Meeting The Needs of the Individual Pupil
Sometimes some extra help is needed to make sure that a child reaches their full potential. Schools and parents can access the special educational needs service.
The Special Educational Needs Service
Many children have special educational needs of some kind during their education. In almost all cases, schools and other organisations can help children overcome the barriers their individual difficulties present quickly and easily.
Children may need extra help because of a range of needs such as:
- thinking and understanding;
- difficulties with reading, writing or speaking;
- a problem with sight or hearing;
- a physical disability;
- emotional and behavioural difficulties.
The majority of children with special educational needs are provided for within their local school without the need for any involvement from Children's Services.
The Special Needs Code of Practice gives guidance on how children with special educational needs can be helped. This involves a graduated approach, referred to as ‘school action’ or ‘school action plus’. On identifying a concern, the school would discuss this with you, making additional and different individual plans to help your child overcome their difficulty. Schools have additional money in their budget to enable them to provide this.
If you think your child may have special educational needs, you should contact your child’s school. Talk to your child’s teacher, Headteacher, or the teacher in the school identified as the Special Needs Co-ordinator who will be able to discuss your concerns and what can be done to assist your child.
A small minority of children have special educational needs that are so severe and complex that their school cannot provide all that is necessary from within their own resources. In these cases, Children' Services can be asked by the school to undertake a formal assessment of the child’s special educational needs. You as a parent can also ask Children's Services to carry out an assessment by contacting the Senior Education Officer for the Special Educational Needs Service in your area, who will always respond by consulting your child’s school to consider whether an assessment is necessary. If your child’s special educational needs are formally assessed, you would play a full part in the process and would be asked to provide information about their needs. The assessment would also involve an Educational Psychologist, the School Doctor and any other specialist professional who has been working with your child or may contribute to an understanding of their difficulties.
Following assessment, Children's Services would decide whether your child’s difficulties are such that their school needs additional resources to contribute to what is provided for them. If this is the case, then a statement of special educational needs would be issued describing your child’s identified needs and what is needed to respond to them.
In most cases, even where a child has severe and complex needs, they can continue their education with extra support in their current school. If your child’s difficulties are severe and profound, the statement may propose a move to a more specialist school. However, this is only in the most severe cases.
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