What you need to know:
The SEND Code of Practice 2015 says:
- A child or young person has SEN (Special Educational Needs) if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her.
- A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty or disability if he or she:
• has a significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age,
or
• has a disability which prevents or hinders him or her from making use of facilities of a kind generally provided for other of the same age in mainstream schools or mainstream post-16 institutions
A diagnosis isn’t needed for a child or young person to have SEN.
What is a need?
A need it not a diagnosis but the individual difficulty a child/young person has.
A difficulty is something that hinders or prevents the child/young person from participating in or accessing learning. If you can say what it is that the pupil finds difficult, you have the need.
Examples of need:
• Pupil Y struggles to process and retain information
• Pupil Z struggles to maintain peer relationships
What is a provision?
Special educational provision (SEP) is support that is additional to or different from that made generally for other children or young people of the same age Educational provision must be specific and quantified.
Examples of provision:
• Pupil Y needs a daily visual diary; 5 minutes of preparation time at the beginning of every lesson, supported by an allocated adult and a personalised learning plan, which will include same day over-learning, with allocated adult for 5 X 10 minutes a day.
• Pupil Z will have access to a specialist, evidence-based nurture programme – 2X 30 minutes per week, delivered by a trained member of staff.
What is an outcome?
An outcome can be defined as the benefit or difference made to an individual because of a provision. It should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound.
Outcomes should articulate what should be achieved by the end of a phase, or stage, to move forward.
Examples of outcomes:
• Pupil Y will make half-termly progress within National Curriculum, in a mixed ability class, from his starting points, so that he meets Yr. 1 expectations by the end of year.
• Pupil Z will feel more confident in establishing and maintaining a friendship. She will feel able to discuss any issues with trained member of staff.
The EHCP will be made up of the professional reports and information that was gathered as part of the EHC Needs Assessment. These reports will be sent at the same time as the draft EHCP and will become the ‘K’ documents and will be listed in section K of the EHCP.
When looking over an EHCP it’s important to ensure that all personal details in Section A are correct such as spelling of name, date of birth, telephone numbers etc. This section also contains the child or young person’s history and their views as well as those of the parent/carers.
Section B of the EHCP will have the child or young person’s special educational needs detailed.
Section F of the EHCP will set out the child/young person’s special educational provision which is needed to meet their special educational needs. From Year 9 at the latest, Section F is required to address preparing the child/young person for adulthood.
Section E details the medium and long term outcomes. The outcomes are described as the benefit or difference made to the child or young person as a result of the special educational provision.
Section I of the EHCP contains the placement named by the LA and this setting must be able to carry out the provision in Section F.
The key to a strong plan is:
• Accurate identification of need—Section B
• Specific and detailed support/provision—Section F
• Agreed outcomes - Section E
• Should then lead to an appropriate placement— Section I