Room 5 - Education Policies Room (Section 3 of 6)
Section 3: Special Educational Needs Code of Practice
Description of SEN Code of Practice
The Special Educational Needs (SEN) Code of Practice (DfES, 2001b) provides advice to LEAs, schools and others on carrying out their statutory duties to identify, assess and make provision for children’s special educational needs. The first Code of Practice came into effect in 1994 and therefore had relevance to the timeframe within which the research took place. A revised SEN Code of Practice was introduced in January 2002 and included a number of significant changes. Although mobility and independence provision is not addressed specifically within the revised Code, it is included through reference to that support offered by ‘external’ agencies or services, for example an LEA Sensory Support Service.
Much of the guidance from the original Code is retained and a new framework is incorporated with the purpose of matching special educational provision to children’s needs, schools and LEAs. Thus, the staged framework which was an important part of the old Code has been replaced by a ‘graduated’ approach incorporating ‘School Action’ and ‘School Action Plus’. This approach recognises that there is a continuum of SEN and, where appropriate, brings increasing levels of specialist expertise to support the child’s learning. Although a general summary of these levels are presented below, in practice variations of this model are provided in the new Code which have particular relevance to Early Years, Primary and Secondary phases of education.
School Action and School Action Plus
School Action
Intervention at the level of School Action involves staff in the child’s school, e.g. class teachers and/or the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO), providing additional support to help the child’s progress. This may also involve ‘one-off or occasional advice’ from LEA support services but would not require regular or ongoing input from external agencies. The Code recommends that strategies which are adopted to enable the child to progress should be recorded in the form of an Individual Education Plan (IEP), a working document which outlines support that is additional to, or different from the differentiated curriculum plan which is part of provision for all children. In comparison with statements of SEN, the Code makes a recommendation that IEPs are reviewed at least twice a year and ideally, on a termly basis.
School Action Plus
At the level of School Action Plus, a request for support will usually have been made to external services following a review of the child’s IEP. At this level external support services, whether provided by the LEA or other outside agencies, will provide more specialist input and may include regular visits by professionals from a specialist service (e.g. a qualified teacher of the visually impaired from the visual impairment support service). The external specialist may act in an advisory capacity, provide additional specialist assessment or be involved in working with the child directly. A new IEP is then drawn up which sets out fresh strategies for supporting the child’s progress.
Statutory assessment and statements
For a small number of children, a statutory assessment of their SEN may be undertaken by the LEA, whose staff will then consider whether or not to issue a statement of SEN. A statement describes a child’s SEN and the special support that the child should receive. The LEA will usually make a statement if they decide that the support required cannot be provided from within the school’s resources. These resources could include money, staff time and special equipment. As the revised Code highlights, a critical question in deciding whether to make a statutory assessment is whether there is ‘convincing evidence’ that the child’s needs have not been remedied sufficiently (despite the school taking relevant action to meet them with the help of external specialists), and may therefore require that the LEA determines the child’s special educational provision.
In writing a statement of SEN a key issue that needs to be addressed is whether identified M&I provision should be included as ‘Educational Provision’ (Part 3 of the statement) or ‘Non-Educational Provision’ (Part 6 of the statement).
Activity 3
Consider the pros and cons of having M&I included as educational provision and as non-educational provision.
A key objective in specifying provision is to help the child to learn and develop, and the importance of mobility and independence provision to a child’s learning and progression within the curriculum has been emphasised in this report. Although mobility and independence provision is not addressed directly in the new Code of Practice, a parallel can be drawn with speech and language therapy which can be regarded as “either educational or non-educational provision, or both, depending upon the health or developmental history of each child. ” (DfES, 2001b, p 105).
Following a recommendation of a Department of Health (DoH) / DFEE working group on the provision of speech and language therapy services to children with special educational needs (DfEE document 0319/2000), the new Code advises that “addressing speech and language impairment should normally be recorded as educational provision unless there are exceptional reasons for not doing so. ” (DfES, 2001b, p105 – original emphasis).
Given the parallels with speech and language therapy, a similar recommendation is made in the final research report, which states that in addressing a child’s mobility and independence needs, input would be more appropriately recorded as educational rather than as non-educational provision. It is proposed that not only would this recommendation serve to emphasise the integral role of mobility and independence to the child’s educational progress, it would also ensure that funding was secured alongside other provision deemed necessary to meet the child’s educational needs.
Individual Education Plan (IEP)
The following summary of key points relating to IEPs is adapted from a more detailed description presented in the DfES SEN Toolkit 2001 (see Useful links / resources).
