Extra help at school in England

Information on extra help at school for students in England.

The guide contains information on how your child might receive additional help for their special educational needs (SEN).

This support should also be made available to young people in further education.

Find more information on extra help at school for children in England from the links below:

Special educational needs and disability code of practice

The Government’s A special educational needs and disability (SEND) code of practice, published in January 2015 explains how local authorities and others should identify, assess and provide for children and young people with SEN.

The SEND code of practice describes the level of support offered to children with SEN. In your child’s classroom, all work should be differentiated (set at an appropriate level for each child). However, if an early education setting, school or college believes that a child has SEN, they will need to put in place extra support. This is called SEN Support and may include the use of professional services from outside the early years setting, school or college.

Local authorities are required to develop a local offer which gives information on provision for children and young people with special educational needs (SEN) both in and outside the local area.

For children who have special educational needs that are more significant, complex and that can’t be met through school resources, the local authority will need to make an assessment of their education, health and care needs and may draw up an Education, health and care plan (often referred to simply as ‘a plan’) which must be reviewed annually.

The plan will include details of any transport needs your child may have and information on any personal budgets and direct payments that you may have chosen.

Previously, this level of support would have been provided for by a statement of SEN.

Some children will be given support through school resources before they are offered an assessment. Others may be offered an assessment without having received support in school, depending on their level of need.

Special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO)

The SENCO is the teacher in your child’s school or nursery with day-to-day responsibility for SEN. All maintained mainstream schools, maintained nursery schools and academy schools (including free schools) are required to have a SENCO.

The SENCO is responsible for:

speaking to parents and professionals
helping the class or subject teacher to assess children’s strengths and weaknesses
making sure that any child with SEN has their needs identified and met
managing learning support assistants (LSAs), sometimes known as teaching assistants (TAs), who work as support staff for teachers and pupils in the classroom and around the school
organising or contributing to in-service training of staff
overseeing the school’s SEN policy
ensuring that records of all pupils with SEN are kept up to date.

In secondary schools, SENCOs may also manage the SEN teaching team. They must liaise with the local authority about the transition of a young person with SEN to adult life.

Early years' settings

Early education is part of the foundation stage of education. Early years practitioners must review the progress of all children between the ages of two and three. If your child is identified as having SEN, a graduated approach of assessment, planning and reviewing their progress should be adopted. All early education settings must have regard to the code of practice, have a written SEN policy and nominate a member of staff to act as their SENCO.

SEN support in schools

Most children and young people with SEN will have their needs met in mainstream education. All state maintained nurseries, mainstream schools, academies and free schools that are not special schools, pupil referral units, 16-19 and alternative provision academies and further education settings must do their utmost to make sure that the necessary provision is made for any pupil on roll, who has SEN.

Before your child is identified as needing SEN support in school, the class teacher and SENCO should make an analysis of their needs, using the teacher’s assessment and experience and evidence of their progress, attainment and behaviour. They should take your views, and those of your child, into account. You should always be consulted and kept informed of any action taken to help your child and what the outcome of this action is.

Areas of need

Autistic children and young people may have difficulties in one or more of these areas of need.

Communication and interaction – difficulties with speech, language and communication. Children and young people may have difficulty taking part in conversations, either because they find it hard to understand what others are saying or meaning, or because they have problems with fluency of speech and sound production. Autistic children and young people have difficulty making sense of the world and may be easily distracted by certain stimuli, such as noise, bright lights or strong smells. They will often have problems with changes to their routine.

Cognition and learning – difficulties in gaining basic literacy and numeracy skills or understanding concepts. Children and young people may need more practical activities, tasks set out in smaller steps, or specific programmes to support development of literacy and numeracy skills.

Social, mental and emotional health – difficulties with emotional and social development, immature social skills and difficulty making and sustaining good relationships. Children and young people may become withdrawn and isolated, or display distressed, disruptive behaviour or have meltdowns. Some autistic children may have additional diagnoses of attention deficit disorder (ADD) or attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD).

Sensory and/or physical needs – these needs can be wide ranging and may require adaptations to the curriculum, study programme or physical environment. Many autistic children and young people may also have sensory and/or physical needs. For example, they may be hypo- (under) or hyper- (over) sensitive to noise, sight, smell and touch. They may also have fine and/or gross motor skill difficulties, such as difficulties with pencil grip, balance and awareness of personal space.

Support for children with SEN

Once your child has been identified as having SEN, the school should put effective support in place. You must be told what this support is. Four main actions form part of a cycle known as the graduated approach.

Step 1 – Assess

There should be a clear analysis of your child’s needs based on the teacher’s assessment and experience of teaching your child as well as information about their progress, attainment and behaviour. The assessment should be regularly reviewed. In some cases, professionals from outside the school, who may already know your child, will liaise with the school to help inform the assessments.

Step 2 – Plan

If the school decides that your child needs SEN support, they must notify you. You should also be consulted about the interventions and support to be put into place for your child, how the school expects this to impact on their progress and when this will be reviewed.
All staff working with your child should be aware of the approach and teaching strategies being used and of any additional support being provided. This should be recorded on the school’s information system.

