How can we Help You

 
  1. home page
  4. Special educational needs

Education

 
Contacts
News
RSS Feeds

Guidance criteria for pupils with special educational needs

All early years settings, schools and other educational placements have responsibility for making appropriate support arrangements and for welcoming all pupils, including those with special educational needs.

The Special Educational Needs (SEN) Code of Practice (DfES, 2001) indicates that the: ‘SEN of the majority of children should be met effectively within mainstream settings through Early Years Action and Early Years Action Plus or School Action and School Action Plus, without the need to make a statutory assessment’.

Camden Local Authority’s expectations for a graduated response to provision for children with special educational needs in response to a range of needs have been described in SEN templates (see links below). To support decision-making the templates define criteria which can be used to consider whether a child’s needs should be met at school action, school action plus or whether a child’s needs are long-term and complex such that the local authority should undertake a statutory assessment of SEN.

The local authority is responsible for undertaking a rigorous process when considering a request for statutory assessment. The criteria therefore include a combination of factors – the purposeful action taken to address the child’s needs including the resources deployed and the progress made by the child (process criteria) and the severity and complexity of the child’s needs (specific criteria).

Templates

The templates outline both ‘process’ and ‘specific’ criteria in the following way:

Process criteria - describe expectations of provision for children with SEN that is increasingly personalised and additional to and different from approaches used to maximise the achievement of all children.

Specific criteria – these relate to attainment, progress and description of a child’s needs, which may include the advice and/or assessment of a range of practitioners and include medical diagnosis.

Templates have been organised according to the dimensions of need described in the SEN Code of Practice (DfES, 2001).

If, after consulting the criteria described in the templates above, it is considered that a child’s needs are severe, complex and long-term such that criteria for statutory assessment are met, a request for the Local Authority to undertake statutory assessment can be made by early years setting or school staff by completing and submitting the Appendix B form (see below) to SEN team.

Parents wishing to request a statutory assessment of their child’s special educational needs can do so by writing to and/or emailing the Local Authority giving details of their child’s needs over time and/or submitting the Appendix A form (see below) with a letter requesting that the LA undertake a statutory assessment of SEN.

Decisions about whether statutory assessment will be started are made by the Local Authority following discussion at the pre-assessment panel during which a panel of practitioners and/or relevant others review whether a child’s needs are such that he/she meets criteria described in the templates.

The statutory assessment process involves gathering a range of views which are submitted to the Local Authority on the forms below. The Local Authority is required to complete the statutory assessment process within 26 weeks. If you are a parent or the practitioner who has been asked to contribute to the statutory assessment of a child’s SEN please select the appropriate Appendix to record your advice from the list below:

It is requested that whenever possible forms are submitted electronically with your completed advice being sent to sen.assessment@camden.gov.uk. Please also return a signed hard copy to:

Special Educational Needs
London Borough of Camden
Crowndale Centre
218 Eversholt Street
London NW1 1BD

For guidance please see the document, produced by the DfES, offering guidance and advice for parents and professionals - SEN Toolkit Section 8 - Guidelines for Writing Advice.

Contact

If you have any further queries please contact the special educational needs team

Supporting documents


Page last updated Apr 11, 2012 4:25 PM

  • Apply

    Apply for services


  • Pay

    Make payments online


Related Information

Bookmark & Share

Print
Bookmark and Share

How can we Help You

Footer, Links and Other Sections