Some children and young people may need extra support if they find learning more difficult than their peers. This should be available even if there is no official diagnosis of a SEND need in place.
Ordinarily Available Targeted Support
Additional ‘targeted’ support is where children and young people need more personalised and planned support and intervention, over and above ordinarily available inclusive provision, to help them make progress. This includes those pupils identified as having SEND.
Schools can choose to support children with SEND in any way that will help, for example:
- adapting teaching methods in the classroom
- small group teaching
- support from an additional adult at times during the day.
- your child’s school might also create a plan of tailored support for them
- schools may also choose to ask for additional support and advice from external teams
If you think your child needs extra help with their learning or development, the first thing to do is to speak to their school or college. See our guidance on approaching your school for help.
A graduated approach to SEND support
Your child’s school should assess your child’s needs, and agree outcomes, actions and support needed with you and your child. A record of this should be shared with you. This may be through a school individual support plan.
Once the plan has been agreed, ‘evidence-based’ (proven) methods are used to help your child, based on their specific identified needs. This may be support given in groups or individually.
Progress of how well the methods being used are working should be reviewed and recorded regularly. This helps with decisions about whether they should be continued, or whether the plan needs to be adapted (your child’s needs may have changed, they may not be making reasonable progress or you may be unhappy with the support).
Inclusion bases
An Inclusion Base is a provision within a mainstream school that provides targeted support for pupils with SEND while maintaining their membership of, and participation in, the wider school community. The base may provide additional, targeted support, strategies, provision and interventions to meet your child’s needs.
Support available to schools
Each mainstream and special school in Devon has a named Inclusion Partner from Devon’s Inclusion and Learning Service, who they can ask for help and advice on including children in their setting.
If a school feels they need additional advice, they may go to an Inclusion Drop-In consultation, where they can speak with a range of external professionals, including additional Inclusion Partners and an Educational Psychologist. (Parent or carer permission is required for a school to request this).
Schools may also choose to request further help and advice from external professionals or services to help them better understand a child’s individual needs and how to support them. These may include:
- Educational Psychologists
- Advisory teachers
- Early help support (social care)
- Speech and Language Therapists
- Mental Health in Schools Teams
Support offered may include visits to the pupil, or help given to staff at the pupil’s school. The school’s SENCo or inclusion staff in a setting will make any requests for support, in collaboration with parents and carers, ensuring that they have parents’ or carers’ consent.
Some groups of schools work as federations or trusts, which means they share resources and knowledge in order to support each other and help children with SEND.
Advice and support for parents
More information, advice and support for parents and carers is available – see our who to contact for advice and guidance page.
The duties that education settings have are set out in the SEND code of practice: 0 to 25 years.
If you have concerns with the support your child is getting in school, you should talk to them first and try to solve the problem together. If you still have any concerns, please see our what to do if you’re not happy with a decision guidance for more advice.