SEND Reforms Information for Parents

Richard Challoner School
SEND Reforms 2014
Information for Parents
All Change…
You may well be aware of changes that are taking place to legislation surrounding the way that young
people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) are supported in schools, colleges and
healthcare settings. These changes have been labelled by the current government as the most
significant changes to SEN for the last 30 years. The reforms aim to change the way that education,
health and social care professionals work together, with the intention of giving young people and
families a greater say in the types of support available to them in educational settings, locally and
nationally. As a result of various consultations over the last two years, the government are passing new
laws regarding the following areas:
•
Statements of Special Educational Needs and Learning Difficulty Assessments being replaced by
Education Health and Care Plans
(EHCs), a process/document which encourages a coordinated
•
•
•
•
•
•
approach across education, health and social care professionals
A simpler assessment process for SEN (currently known as Statutory Assessment)
Removal of School Action and School Action Plus to create a new single-stage of SEN (SEN
Support)
Replacement of the current ‘Behavioural, Emotional and Social Needs’ category of SEND with
‘Social, Emotional and Mental Health’.
The right to request a ‘Personal Budget’
New statutory protections for young people aged 16-25
Publication of a ‘Local Offer’ and ‘School Local Offer’
These changes will commence as of September 1st 2014, although there is likely to be a lead-in period
of at least one academic year so that schools are fully prepared for the new reforms. The Senior
Leadership team at Richard Challoner School have already planned a number of new changes for this
academic year and although some of these changes will not take effect immediately, we wanted to take
this opportunity to outline some of our own new plans that these reforms will allow us to implement.
Mr T Brook
Assistant Headteacher - Inclusion
Education, Health and Care
Plans (EHCs)
For those young people who are currently the subject of a Statement of Special Educational Needs,
there will be a change to the legal documentation which outlines their current educational needs. This
will take the form of a new Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC Plan). Young people and families
living within Kingston LA will see the change from a current Statement to an EHC Plan taking place
within the next two years, with priority conversion being given to those young people who are
reaching the end of a Key Stage (Year 6, Year 9 or Year 11). Our expectation is that Statements will
naturally revert to new EHC Plans with few changes needed and neighbouring Local Authorities are
likely to be working with similar timescales. A summary of the differences between Statements and
EHC Plans are listed below:
EHC Plans
Statements
Considers a young person’s needs relating to
education, health and social care.
Parents/carers have access to a key worker if
they wish who can advocate for the family
and young person.
EHC Plans will be personalised, carefully
outlining individual provision required, taking
advice from all involved.
Parents are involved in writing an EHC Plan
with a young person and professionals.
A personal budget may be requested to help
support a young person.
Minimum timeframe to produce an EHC Plan
is 20 weeks.
Considers a young person’s needs relating to
educational needs only
Statement considers educational needs and
required provision.
Parents have the right to object to a
Statement which is a Council offer.
No personal budget available.
Minimum timeframe to produce a Statement
is 26 weeks.
As with current Statements of Special Educational Needs, EHC Plans will be reviewed on an annual
basis in an annual review meeting. This meeting will involve the young person, parents and any invited
professionals who work closely with that young person. The new reforms include greater emphasis on
the views of young people and as such, annual reviews are likely to become very pupil-centred as of
September 2014. This is known as ‘person-centred planning’ and aims to increase a young person’s
independence and control over the support that is offered to them.
Single Stage of SEN
Following the national removal of School Action and School Action Plus classification, we’ve devised a
new
graduated approach for support at Richard Challoner School. The process outlines our aim to
provide the most appropriate levels of support for students as and when they require it. Under the
previous
system, there was a danger of labelling students who needed additional support under different
categories of SEN. This new system provides a clear referral process for staff to raise concerns about
individual’s needs but continues to place emphasis on the importance of good quality teaching for all
an
students in the first instance.
If pupils are offered additional SEN support, they may be the subject of an Intervention Learning Plan
(ILP). This will outline the types of support that they will require from the Learning Support
Department.
In addition to the termly review of progress which is undertaken for all pupils, individuals
with an ILP will have additional targets relating to their educational needs. These will be reviewed on a
bi-annual
basis. Pupils who require support which is very specific and therefore cannot be met by
notional school resources may be eligible for an EHC Plan assessment.
The Local Offer and
School Offer
The Local Offer will include information for children and young people with Special Educational Needs
Disabilities and their parents or carers in a single place. It will refer to services offered by local
and
agencies, including education, health and social care. The Local Offer will be published in an electronic
format, linked directly to the Kingston Council website (www.kingston.gov.uk/send) and will be updated
on
a regular basis.
The Local Offer will provide information about a number of services, including:
•
• •
• •
• •
Special educational provision;
Health provision;
Social care provision;
Other educational provision;
Training provision;
Travel arrangements for children and young people to schools, colleges and early years education;
and
Preparing for adulthood, including housing, employment and leisure opportunities.
Information
about our School Offer and further information about the new reforms can be viewed on
the School Website at: www.richardchalloner.com/send. This will be updated regularly over the next
academic
year to reflect new developments at a local and national level.
If you have any queries about any of the information in this guide, please do not hesitate to contact Mr
Brook via the Learning Support e-mail address ([email protected]) and/or come along to
SEND2014 Information Evening which is being held on Wednesday 1st October, 6pm – 7pm. To
our
book
a
place
on
this
information
event,
click
on
the
following
link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZQL2J33.

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