Support for SEND

The SEND Code of Practice says mainstream schools must:

• use their best endeavours to make sure that a child with SEN gets the support they need – this means doing everything they can to meet children and young people’s SEN
• ensure that children and young people with SEN engage in the activities of the school alongside pupils who do not have SEN
• designate a teacher to be responsible for coordinating SEN provision, known as the SEN Co-ordinator or SENCo
• inform parents when they are making special educational provision for a child
• publish a SEN information report and their arrangements for the admission of disabled children, the steps being taken to prevent disabled children from being treated less favourably than others, the facilities provided to enable access to the school for disabled children and their accessibility plan showing how they plan to improve access progressively over time

Teaching staff should work with the Special Educational Needs Coordinator to assess your child’s needs so that they give the right support. They should involve you in this and, where possible, seek your child’s views. 

Sometimes schools will seek advice from a specialist teacher or a health professional. They should talk to you about this first.

The SEND Code of Practice says:

Schools should take seriously any concerns raised by a parent. (6.45)

Sometimes schools will seek advice from a specialist teacher or a health professional. They should talk to you about this first.

If the school decides that your child needs SEN support it must tell you. The school should agree with you:

• what your child's special educational needs are
• the outcomes that will be set
• what help or special educational provision your child will have
• a date for progress to be reviewed

These should be written in to a SEN Support plan. You should be asked to contribute to this.

Your child’s class or subject teacher is usually responsible for the work that is done with your child, and should work closely with any teaching assistants or specialist staff involved. The school should tell you who is responsible for the support your child receives.

The SEND Code of Practice says:

Schools should meet with parents at least three times a year. (6.65)   Have you met with school to talk about your child with special educational needs?

At the meeting:

• Have all your child's needs been identified?
• Is help in place to meet all their needs?
• Have you agreed outcomes to aim for? These should be specific and measurable
• What progress is your child making towards their outcomes?
• What difference is the help making?

For advice about handling meetings, see our section on Getting your voice heard, which includes what to do if you have already had a meeting and still have concerns.

You and your child should be involved in the review and in planning the next steps. If your child has not responded to the help they were given, the review should decide what can be done next. This may include more or different help.

Sometimes it helps to involve other professionals to investigate the difficulties or to plan the next steps. You and the school can use the Local Offer to find out about other options for Ordinarily Available Provision to help achieve your child’s outcomes. Sometimes the next step may be to ask the local authority for an EHC needs assessment. If the school decides to do this they must tell you. If you think it is needed you can ask for it yourself.

Where other interventions are not successful, education or health professionals can refer to the Community Paediatric Team which assess, diagnose and support children with developmental disorders such as:

• cerebral palsy
• developmental delay
• autism spectrum conditions
• muscular dystrophy
• attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

If a child or young person is feeling depressed, anxious or behaves in ways which are harmful to themselves or others, there is help available for them.

Informal help is available without a referral or appointment. For example:

Young people with SEND aged up to 25 can join courses and youth drop ins aimed at supporting anxiety and low self-esteem

• Buckinghamshire Council courses to help young people with anxiety and low self-esteem

Online advice for young people:

• Child Line
• Kooth

National mental health helpline:

• The mental health helpline is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to provide mental health advice
• Call 111 to access the mental health helpline
• Find out more here: Mental Health Helpline for Urgent Help
• Free psychological therapies from Healthy Minds for anyone registered with a Buckinghamshire GP- young people can refer themselves here: Healthy Minds Bucks (IAPT)

Confidential support and advice service for children and young people under the age of 35 who are experiencing thoughts of suicide, or anyone concerned that a young person could be thinking about suicide. More information can be found on the Papyrus UK Suicide Prevention website.

When difficulties are long term and complex, perhaps informal help has been tried unsuccessfully, the young person, their parent/carer or a professional may require support from the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS).

CAMHS helps young people up to 18 who are finding it hard to cope with everyday life because of difficult feelings, behaviour or relationships.

There is a wide range of support available. These services are provided by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.

For more information visit the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service Oxford Health CAMHS. To find help and make a referral details for CAMHS can be found on the CAMHS Referrals (Single Point of Access) page.

