personal budgets
Under the new SEND reforms, personal budgets can be
made available to families to pay for support for a child
with SEND
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It is not yet clear how these budgets will be allocated or
managed. The process is likely to be different for
different local authorities.
For CLA, the allocated social worker will be likely to
manage this budget
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Activity
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Autographs
Everybody has a sheet with 10 statements on. For each
statement, get a different person to give you an example.
You cannot complete any part of your own sheet! But
you can give other people ideas!
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Plenary
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Questions?
Comments?
Thank you
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