SEND, in plain English

The essentials

SEN — Special Educational Needs

A child has SEN if they have a learning difficulty or disability that needs special educational provision — that is, something different from or additional to what is ordinarily available to children of the same age.

SEND — Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

The umbrella term used across education, health and social care. Note that a child can be disabled without having SEN and can have SEN without being disabled.

SEN support

The everyday help a school puts in place without an EHCP. Most children with SEN are supported this way and schools have a legal duty to use their best endeavours to make it happen whether or not there is a plan.

EHCP — Education, Health and Care plan

A legal document, issued and maintained by the local authority, describing a child’s needs and the provision that must be made to meet them. Unlike SEN support, the provision in an EHCP is legally enforceable.

EHC needs assessment

The statutory assessment process the local authority carries out to decide whether a child needs an EHCP. Parents, young people and schools can all request one.

SENDCo — Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Co-ordinator

The qualified teacher in a school responsible for co-ordinating SEN provision. Every mainstream school must have one.

Graduated response or the assess–plan–do–review cycle

The expected way schools respond to SEN: work out what the need is, decide what to do, do it, then check whether it worked — and go round again. It is a cycle, not a one-off form.

Ordinarily available provision

What any child in the school should be able to expect without extra funding or a plan. Local authorities usually publish a description of what this means locally and it is worth reading.

Inside an EHC plan

Section B

The child’s special educational needs. Everything in Section F should trace back to something described here.

Section F

The special educational provision required. This is the section that matters most, because the local authority has an absolute duty to secure it. It should be specific and normally quantified — who, what, how often, for how long, delivered by someone with what training. “Access to support as appropriate” fails that test.

Section I

The named school or type of school the child will attend.

Sections C and G, D and H

Health needs and health provision (C and G) and social care needs and provision (D and H). These carry different legal weight from Section F.

Outcomes

What the provision is meant to achieve, over a meaningful period. An outcome is not the same thing as provision: “weekly speech therapy” is provision, “can ask an adult for help unprompted” is an outcome.

Process, timescales and disagreement

Annual review

The formal review of an EHCP that must happen at least every twelve months. It is the main opportunity to get a plan changed, so it is worth preparing for properly rather than turning up to.

Phase transfer

The review and amendment of an EHCP when a child moves between phases of education — for example infant to junior or primary to secondary. These have their own statutory deadlines, earlier than people expect.

Refusal to assess / refusal to issue

Two different local authority decisions: declining to carry out an EHC needs assessment at all or carrying one out and then deciding not to issue a plan. Both carry a right of appeal.

Mediation

A meeting with an independent mediator to try to resolve a disagreement without a tribunal. For most appeals you must at least contact a mediation adviser before you can register an appeal, though you do not have to go ahead with mediation itself.

SENDIST or the SEND Tribunal

The First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability), which hears appeals against local authority decisions. It is independent of the local authority and parents do not need a lawyer to bring an appeal.

SENDIASS

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information, Advice and Support Service. Free and impartial and every local authority must have one.

Personal budget and direct payments

An amount identified to deliver parts of an EHCP that a family can have some control over, sometimes paid directly to them.

School life

EBSA — emotionally based school avoidance

Difficulty attending school driven by anxiety or distress rather than choice. Sometimes still called school refusal, which is a phrase worth pushing back on.

Reasonable adjustments

Changes schools must make under the Equality Act 2010 so that a disabled child is not put at a substantial disadvantage. This duty is anticipatory: schools are expected to think ahead, not react.

Suspension and permanent exclusion

A suspension (once called fixed-period exclusion) is time-limited; a permanent exclusion removes a pupil from the school roll. Both have strict procedures and informal or unofficial exclusions are unlawful.

Part-time timetable

A reduced timetable, which should only ever be temporary, agreed with parents and reviewed with a plan to return to full time.

Alternative provision

Education arranged for pupils who cannot attend mainstream school.

TA — teaching assistant

Support staff working alongside teachers. Good deployment builds a child’s independence; poor deployment quietly replaces it.

Provision map

A school’s record of the additional support it provides and to whom. Useful when it reflects reality; decorative when it does not.

Pupil passport / one-page profile

A short document summarising what a child needs and what works for them, meant to be read by anyone teaching them.

EP — educational psychologist

A specialist who assesses learning, development and emotional needs and whose advice is normally sought during an EHC needs assessment.

SALT — speech and language therapy

Assessment and support for communication needs. Also written SLT or SLCN.

OT — occupational therapy

Support with the practical and physical side of daily life at school, including sensory needs and motor skills.

CAMHS

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.

Nurture-based practice

An approach built on the idea that a child has to feel safe, settled and connected before learning can happen — so the relationship and the emotional groundwork come first, rather than being treated as a reward for good behaviour. In practice it might mean a nurture group, a key adult, a predictable start to the day or explicit teaching of skills most children pick up incidentally.

Thrive

A specific, trained approach to social and emotional development. A Thrive Practitioner assesses where a child is developmentally in emotional terms — which can be a long way from their chronological age — and plans activities and relationships to fill the gaps. Often used where behaviour is the visible symptom of something unmet underneath.

EAL — English as an additional language

A pupil who speaks another language at home. Worth saying plainly: needing to learn English is not a special educational need, and the two are often wrongly conflated. A child can of course have both.

Pupil premium

Additional funding schools receive for pupils who are or have been eligible for free school meals, are looked after or have left care. Schools must publish how they spend it, which makes it one of the more easily checked things on a school website.

Looked-after child, and previously looked-after child

A child in the care of a local authority, or one who has left care through adoption or a special guardianship order. They have additional entitlements and priority in admissions, and every local authority has a Virtual School Head responsible for their education.

SEND Code of Practice

The statutory guidance covering ages 0 to 25 that schools, local authorities and health bodies must have regard to. Where you look when someone says “that’s just how we do it here”.