SEND School Expectations Guide

What all schools should have:

• A published SEND Policy that may be incorporated into a wider Inclusion / Equalities Policy.
• A provision map for all vulnerable learners, including children with SEND. The provision map should cross reference provision with progress, so that the effectiveness of what is being offered can be evaluated.
• Individual Plans or SEND Support Plans for those children who need one;
• An Accessibility Plan;
• Full and detailed knowledge of the SEND Code of Practice across the school;
• Full and detailed knowledge of the services available to support families and schools, as detailed within the Local Offer.
• All Bradford Schools follow the Bradford Matrix of Need. This details at what stage a child or young person should be registered as having SEND Support.

All schools must publish details of SEND provision they make available through their School Information Report and co-operate with the LA in drawing up and reviewing the Local Offer.

Schools also have duties to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ for disabled children and young people, to support medical conditions and to inform parents and young people if SEND provision is made for them.

Schools should be able to evidence good outcomes for all children, including those with SEND as a result of interventions. Good provision mapping, individual planning and tracking of outcomes of any interventions will ensure that this evidence is always available.

Schools should ensure good provision through Quality First Teaching, a graduated response e.g. 'Waves of Intervention' and other specialist interventions.

Schools must be able to demonstrate that any child they put forward for consideration for statutory assessment has needs that are significantly outside and beyond those that can be provided for by using their delegated and devolved funding and the resources available through the Local Offer.

Schools should ensure good transition planning is in place to best support children/young people with SEND and their families to successfully transition to a new class or setting. The Local Area have produced this guidance to help support professionals and families during transition periods. 
 

The SEND Code of Practice is also specific about good practice once a potential SEND is identified and the four types of action needed to put effective support in place. This is called the Assess-Plan-Do-Review cycle.

• Assess: the class teacher and SENCO should clearly analyse a child’s needs before identifying them as needing SEND support;
• Plan: parents must be notified wherever it is decided that a child is to be provided with SEND support, and involved in planning towards an agreed set of outcomes;
• Do: the class or subject teacher should remain responsible for working with the child on a daily basis. Where the interventions involve group or individual teaching away from the main teacher, he/she should still retain responsibility for the child’s progress; and
• Review: the effectiveness of the support should be reviewed in line with an agreed date included in the plan.

The school should also keep clear records of the above interventions and outcomes

Graduated response

The LA expects schools to have robust assessment, planning, intervention and review (and recording) arrangements in place for the following groups:

• Children and young people who are underachieving / less experienced learners but who do not have SEND.

• Children who may have a defined SEND but whose learning needs can be met through quality teaching as part of good, differentiated mainstream classroom practice:

There should be no need to dedicate additional funding over and above Element 1 of schools funding for this group

• Children for whom the school needs to make additional provision from the schools notional SEND budget to make and maintain progress:

This is likely to be children who need support which is additional to or different from the educational provision made generally for children of their age. These children are likely to need individual interventions and personalised planning to meet their needs and achieve their goals. An Early Help assessment may be appropriate, particularly where more than one agency is involved. Schools may find it helpful to develop a SEND Support plan for these children, although this is not a requirement and may not be necessary where a good Provision Map is in place. Bradford Council do suggest using a My Support Plan to best meet the needs of young people with SEND.

• Children with an Education Health and Care Plan:

For these children, there will be a strong case that their needs cannot be met from the resources normally available’. The LA will also expect evidence of planning and intervention using Early Help assessment and active Team Around the Child interventions before considering any request for a Plan.

Measuring success

All children progress at different rates and the same is true for children with SEND. Children and their needs are individual, and what is appropriate progress is therefore also individual, and has to be defined by success in meeting appropriately challenging goals.  The LA expects that some children will successfully meet highly appropriate challenging goals and outcomes but the nature of their SEND may mean that the gap between their attainments and those of their peers will widen over time.

How will effectiveness be monitored?

The LA expects that schools will:

• Critically analyse the effectiveness of their provision.
• Build improvements into school planning.
• Ensure staff are adequately trained and all teachers assume responsibility for the outcomes of children with SEND; and
• Share good practice with other schools.