Step 3 – Do

The class or subject teacher remains responsible for your child’s progress on a daily basis, working closely with any teaching assistants or specialist staff involved to plan and continually assess the impact of the support/interventions being put into place. In turn, the SENCO should support the class or subject teacher in further assessments, problem solving and advising on effective implementation of the support.

Step 4 - Review

There should be a clear agreed date to review the effectiveness of the interventions and support put into place and the impact it has had on your child’s progress. You and your child (where appropriate) should be given the opportunity to present your views. The class, or subject teacher, working with the SENCO and any external professionals involved with your child, should revise the support in the light of your child’s development and progress made.

Involving specialists

If your child makes little or no progress following interventions and support put into place, the school should consider involving specialists from outside agencies. This might be, for example, an educational psychologist, an autism outreach specialist or a speech and language therapist, who can give advice and provide more specialist assessments.

Any involvement of outside specialists should be discussed and agreed with you and the support your child will receive should be recorded and shared with you. A date should be set to review progress.

Keeping records - school

The code of practice says that schools must accurately record the SEN support your child receives and that the records must be kept up to date, though it is up to schools to decide how they keep the records. These records should form part of regular discussions school staff will have with you about your child’s progress, outcomes and planned next steps. We suggest that you also keep your own notes and records.

Discussing your child’s progress

These meetings should be led by a teacher who has a good knowledge and understanding of your child, their needs and attainments. This will usually be the class or form tutor, supported by the SENCO.

The meetings should be a chance to:

set clear goals
discuss the programmes and support that will help your child
review progress and clarify roles and responsibilities.

You should be given the opportunity at the meetings to share any concerns and agree aspirations for your child. The code of practice says that these meetings will need to allow sufficient time to explore your views and, where appropriate, your child’s views. You child could attend for all or part of the meeting or you could gather their view beforehand.

After the meeting, the teacher will need to inform all appropriate school staff of the outcomes and agreed targets and should also update your child’s record.

Requesting a meeting

You may want to request a meeting with school staff because:

your child has learning difficulties
your child’s progress is delayed
your child’s needs aren’t being met.

You may find it helpful to ask if a friend or advisor can come to the meeting with you.

This draft letter may help. It’s a good idea to keep a copy of your letter to take with you to the meeting as a reminder of the concerns you’ve listed.

Dear [insert head teacher’s name],

Child’s name and date of birth

I am concerned that [insert child’s name] is not making adequate progress in school and may have special educational needs. In particular I am worried about:

[list your concerns e.g.

slow rate of progress in reading
difficulty in relating to others
possibility of being bullied
poor communication skills]

I would like to meet with you to discuss my concerns and what the school can do to help.

I would also like to bring my friend/adviser [insert their name]. The questions I would like to discuss are:

[list questions]

I would like a copy of my child’s school records and a copy of the school’s SEN policy.

I hope that we can work in partnership, so that [child’s name] can do as well as possible.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

[Your name]

It’s useful to do some preparation before meeting school staff. The following questions may help you.

What extra help has your child received and how effective has it been?
Is your child’s progress reviewed regularly? Have you had the opportunity to comment on their progress?
Have any professionals, such as an educational psychologist, seen your child and suggested ways to help?
Does your child have an autism diagnosis?? If so, does the school have details of it? Are your child’s difficulties getting worse? What changes would you like to see?

SEN support in further education

Further education (FE) colleges and sixth form colleges must have regard to the SEND code of practice and must ensure that young people with SEN have access to a wide range of study programmes and support. Where available, colleges should use information from your child’s previous school about their SEN. Colleges may also want to undertake their own assessments of your child’s needs, and curriculum staff should work with specialist support to identify where your child may be struggling due to their SEN. Colleges should involve your child and, where appropriate you, in discussing what additional support is required.

Colleges should have access to specialist skills to support the learning of SEN students, either through partnerships, or by employing practitioners to help students with SEN to progress. There is no legal duty on colleges to have a SENCO, but colleges should ensure there is a named person in the college, responsible for having an oversight of SEN provision and coordinating support.

Keeping records

As with schools, colleges can decide their own approach to record keeping, but the code of practice says that they should record details of additional or different provision being made to meet your child’s SEN and their progress towards achieving specified outcomes. This information should be used as part of the regular discussions with your child, and in many cases you, about their progress and expected outcomes from the support provided together with the planned next steps. Colleges should ensure that they have accurate information to show the SEN support that has been provided over your child’s time in college, and the impact it had.

If you have further concerns

If your child continues to have problems you can request an assessment of their education, health and care needs, whether they’re in a pre-school setting, primary or secondary school, sixth form or further education college.

If an assessment for your child is refused there are ways to work with schools and local authorities to resolve disagreements.

Further help from our charity

Further help for parents trying to obtain an appropriate education is available from our Education Rights Service.