All schools and colleges in Buckinghamshire have a link worker from CAMHS.  The link worker can support  staff wanting to refer a child or young person to CAMHS.

Some schools in Buckinghamshire have support from the Bucks Mental Health Support Team (MHST). The MHST supports young people who have emotional wellbeing difficulties, including anxiety and low mood, confidence and self esteem issues. The team provides evidence based therapeutic support both individually and in groups to young people and parents.

Oxford Health can assess and advise on children and young people aged up to 18 who have or may have Autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and/or learning difficulties including challenging behaviour.

For more information see the Autism Toolbox and the Oxford Health Intellectual Disabilities team page.

Oxford Health also have a consultant available for schools for advice with supporting children with Autism/ADHD. To access this, schools should contact the Single Point of Access (SPA).

A child or young person does not need a diagnosis to get support from their school or other educational setting. You should not be asked to get a diagnosis before help is put in place. You should not be asked to pay for a private assessment. Currently there are long waits for diagnostic assessments.

If possible, referrals for diagnostic assessment should be made by the education provider. Alternatively, any young person aged up to 18 can refer themselves or be referred by a parent/carer. All referrals should be made using the Single Point of Access (SPA).

• Assessments for children and young people aged up to 18 are made by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust.
• Any young person referred for a diagnostic assessment who also has a mental health need identified will be assessed and treated as appropriate for this whilst waiting for the Autism/ADHD diagnostic assessment. Young people with mental health needs are usually offered an appointment within 4-6 weeks or sooner if there is an urgent need.

If your GP feels that a diagnostic assessment is clinically appropriate for your child or young person, in most cases, you have the legal right to choose the hospital or service you would like to go to. This may include private hospitals if they provide contracted services to the NHS. Learn more about your choices in the NGS.

The Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire West (BOB) Integrated Care Board (ICB) are aware that some providers are suggesting that referrals can be made directly to the provider and that the ICB will pay for these services. For a Choice referral, the referral must be from a GP, and the provider must have an NHS commissioning contract.

Parents wanting to explore this option should provide information from the education setting to the GP to help inform the referral.

• Some people choose to seek a private diagnosis. If it is completed by appropriate professionals using a recognised approach, this will usually be accepted as part of an Education, Health and Care needs assessment
• As the EHC needs assessment is based on need a diagnosis is not required. Requesting an EHC needs assessment will not speed up an Autism/ADHD diagnostic assessment.

A guide about your rights, hints and tips, written by parents for parents (PDF, 12.4 MB).

A guide to help explain to your child's school how it feels to be a child with ADHD (PDF, 751 KB).

A guide explaining strategies that can be used at school to support children with ADHD (PDF, 795 KB).

Local area position statement on Autism and ADHD.

This non-clinical team provided by Oxford Health supports children and young people with Autism and/or an Intellectual Disability who are at risk of placement breakdown or admission to a mental health hospital.

You can find more information about the Dynamic Support Facilitation Team.

Queries and referrals should be made using the Single Point of Access (SPA).

CAMHS work with children and young people up to the age of 18 and their families to restore health and wellbeing.

More information can be found on the CAMHS Eating disorder service web page.

Queries and referrals should be made using the Single Point of Access (SPA).

Support for children aged 0 to 19 for difficulties with:

• physical movement
• communication and/or swallowing
• participating in everyday activities

Support including fact sheets, advice sessions for parents/carers and professionals, webinars led by speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists is available without a referral form from the children and young people’s therapies service.

Children and young people who have high, urgent health or equipment needs require referral form.

Further details are available here:

• For physical movement
• For communication and/or swallowing
• For participating in everyday activities

These services are provided by Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.

The Family Support Service offers support to children, young people and families with children and young people aged from 0 up to 25 years with a special educational need or disability.

Support includes drop ins and groups offered at Family Centres ranging from Parenting courses to virtual and face-to-face courses for young people aged 11 to 19 (up to 25 with SEND).

If your family is experiencing multiple or complex issues that you need support with, the Family Support Service may be able to offer help from a Family Worker who would work directly with you in your home. You can request Family Worker support for a child, young person or family.

