Social Care/Disabled Children
Birmingham Virtual School SEND Offer
Birmingham Virtual School (BVS) is a statutory service that coordinates educational services for Children in Care (CiC). The BVS website contains a wealth of advice and resources that can support the education of all CiC.
The vision at Birmingham Virtual School for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is the same as for all children and young people – that they achieve well in their early years, at school and in college and make a good transition to adulthood, to lead contented and fulfilled lives.
A child or young person has SEND if they have a learning difficulty or disability which calls for special educational provision to be made for him or her.
Special educational needs can be broadly categorised as:
- learning difficulties (specific, general, severe or profound)
- communication or language difficulties (speech and language, autism)
- behavioral difficulties (emotional, behavioral or social)
- physical and sensory difficulties (hearing, vision, physical, multi-sensory)
The SEND Code of Practice 2015 and the Children and Families Act 2014 gives guidance to health and social care, education and local authorities to make sure that children and young people with SEND are properly supported.
SEND is over represented within the CiC cohort in Birmingham. The virtual school believes that, for any child in care who is not making educational progress, it is fundamental that they have their needs assessed and identified as soon as possible to ensure suitable provisions are in place to support their education and promote their achievement.
If you think your child may have special needs you can:
- Talk to the Virtual School
- Ask for a review of the Personal Education Plan (PEP)
- Use target setting in the PEP to get agreement from everyone about what can be done to be done to help, how improvement can be measured and how often progress will be reviewed.