Chapter 2: Statutory Guidance and Countywide Support

Chapter 2: Statutory Guidance and Countywide Support

Governance Handbook, Education

6.4.11 Children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)

Governing Boards hold legal duties for SEND under The Children and Families Act 2014 and The Equality Act 2010 . These duties can be delegated to a committee, an individual governor or to the head teacher: although the responsibility is still with the governing body itself to ensure the strategic monitoring of these duties is in place.

Boards must also have regard to SEND Code of Practice: 0 to 25 years and the Duties apply across maintained schools, academies and free schools.

Legal responsibilities

Within the SEND Code of Practice, Legal duties are represented by ‘must’, whereas, ‘should’ represents best practice. Where this best practice is not implemented, this should be because alternative arrangements have been pursued leading to positive and secure outcomes for all young people.

The SEND Code of practice states:

3.66

... The school’s governing body must ensure that arrangements are in place in schools to support pupils at school with medical conditions and should ensure that school leaders consult health and social care professionals, pupils and parents to make sure that the needs of children with medical conditions are effectively supported.

6.3

There should be a member of the governing body or a sub-committee with specific oversight of the school’s arrangements for SEN and disability.

6.79

The governing bodies of maintained schools and maintained nursery schools and the proprietors of academy schools must publish information on their websites about the implementation of the governing body’s or the proprietor’s policy for pupils with SEN. The information published should be updated annually and any changes to the information occurring during the year should be updated as soon as possible.

6.97

It is for schools, as part of their normal budget planning, to determine their approach to using their resources to support the progress of pupils with SEN. The SENCO, headteacher and governing body or proprietor should establish a clear picture of the resources that are available to the school.

Additional Duties

In addition, your school has duties to comply with in order to ensure their SEND support is to a high standard, meeting the needs of all. Taken from the SEND Code of Practice, it is important for governors to monitor that your school is:

• co-operating with the local authority in reviewing the provision available locally (Ch 3) and developing the local offer (Ch 4); • using best endeavours to make sure that a child with SEND receives the appropriate support this means doing everything they can to meet children and young people’s SEND (para 6.2);

• ensuring that children and young people with SEND engage in activities of the school alongside pupils who do not have SEND (para 6.2); • ensuring the school inform parents when they are making special educational provision for a child (para 6.2); • ensuring arrangements are in place in schools to support pupils at school with medical conditions (para 6.11).

Governing boards must also ensure the school:

• provides access to a broad and balanced curriculum (para 6.12); • provides independent careers advice to all pupil’s year 8-13 (para 6.13); • has a clear approach to identifying and responding to SEND (paras 6.64 – 6.51); • provides an annual report for parents on their child’s progress (paras 6.64 – 6.51); • records accurately and keep up to date the provision made for pupils with SEND (paras 6.52 – 6.58); • publishes information on their website about the implementation of the board’s policy for pupils with SEND, the School SEND

Information Report (paras 6.59 – 6.83); • ensures that there is a qualified teacher designated as a SENCO for the school.

And Finally….

There should be an individual on the board or a committee with specific oversight of the school’s arrangements for SEND. School leaders should review regularly how expertise and resources used to address SEND can be used to build the quality of the whole-school provision as part of their approach to school improvement.

What Should be Published on the School’s Website?

A school’s website should reflect the ethos of the school, and when a school is fully inclusive SEND will run through all aspects of this intrinsically.

In terms of statutory guidance, a school is required to publish their SEND policy and SEND information report.

Both documents allow a school to demonstrate the support in place and SEND systems across the school and how all members of staff support all children. The best practice is when an information report presentation has been considered so that it is accessible for all to read, understand and process.

A good start to monitoring the effectiveness of your website compliance is to look at the documents published from a leader, inspectors, and parents’ point of view. Think about the content, the presentation and the level of understanding required. This will develop key discussions with SEND leaders.

For true collaboration and co-production to take place, it is important to have parents consulted when any new document is created and published:

• Does it contain the appropriate information? • Is it accessible? • Is it fit for purpose?

This can be done through a parent consultation group, forum or virtually and will build parental relationships.

Special Educational Needs (SEN) Report

You must also publish a report on your school’s policy for pupils with SEN. The report must comply with: section 69(2) of the Children and Families Act 2014, regulation 51, schedule 1 of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Regulations 2014 and section 6 of the ‘Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0 to 25 years’ …’(SENCO responsibility)

The report should be shared with all the Governors. It is advisable to also have a SEND information report which outlines the school's

provision for pupils with SEND and how the school will implement

its SEND Policy. The report should also direct readers to the local offer and countywide support.

What should be included?

• Policies for identifying children and young people with SEND and how your school is assessing their needs • Name and contact details of the SENCO (mainstream schools) • Arrangements for consulting parents of children with SEND and involving them in their child’s education • Arrangements for consulting CYP with SEN and involving them in their education • Arrangements for assessing and reviewing CYPs’ progress towards outcomes. • Arrangements for supporting CYP in moving between phases of education and in preparing for adulthood. • The approach to QFT for SEND learners • How adaptations are made to the curriculum and the learning environment of children and young people with SEND

• FAQ for anyone seeking specific information • Make it personalised reflecting the ethos of your school • The accessibility plans your governing body has written in compliance with paragraph 3 of schedule 10 to the Equality Act 2010’.

