The Graduated Approach

Every child with special educational needs or disabilities should have SEN Support This means help that is additional to or different from the support generally given to other children of the same age. 

Support for pupils with special educational needs follows a ‘graduated approach’. That means the school builds up the intensity of support if they are not responding as hoped to the work being done to increase their progress.

There are currently three graduated stages of intervention:

  • First, additional support is provided by schools themselves. Some schools and settings call this SEN Support, others may call it something different.
  • Secondly, additional support by the school, together with the advice or involvement of external agencies providing a support package. This stage is known as SEN support by all schools.
  • Thirdly, an education health care needs Assessment (EHCNA) can be carried out through a range of agencies for children and young people with complex needs. This will establish whether an education, health and care plan is needed.

If you have concerns over the progress your child is making, you should first talk to the class teacher or the special educational needs coordinator (SENCo)

Alternatively, the school or preschool may contact you to let you know of their concerns.

If it is agreed that the pupil has special educational needs, the school will assess what adaptations and additional support they can provide to meet those needs.

If this support over an agreed timescale, reflects that the needs of your child cannot be fully provided for by the school or early years provider, the school will request support from the Local Authority or other SEND support services and so your child will be considered for SEND support. 

If you have concerns about your child’s progress:

  • Have you spoken to your child’s school or setting about your concerns?

  • Does your child have an Individual Plan?

Who should you speak to in school or setting?

The first person to speak to is always your child’s class teacher or form tutor.

You might want to do this at a parent consultation session or to make a separate appointment to see them. If you want to, you could ask for the meeting in writing or by email, setting out what it is you want to talk about.

After you have spoken to the key worker or class teacher, they may involve another teacher in the school known as the SENCo.

The SENCo has responsibility for what happens on a day-to-day basis in the school for pupils with special educational needs.

The SENCo also provides professional advice to other teachers in the school to help all pupils make progress.

The centre manager, head teacher and school governors also have responsibilities in law, concerning children with special educational needs.

Key workers or class teachers, supported by the senior leadership team and the SENCo should make regular assessments of progress for all pupils. These should seek to identify pupils making less than expected progress given their age and individual circumstances.

The school or setting should then decide if your child needs additional support. The school or setting should talk to you and your child about this.

If a young person is 16 or older the school should involve them directly.

Sometimes you may be the first to be aware that your child has some special educational needs. If you think your child may need SEN support you should talk to your child’s key worker, teacher or to the SENCo

If you are not happy about the support your child has you can ask to talk to the SENCo, headteacher or centre manager. 

All schools and settings must make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to support your child. They do this as part of a graduated approach to meeting needs. 

Depending on your child’s needs, this may include:

  • Differentiating tasks (i.e. making tasks simpler or tailoring them to your child’s ability)
  • Offering different ways of recording information (e.g. labelling pictures, diagrams or flow charts)
  • Using multi-sensory activities
  • Breaking down learning into small manageable steps
  • Helping children to organise their written work by using writing frames
  • Allowing extra time to complete tasks
  • Keeping instructions short and clear
  • Constantly praising and encouraging the child for achievements made

Some children may work with a teaching assistant – before, during or at the end of a lesson. However, children should be encouraged to work independently whenever possible.

Your child or young person may have different types of observations, and assessments to help inform the support they need to reach their learning, social and emotional potential.

When a key worker, class teacher or the SENCo identifies a child with special educational needs, the class teacher should provide interventions that are additional to or different from those provided as part of the school or setting’s usual differentiated curriculum offer and strategies.

The basis for intervention through SEN support could be the teacher’s or others’ concern, underpinned by evidence, about a child who despite receiving differentiated learning opportunities:

  • Makes little or no progress even when teaching approaches are targeted particularly in a child’s identified area of weakness.
  • Shows signs of difficulty in developing literacy or mathematics skills which result in poor attainment in some curriculum areas.
  • Presents persistent emotional or behavioural difficulties which are not made better by the behaviour management techniques usually employed in the school.
  • Has sensory or physical problems, and continues to make little or no progress despite the provision of specialist equipment.
  • Has communication and/or interaction difficulties and continues to make little or no progress despite the provision of a differentiated curriculum.

The school or setting has to inform the child’s parents that special educational provision is being made for the child because the child has SEND.

The key worker/class teacher should draw up a plan for the pupil and will discuss the plan with the parent. The name of this plan can be different in different schools and settings, however, every plan should set out:

  • The child’s difficulties.
  • Short-term targets for them to achieve.
  • Details of who will work with the child and what materials might be needed.
  • When the plan will be reviewed.

Plans should be reviewed at least three times a year and possibly more frequently for some children. At least one review in the year could coincide with a routine Parents’ Evening, although schools and settings should recognise that some parents will prefer a private meeting. Reviews need not be formal, but parents’ views on the child’s progress should be sought and they should be consulted as part of the review process. Schools and settings should encourage parents to make their views known.

Wherever possible, the child should also take part in the review process and be involved in setting the targets. If the child is not involved in the review, their ascertainable views should be considered in any discussion. You may be given some tasks to do at home with your son or daughter as part of the plan.

What happens if my child or young person continues not to make progress?

If your child is at the SEN Support stage but despite the actions taken by the school or setting, continues not to make progress, then as well as these actions, your child should be accessing support from outside agencies alongside the school.

Each local authority has professionals from different ‘specialisms’ and they work as multi-agency teams with the schools.

These could be (depending on the child’s needs):

  • An Educational Psychologist
  • Specialist Advisory Teachers
  • Other health professionals

The different professionals meet regularly with the SENCo’s at their schools. They will work closely with the school staff to provide advice to the school on how to work with individual pupils; they may provide an additional specialist assessment or they may work directly with the child. They will suggest new targets for the child or young person’s plan. This plan is called a SEND Support Provision Plan (SSPP).

The special educational needs or disabilities of the great majority of children will be met effectively within mainstream settings through SEN support, without the local authority needing to make a statutory assessment. A statutory assessment can also be known as an education, health and care needs assessment (EHCNA).

In a very small number of cases, the local authority will need to make a statutory assessment of special educational needs, and then consider whether or not to issue an EHCP. There are clear time frames set out for the stages of statutory assessment, the total length of the process should be no longer than 20 weeks. There is also a clear process of appeal for parents and carers.

You can find out more about Education, Health and Care Assessments and Plans, including how to request an assessment. 

Person Centred Planning (PCP) is a way of working together and communicating positively with each other, always with the child or young person at the centre of the process.

The views, wishes and feelings of the child or young person will be at the heart of decision making. PCP involves using a variety of different ‘tools’ or methods to develop the child or young person’s plan.

There are many different approaches to PCP but they all centre on the child or young person’s views, wishes and feelings, their aspirations and hopes for the future.