As part of a Tiered Approach to allow schools to receive advice, support and strategies from the Specialist Teachers at every stage of SEND Support the Aylesbury Area Specialist Teachers are offering regular Specialist Teacher advice sessions for schools.

The SENCo Network Liaison Meetings provide an opportunity for school SEND Coordinators (SENCos) to come together and work collaboratively with other schools in their area including a solution-focused approach to supporting individual pupils.

Meetings run half termly and are facilitated by an Educational Psychologist and Specialist Teacher.

Half termly virtual consultation sessions for schools.

As part of a Tiered Approach to supporting schools, Specialist Teachers provide advice on request for early intervention for pupils on SEND Support and for those with EHC plans.

The SENCo Network Liaison Meetings provide an opportunity for school SEND Coordinators (SENCos) to come together and work collaboratively with other schools in their area including a solution-focused approach to supporting individual pupils.

Meetings run half termly and are facilitated by an Educational Psychologist and Specialist Teacher.

A Termly 1-hour virtual consultation session is offered by a named Educational Psychologist allocated to each school.

The High Wycombe Specialist Teachers for Language, ASD, and Cognition & Learning hold monthly Specialist Teacher Advice Sessions.

The network meetings provide an opportunity for SENCos to share best practice.

Half termly virtual consultation sessions for schools.

What to do if your child aged 0 to 18 is not as independent as you would expect for their age and needs a lot of help to look after themselves, to communicate and make friends.

For more information, see the page - Social care for children with disabilities.

Schools should use some of their budget to buy resources and make provision for children who need additional help. This can take many forms. For example, children with SEN might need:

• some changes to the curriculum
• special equipment or teaching materials
• the use of additional information technology
• small group work
• support in the classroom
• a base to work in or have quiet time

All mainstream schools have money for special educational needs support and resources. Schools can decide how to spend this money. This is called delegated funding. This part of the school’s income is sometimes called the notional SEN budget.

Reasonable adjustments for disabilities  including assessments and equipment should be paid for with this funding. Parents/carers should not be asked to pay for help required to meet special educational needs and disabilities.

SEN Support plans should include information about the total hours of support or cost of the support. Ask the education provider for this information if you do not have it.  Remember that if the child or young person has been taught in a small group, only a proportion of the hours or cost will benefit them, for example, A child or young person in a group of 4 for one hour per week will benefit from 15 minutes of small group support per week which is 25% of the total cost.

Funding for SEN provision is from three elements:

• Element 1:  All schools get money for each pupil at the school. This is called the Age Weighted Pupil Unit (AWPU) and it is part of schools’ delegated funding. Some of this money is to make general SEN provision. This might, for example, include the cost of providing the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo) and some other resources. The local authority provides Element 1 funding for the schools it is responsible for. The local Schools Forum agrees the formula that determines how much money the school gets for each pupil. The Education and Skills Funding Agency provides Element 1 funding for academies and free schools
• Element 2: Element 2 funding is to provide SEN support that is additional to or different from the support that most other children get. The local authority provides Element 2 funding for schools it is responsible for. The local Schools Forum agrees the formula that determines the amount of money the school gets. The Education and Skills Funding Agency provides Element 2 funding for academies and free schools. Element 2 funding is also part of schools’ delegated budget. Government guidance says schools should provide up to the first £6,000 of additional or different support for those children who need it, including those with an Education, Health and Care Plan. This does not mean that the school will spend £6,000 on every child with SEN. Sometimes schools use funds to help groups of children. Some children will need less help – and some children may need more. You can ask your school how it uses its SEN budget to support your child
• Element 3: Some children have such complex needs that the school may request some additional funding to ‘top-up’ Elements 1 and 2. The local authority is responsible for managing Element 3 funding (sometimes called the ‘high needs block’), which can be used to make specific provision for an individual child or a group of children, if the school or academy can show there is an exceptional level of need. Children and young people with Education, Health and Care Plans have long-term funding from Element 3. In addition, mainstream early years settings and schools can apply for short-term Element 3 funding in certain circumstances for children on SEN Support. This is often called 'High Needs Block funding'

You can find more detail about SEND funding for schools in Buckinghamshire on the Schools Web website.