Statutory assessment of special educational needs

August 2014

Provision for special educational needs

From 1 September 2014, the Children and Families Act 2014 will introduce changes to the legislation affecting how children and young people’s special educational needs are met. There are new requirements for education, health and social care services to work more closely together. Alongside this, the services which are universally available to children and families will be set out in a Local Offer http://www.essex.gov.uk/Local-offer

Significantly, the former system of issuing statements of special educational needs for children with complex or severe needs will be replaced by a new assessment process which will lead (for some children) to an Education, Health and Care plan (EHCP). EHCPs can be issued between the ages of 0-25. An EHCP is a legal document which will have similar statutory power to a statement of special educational needs, but which will also describe a child or young person’s health and care needs where these are significant.

At school, most children will make progress with the support of their class teacher through the school’s arrangements known as School Support. School governing bodies are required to publish detailed information about their arrangements for identifying, assessing and making provision for pupils with SEN. This must be school-specific and describe a school’s arrangements for providing a graduated response to children’s SEN. This is known as the School Offer.

For the small number of children with complex/severe needs who do not make enough progress despite intervention from the school, it may be necessary for a statutory assessment of the child’s special educational needs to be undertaken by the Statutory Assessment Service.

Statutory assessment

All requests for a statutory assessment received from 1 September 2014 must be considered under the new legislation.

The Statutory Assessment Service is responsible for considering requests for statutory assessment. You can contact the Statutory Assessment Service office covering your home address at

Mid Tel: 0300 003 4131
Covering the areas of
Braintree
Chelmsford
Halstead
Maldon / East Tel:0300 0031866
Covering the areas of
Colchester
Tendring
South Tel: 033301 34736
Covering the areas of
Basildon
Billericay
Brentwood
Castle Point
Rochford
Wickford / West Tel: 0333 0139911
Covering the areas of
Epping
Harlow
Uttlesford

The starting point will be to consider whether a child or young person’s special educational needs can be met through the Local Offer. We expect that most children or young people will have their needs met this way, and that this will be a quicker and less bureaucratic process.

In Essex, to support this, we have developed a person-centred approach as encouraged by the new SEND Code of Practice: we call this One Planning. You can read the SEND Code of Practice at https://www.gov.uk/SENDCodeofPractice2014.You can find out more about One Planning at http://www.essex.gov.uk/Local-offer .

The Essex criteria for undertaking a statutory assessment can be found here

When we receive a request for a statutory assessment we will need to collect and collate a range of information about your child which might include:

·  A copy of the child’s One Plan (where this is in place)

·  Detailed information about the action taken, and the support already given by the school

·  Information about the child’s health or medical history where relevant

·  Information about any other difficulties the child may have

·  Other assessment information that is already available, such as from a specialist advisory teacher or an educational psychologist

·  Views of the parent/carers and the child

·  Information from other professionals involved with your child

In most cases, we do expect that much of this information will already be available as a result of good One Planning which might, for example, have been led by your child’s school. We hope that this will help to speed up the process so that parents do not have to wait too long for an answer. We expect to deal with requests for assessment within four to six weeks.

If an assessment goes ahead, the whole process must usually be completed within twenty weeks. Parents/carers and all involved professionals will be closely involved in drawing up EHCPs where these are needed.

Transition arrangements

Between 1 September 2014 and 1 April 2018 transition arrangements will be in place to help manage the move to the new system. Children and young people who already have statements of special educational needs will retain their statement until a conversion process is completed. The Local Authority is writing directly to the parents of the children and young people concerned. The transfer arrangements for children and young people are in the Essex County Council Guidance on transition to the new 0 to 25 special educational needs and disability system which can be found below:

Parent Partnership Service

The Parent Partnership Service is available to offer advice and support in relation to SEN processes for children and young people. Support is also available from Independent Supporters.

http://www.essex.gov.uk/Education-Schools/Schools/Special-Education-Needs/Pages/Parent-Partnership-Service.aspx

Children and young people attending pre-school or FE college provision

In broad terms, the above arrangements will also apply to children and young people attending pre-school or FE college provision. If this applies to you, please contact your Statutory Assessment Service office as above for more information.