by Rebecca Smith SENCO/INCO
Rebecca Smith oversees provision at St. Mary’s Primary Academy in Cambridgeshire to ensure that all children within the school are well supported in all aspects of their learning. She coordinates provision for children with Special Educational Needs, including carrying out assessments, planning interventions, supporting the teaching staff and working with parents and liaising with external professionals.
We recently had a conversation with her around the SEND approach primary schools should be following, and have laid out the details below.
First steps
If a child is not making expected progress in their learning, the school should be discussing (with parents) whether there are barriers to learning. This won’t necessarily mean an identified diagnosis, but simply that they are having greater difficulty than peers in an aspect of their learning or development, for example, experiencing fine motor difficulties impacting on their writing development.
If the school need to make provision which is additional to or different from the support given to other learners, the child would be considered to have Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), and should be identified within the school’s SEND register as receiving SEND support.
If the child does not make progress as a result of the support provided at SEND support, the school should look for further specialist advice (from an external agency). The majority of children will have their needs met effectively through school based SEND support.
EHCPs
If further support is needed, the school (or parents) can apply for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC or EHCP) needs assessment. The local authority must consider:
- whether the child or young person has or may have special educational needs (“SEN”); and
- whether they may need special educational provision to be made through an EHCP plan.If the answer to both of these questions is yes, they must carry out an EHCP needs assessment. This test is set out in the law (section 36(8) of the Children and Families Act 2014). This means these are the only questions the LA should be asking when considering whether or not to carry out an EHC needs assessment.
- To have a good chance of getting the EHCP needs assessment request accepted at the first panel, the school will want to have two cycles of Asses,Plan, Do, Review (APDR) and evidence from external professionals which has been given within the last 12 months (18 months maximum). However, there is no time period that the APDR must cover, so a school could do 2 shorter cycles to evidence that the provision that can be made within SEND support is not sufficient to enable the child to make progress.
All schools will have their SEND policy on their website, which should support parents in advocating for their child. Where need is really evident, this can be accelerated to ensure the right support is secured as soon as possible.”
Further information
A big thank you to Rebecca Smith for sharing her best practise.
Launching Riley’s film on Rare Disease Day
