What's in a Statement of Special Educational Needs?
The government has published a green paper called Support and aspiration: A new approach to special educational needs and disability.
Among other things, it proposes replacing statements with education and health care plans drawn up after a single, streamlined assessment, getting voluntary groups involved in the assessment process and giving parents a personal budget to spend on services.
The consultation runs until 30 June 2011.
To read the green paper and have your say, go to www.education.gov.uk/consultations
An SEN is made up of six parts:
Part 1: Personal details such as child's name, address and so on.
Part 2: A description of your child's needs, as identified during the assessment.
"You need to get part 2 - the difficulties - stated very clearly so that sufficient support is provided in part 3." WetAugust
"It is much better if part 2 of the statement is very descriptive about all of a child's difficulties because part 3 should cover everything." vjg13
Part 3: The provision that the local authority will make for your child's needs; the long-term objectives to be achieved by that provision; and how short-term targets will be set and progress reviewed.
The statement will set out how many hours a week or month your child needs in terms of specific provision (eg "Two hours a week of speech and language therapy").
"Make sure part 3 is clear on the needs - and they haven't downplayed them - and that they have times and who and when person will be dealing with child." bubblagirl
"Part 3 needs to specify and quantify all provision, in other words spell out all that will be done precisely." moondog
Part 4: Information about the school that your child will attend / arrangements that will be made in order to get the provision. (Your proposed statement will probably leave this part blank. Make sure that you inform your local authority if you have a particular school that you think would be best for your child.)
Part 5: Any non-educational needs that your child has (eg travelling to school).
Part 6: The provision that will be made to enabled your child's needs in Part 5 to be met.
The statement should include all the reports that were received by the Board during the course of the statutory assessment.
Nursery | School-age children | Statement of special educational needst | SEN statementing process and timeline
