Statement of Special Educational Needs
When Special Education Needs (SEN) cannot be met by resources generally available to local schools, the assessment will identify the conditions giving rise to needs, detail the child’s needs and any special help that is required and will be produced in the following format:
- Part 1 – Child’s details (e.g. name, address, parent / carer) and a list of the advice the authority received as part of the assessment
- Part 2 – Gives details of the child’s special educational needs
- Part 3 – Describes all the special help to be given for the child’s needs
- Part 4 – Gives the type & name of the school the child should go to & how any arrangements will be made out of school hours or off school premises
- Part 5 – Describes any non-educational needs the child has
- Part 6 – Describes how the child will get help to meet any non-educational needs.
The equivalent in Scotland is called Co-ordinated Support Plan (CSP). There is no difference to the English statement of SEN.
The statement of SEN Report
Part 1.
| Child | |
|---|---|
| Surname: | Other names: |
| Home Address: |
Sex: Religion: |
| Date of birth: | Home Language: |
| Child’s parent or guardian | |
| Surname: | Other names: |
| Home address: | Relationship to child: |
| Telephone: | |
Part 2. Special Educational Needs
This section will give details of the child’s special needs.
Part 3. Special Educational Provision
This section will describe :
- the long term objectives for the child
- the support the local authority thinks the child will need to meet their learning objectives
- The arrangements to be made for setting short term targets and regularly reviewing the child’s progress towards those targets.
Part 4. Placement
This section will name the school where the support will be made or the local authority’s arrangements for support if this is not to be in school.
Part 5. Non-Educational Needs
This section will give details of the relevant non-educational needs the child may have as agreed between health services, social services or other agencies and the local authority.
Part 6. Non-Educational Provision
This section will describe how the child will get the help required to support their non-educational needs.
A child’s statement of Special Educational Needs (SEN) should include mandatory information which Local Authorities (LAs) must request & consider when producing a statement. In addition to the actual statement, which will set out emotional & behavioural problems which may impact on learning as well as other conditions & health problems, parents will also have the reports considered to assist the LA to produce the statement of SEN. This will always include a medical report, a report from Nursery / School & a report from the Educational Psychologist.
Children who have learning support needs may not necessarily have a statement. The threshold for consideration of a statement is high & is variable from LA to LA. It may take several years before the LA accepts the need to prepare a statement even where a child clearly merits a statement being considered.
Those children whose condition may impact on attendance but not their learning support would not have one e.g. a child being treated for cancer may miss a whole year of school but they would not have a statement because the health problems do not impact on learning ability, only attendance.
Many children who have ADHD/ADD & other significant conditions may not have a statement because the condition does not impact sufficiently on their learning abilities. They would not usually have a statement unless they also had other conditions that impacted on their education such as dyslexia.
If a child does have a statement, this is a reliable indicator that the child does require a high level of additional support because they have a significant condition. However, the absence of a statement does not mean that the child does not have a significant learning impairment.
Amended September 2011
