What are Special Educational Needs?
Special educational needs (SEN) can affect a child or young person’s ability to learn. For example, someone’s SEN might affect their:
- reading and writing, for example because they have dyslexia
- ability to understand things
- behaviour or ability to socialise, for example they struggle to make friends
- concentration levels, for example because they have ADHD
- ability to achieve or complete tasks due to either physical or sensory needs.
There are two questions to ask when thinking about whether a child or young person has SEN.
1. Do they have a learning difficulty or disability?
A child or 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
- they have a disability which makes it difficult for them to use the facilities normally provided for others of the same age in mainstream schools or post-16 institutions.
Someone has a disability if they have a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out day-to-day activities.
2. Does that learning difficulty or disability call for special educational provision to be made?
Special educational provision is any educational or training provision that is additional to, or different from, that made generally for other children or young people of the same age. This is a wide definition, and could cover a wide range of things, for example:
- having materials provided in a larger font
- needing one-to-one support
- communicating through sign language
- needing small class sizes
Some children or young people may need additional support which is not special educational provision; for example they might need certain treatments or medicines administered at school because of a medical condition they have. In order to be classed as having SEN, they must require support with education or training which is different from that given to other children or young people of the same age.
If the answer to both of these questions is yes, then the child or young person has SEN.
Children and young people with SEN are entitled to extra support with learning at nursery, school or college.
Local Authorities (LA’s)
How your Local Authority should help.
Local authorities (LA’s) have a legal duty to identify and assess the special educational needs (SEN) of children and young people for whom they are responsible. LA’s become responsible for a child or young person in their area when they become aware that the child or young person has or may have SEN.
Under the Children and Families Act 2014, the LA must always think about how the child or young person can be supported to facilitate their development and to help them achieve the “best possible educational and other outcomes”.
If your child is educated in an early years setting, a school or a post-16 institution, then that setting has duties to support your child – in particular, through SEN Support.
If a child or young person needs, or may need, more support than their school or other setting can give them, then the LA must carry out an Education Health and Care Needs Assessment. This assessment may lead to an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) being produced for them. An EHCP will set out the additional support the child or young person needs and the school or other institution they will go to.
Once special educational provision has been specified in an EHCP, the LA has a legal duty to provide it. This cannot be overruled by the LA’s SEN funding policy or other internal funding arrangements.
The Local Offer
The LA must publish a Local Offer containing information about all the services and support it expects to be available for children and young people with SEN and/or disabilities for whom they are responsible. This must include not only what services are available in the geographical area but also all services outside the LA’s area which their children and young people are accessing. This will include independent schools or colleges, therapy services and care placements.
The Local Offer should not be just a directory of services or series of links. It must say clearly what the LA expects to be available in terms of:
- what schools, colleges and other settings will provide from the funding they receive for SEN
- what schools, colleges and other settings in its area will provide from the funding they receive to support those with a disability
- educational, health and care provision
- training provision
- transport arrangements between home and school, college or early years settings
- support for preparing for adulthood and independent living
The Local Offer is not legally binding. There is no guarantee that a service mentioned in the Local Offer will be available. However, the Local Offer can be useful for working out whether the LA has resources which can support a child or young person, or if it will be necessary to look to neighbouring local authorities or the private sector for support.
An LA must consult children, parents and young people in developing the Local Offer and in periodically reviewing it. They must make sure there is a way for public comments to be made and published about the Local Offer and they must then take them into account.
Health & Social Care
Many children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) and disabilities will also require support from the health service and social care. If the child or young person has an education, health and care plan (EHCP) , this may cover their health needs relating to their SEN and social care needs relating to their SEN or to a disability.
How to get support
If you require support from the health service (including Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), the starting point is likely to be a referral from your GP or (in some cases) from the child or young person’s school.
Social services can provide a wide range of support such as practical assistance in the home, respite care and short breaks, home adaptations, travel and other assistance. If you require support from social care, you can ask the local authority (LA) to assess the child or young person’s social care needs.
You can find information about how to do this for a child or young person under 18 on Contact’s website, including a model letter you can use.
If the young person is coming up to the age of 18, you may wish to ask for a child’s needs assessment to establish what support they may need from adult social services after they turn 18. There is further information about this on Contact’s website.
If you live within the Surrey area please contact Action for Carers Surrey who would be happy to assist you. If a young person over the age of 18 that requires social care support, this will be provided by adult social services. Action for Carers Surrey has information on how to ask for a needs assessment for a person over 18.
Even if the child or young person does not require support for social care, their carer may need support in order to cope with meeting the child or young person’s care needs. Carers UK have information on applying for a carer’s assessment if you are caring for someone under 18 or for a young person aged 18 or over.
Can health and social care provision be written in to an EHCP?
Only children and young people who may have special educational needs which may call for special educational provision to be made via an EHCP will qualify for an EHCP Needs Assessment. If a child has, for example, significant medical needs but does not require any special educational provision, they should instead have a health plan which would set out how they should be supported.
However, once the LA has agreed to carry out an EHCP needs assessment, the assessment will be of the child or young person’s education, health and social care needs.
It is important to note that health care provision or social care provision which educates or trains a child or young person is treated as special educational provision (section 21(5) of the Children and Families Act 2014). A good example of this is speech therapy. It looks like it should be health provision – because it is usually provided by the Health Service – but it must be treated as special educational provision. This is because speech and language therapy “educates or trains” a child or young person to communicate more effectively.
This means that a child or young person with communication difficulties is likely to be seen as having special educational needs. It also means that where a therapy that educates or trains is written in to an EHCP, it should be in Section F, as it is special educational provision.
Any health care provision will have to be agreed by the local Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) before it can be written into an EHCP.
Once provision is written in to an EHCP, it is legally enforceable. If it is in the education or social care provision sections of the EHCP, then the LA must ensure it is provided. If it is in the health care provision section, then the CCG must provide it.
What if the health and social care provision in the EHCP is inaccurate or inadequate?
During an EHCP needs assessment, the LA should seek advice and information from health and social care. If this is not done, this could lead to inaccurate or inadequate sections of the EHCP, which are blank, or say “not known to the service” or “no health/social care needs” when this is not the case.
The Department for Education has been very clear that this is not sufficient to demonstrate that the LA has fulfilled its duties to seek information and advice, nor to comply with its duty to ‘specify’ health or social care provision in an EHCP.
If you are currently undergoing an EHCP needs assessment, the LA should seek advice from Health and Social Care. If the EHCP has already been finalised, you may be able to challenge it. There is further information about this on IPSEA’s website by appealing to the SEND Tribunal or also see IPSEA If the LA fail to comply with their obligations you can make a complaint.
Children with Disabilities Forum 