SEN Policy and Information Report (Template) - Download PDF

Countywide support

There is a wealth of information available to you and your school from Kent County Council and as a governor, it is part of your role to monitor that the SEND leaders are investing in the support on offer across the county.

Within their written statement of action KCC have identified the priorities below.

1. Improve the way we work with parents, carers, children, and young people. 2. Ensure that families have positive experiences at each stage of their journey including a well-planned and smooth transition to adulthood. 3. Identify and assess children and young peoples’ needs earlier and more effectively. 4. Improve education, care and health outcomes for children and young people with SEND. 5. Ensure children and young people with SEND are included in their local community.

These priorities feed into the Countywide approach to education (CATIE) priorities

1. Establish clear expectations about what needs mainstream schools and settings will meet – Mainstream Core Standards and

Early Years Standards. 2. Backing these expectations with a clear offer of capacity building support. 3. Engaging ‘system leaders’. 4. Ensure that schools and settings have access to an explicit offer of targeted inclusion support. 5. Ensure that education inclusion support is part of a broader, holistic and joined-up offer of support for young people’s care and health needs.

To support schools collaboratively in improving their inclusion offer and consistently working towards these priorities, KCC have a continuum of support available to all schools (see below). It is important to note that the core inclusive education delivery focuses on the everyday inclusion work in schools and the additional locally shared resource are those elements available to all schools, at no cost.

You will see that on this continuum there is an indication of movement from mainstream to specialist provision and vice versa. The countywide message demonstrates the vast offer of support available to schools, that young people do not need an EHCP to access this support and that schools can be fully inclusive. It also indicates that movement is positive; should a child be able to access a full and successful curriculum within a mainstream setting then they can move from a specialist placement.

Created by Kent County Council.

Speak to SEND leaders in your school, the headteachers and SENCO and ask about the programs they are involved in, what they are yet to pursue, what the impact has been on the school & the next steps for development.

2022/23 current projects available for free to ALL mainstream schools:

• Countywide SENCO forums • Whole school Nurture project • Inclusive leaders of education • Autism training with the Autism Education Trust • Kent Supported Employment (Secondary only) • Mainstream Core Standard courses for Middle leaders and teachers • Governor SEND training modules • Effective practice sharing via digital case studies • Add in parental engagement work

In addition to these projects, there are professionals available to support the SENCO, school leaders and teachers in developing and securing their SEND offer and whole school strategic inclusion plan (see table below)

Use the KELSI website to look further into the range of support available to schools: https://www.kelsi.org.uk/

You can also find information about the support and services available in a child’s area via the local offer: https://www.kent.gov.uk/education-and-children/special-educationalneeds

The Education People

PEO

STLS

A one stop shops for bespoke training, SEND reviews, SENCO support and whole school SEND development via a SEND specialist lead adviser (The Education People- Secondary School improvement) The Education people lead the countywide SENCO forums which can be accessed via registration on CPD online Countywide SENCO Forum Search and Book and lead the mainstream core standards training, e learning and governor training.

Your school will have a provision evaluation officer who monitor and evaluate the provision for individual children and young people with education health and care (EHC) plans and those with high needs funding to ensure that they are making appropriate progress towards meeting their identified outcomes. Ensure that the SENCO is aware of who their PEO is and can build a relationship with them.

The Specialist Teaching and Learning Service support schools with specific areas of need and

children. They can offer advice, guidance and training to support staff development. Your SENCO will have an STLS link to liaise with.

STLS- Who to contact

LIFT

Education Psychology Service

PACT

IASK

The local inclusion forum teams are available for referrals from schools when despite full implementation of the mainstream core standards a child / young person is not making progress. A school can refer to the LIFT, discuss the case at a meeting and request further support LIFT on Kelsi

This team specialises in promoting learning, development, emotional wellbeing and positive outcomes for children, young people and their families through consultations, advice, assessments, research, and evaluation.

Educational Psychology

Parents and Carers Together is a parent forum who support parents/ carers navigating the SEND world. They work with KCC on a range of policy implementation and SEND plans whilst providing families with support, advice, and guidance. Schools can direct parents to this service via their website https://www.kentpact.org.uk/

The Information Advice and Support Kent service give free impartial and confidential advice and support about SEND for practitioners, families, and young people. https://www.iask.org.uk/

They also run a school SEND roadshow service that is advertised to SENCOS via the Countywide SENCO Forum – schools can invite the roadshow along to events to speak to families and staff about the support on offer across the county.

To summarise, there is a vast offer across the county to support schools in not only meeting the statutory compliance for SEND but to also fully enhance their offer for SEND learners. When working together as the governing body, with schools’ leaders and SENCOS whether in formal meetings, monitoring visits or via the annual reports always consider the level to which your school is accessing the support on offer:

• Are you involved with the current KCC projects? • Are you working in collaboration with external professionals? • What support are you accessing outside of school to develop our

SEND provision? • If not, why not? • If yes, how do you know it is having an impact?