SEN Support Plans

You or your child's school / setting may feel that your child is making less progress than expected.

This could be in their educational progress, wider development, or social needs.

The school / setting may feel that a SEN Support Plan would help your child to reach their potential.

The plan is used to record the support and strategies that are in place, and the progress made by your child / young person.

It aims to:

• remove barriers to learning
• put effective educational support in place

The school / setting should have an early discussion with you and your child / young person.

The decision to provide support should be based on a range of assessment information.

You should be involved in all decision-making, including the decision to involve a specialist service, or request specialist assessments (where relevant).

The objectives and strategies within the plan should be discussed with you and your child.

Support that is provided to your child / young person should be reviewed regularly using the 'graduated approach'.

The graduated approach is a four-part cycle (assess, plan, do, review):

Assess
You child / young person's needs are identified and understood as part of the school / setting's monitoring systems, and (where necessary) additional assessments.

Plan
Discuss, agree and plan the appropriate adjustments, support and strategies that will help your child / young person to progress and achieve identified outcomes.

Do
Adjustments, support and strategies are put in place over an agreed period (this is usually an academic term) with the support of everyone involved

Review
After the agreed period, an evaluation of the quality, effectiveness and impact that the support has had. This must include your views and those of your child.

This short term focussed planning makes sure the support and strategies in place are always up to date, relevant, and always under review.

It may take several cycles of Assess, Plan, Do, Review, and different support and strategies, before the agreed outcomes are reached.

You and your child / young person will be invited to share your views at each stage.

If you disagree or are unhappy about any decisions that have been made about your child's SEN Support Plan, you should first contact the service or school / setting.

In most cases you can work together to resolve any issues to make sure that your child's needs are met.

If you need support with discussing any issues, you can contact SENDIASS.

If a disagreement cannot be resolved, you can access the Disagreement Resolution Service:

Disagreement Resolution Service

This is a free of charge, voluntary service.

It aims to resolve disputes informally as quickly as possible.

It can help resolve disputes about how the school / setting, or the Council, is performing its education, health and care duties for children with SEN.

This includes all SEN duties, not just Education, Health and Care needs assessments or plans.

See Chapel Mediation and Consultancy Services (SEND mediation).