The IEP is a planning, teaching and reviewing tool that should underpin the process of planning intervention for individual pupils with SEN. It should set out ‘what’, ‘how’, and ‘how often’ particular knowledge, understanding and skills should be taught through additional or different activities from those provided for all pupils through the differentiated curriculum. It is a structured planning document detailing the differentiated steps and teaching requirements needed to help the student achieve identified targets, and is used by many professionals including early years practitioners, teachers, teaching assistants, therapists and any other staff that are involved in delivering the IEP.
IEPs should be used to set out the interventions for individual pupils made through Early Years Action, Early Years Action Plus or School Action and School Action Plus, and for pupils with statements of SEN. The IEP should focus on up to three or four key individual targets set to help meet the individual pupil’s needs and particular priorities. The IEP should include information about the short-term targets set for or by the pupil, the teaching strategies to be used, the provision to be put in place, when the plan is to be reviewed, success and/or exit criteria, and outcomes (to be recorded when the IEP is reviewed).
External specialists may act in an advisory capacity, provide additional specialist assessment or be involved in teaching the pupil directly. Better management or alternative arrangements in school, based on advice from outside specialists such as health professionals, may considerably reduce the pupil’s special educational needs.
Role of mobility and independence educator in relation to the revised code of practice
The mobility and independence educator is most likely to be involved with children who are at the level of School Action Plus or with children who have a statement of SEN. Thus, at the level of School Action Plus, the mobility and independence educator may be involved in reviewing the IEP and helping to set new targets. For children who have a statement of SEN, the mobility and independence educator may be invited to contribute to the annual review to consider the progress of the child over the last 12 months in relation to the specified objectives. However, the new Code states that the involvement of external agencies need not be limited to children receiving provision through School Action Plus. For example, outside specialists can play an important part in the early identification of SEN as well as in advising schools on effective provision designed to prevent the development of more significant needs at the level of School Action. For example an MIE might undertake an environmental audit of a school, or assist with staff training (See Delivery Room).
We would recommend therefore that mobility and independence educators become familiar with their role in supporting children and/or schools at each of the levels outlined within the new Code of Practice (i.e. School Action, School Action Plus and statement of SEN).
Implications for M&I provision
Activity 4
Before reading on, think about the levels outlined within the Code of Practice. At each level that a MIE might provide input, what could the support consist of?
In terms of School Action and School Action Plus, mobility and independence educators need to become familiar with, and understand the implications of the new Code of Practice for their own work in offering support to children and/or schools. Although the role of the mobility and independence educator will predominantly be working with children at the level of School Action Plus, or those who have statements of SEN, a mobility and independence educator may also be required to offer input at the level of School Action. This might involve for example, providing advice on adaptations to the school environment for a child who has a visual impairment to prevent the development of more significant needs.
The mobility and independence educator may contribute to the setting of targets relating to mobility and independence in a child’s Individual Education Plan, describing the individual pupil’s needs and particular priorities and the teaching strategies or other support to be used.
In writing a statement of SEN it is recommended that any proposed mobility and independence provision would be more appropriately recorded as ‘educational’ provision rather than ‘non -educational provision’. This should serve to highlight the integral role of mobility and independence to the child’s educational progress, and would ensure that funding would be secured alongside other provision deemed to be necessary to meet the child’s educational needs.
Recommendations based upon good practice
A child’s mobility and independence development is integral to that child’s educational progress. It is therefore recommended that this principle should be reflected within the statement of special educational needs (SEN) and that mobility and independence provision would be more appropriately recorded as ‘educational provision’ rather than ‘non-educational provision’. This should also be reflected in reference to mobility and independence needs in Individual Education Plans, and support being provided through the mechanisms of School Action and School Action Plus.
Useful links / resources
The SEN toolkit provides practical suggestions on ways in which early education settings, schools, LEAs, health and social services could implement the statutory guidance set out in the SEN Code of Practice. It has 12 sections:
- Section 1 - Principles
- Section 2 - Parent Partnership Services
- Section 3 - Resolution of Disagreements
- Section 4 - Enabling Pupil Participation
- Section 5 - Managing Individual Education Plans
- Section 6 - Strands of Action to Meet SEN
- Section 7 - Writing a Statement of Special Educational Needs
- Section 8 - Guidelines for Writing Advice
- Section 9 - Preparing for and Conducting Annual Reviews
- Section 10 - Transition Planning. This section is intended primarily for head teachers and staff working with young people aged 13 to 19.
- Section 11 - The role of Social Services
- Section 12 - The role of Health Professionals
It can be downloaded (or ordered) from the DfES SEN website at: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/sen
There are a number of on-line discussion groups that exist which are extremely useful (and have associated archives). VI-Forum (concerned with visual impairment and education); SENCO-Forum (concerned with SEN more generally), and Code Practice Conference (concerned with the new Code of Practice). It can be accessed at: Becta: British Educational Communications and Technology Agency.
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