I have often found a degree of confusion about the roles of the various agencies and staff involved in special educational needs. The aim of this section is to describe these roles.
In every school the Governing Body should nominate one of its number to be the Special Needs Governor. This person should meet the school's SENCO at intervals to gain information to ensure the school is providing the necessary identification, provision, staffing and resources. The SEN Governor needs to be informed of the broad areas of needs within the school and should update the Governing Body as necessary. Unless there are issues to be addressed this is likely to only happen once a year when the special needs governor discusses the content of the SEN section of the Annual Report. Some special needs governors or special needs committees formally meet with the SENCO in the period leading up to the production of the annual report, to review the year as regards special educational needs. If so the agenda would include the main aspects of the feedback to parents in the annual report, i.e.
The report that is compiled by the Governing Body must comment on the above areas. Governors may ask the numbers of children at each stage but may not know the identities of the children. Special Needs Governors may sometimes be approached by parents who are anxious about their children and may be able to explore such cases in the hopes of a resolution of the problem with the co-operation of the SENCO.
The Special Needs Co-ordinator
No matter what the size of the school, it must have a named teacher who is responsible for special educational needs. I include a section discussing this role in more detail based on my own experience and interpretation. I list below the duties assigned to the SENCO in the Code of Practice:
The head teacher has responsibility for the day to day management of all aspects of the school, including provision for children with special educational needs. In order to do this, the Head should work closely with the SENCO or special needs team. Provision for special educational needs affects the whole school and the Head and governors should determine policy decisions that reflect this.
The headteacher is normally the responsible person, although this duty is sometimes taken by an appropriate governor. The LEA has a duty of informing the school's responsible person when they conclude that a pupil has special educational needs which warrant the issue of a statement. The responsible person then has the duty of informing all who will teach a pupil about the precise special educational needs which must be catered for.
The Headteacher should be kept informed by the SENCO as to which children are at Stages 2 and 3. If a parental request for statutory assessment is made, the LEA must inform the Headteacher in writing and ask the school for written evidence about the child's learning difficulties and an account of the special educational provision that has been made for that child.
When a child with a statement is moving schools the parents are encouraged to visit the proposed school and discuss their child's special educational needs with the Headteacher or SENCO of that school.
The Headteacher must not discriminate against pupils with SEN whose parents wish them to enter the school, but must consider whether the school can meet the needs of each child as laid out in the statement. Before the LEA names a school in a statement, the LEA must consult with the Head and Governing Body of that school.
Annually, for each pupil with a statement, the LEA requires the Headteacher to convene a review meeting and submit a review report by a specified date. The Head should request written advice from the parents, from any persons specified by the LEA and from anyone else the Head considers appropriate. In practice, these duties are usually delegated to the SENCO. A meeting is convened of all these people, who must all be sent the written advice produced for the review at least two weeks in advance of the meeting. The Head may chair the review meeting, or may ask the SENCO or other involved teacher to chair. There is a set agenda to be used as a basis for discussion. The meeting should make recommendations. After the meeting a review report is ultimately written and sent to the LEA, parents and any relevant professionals, by a specified date. The Head may delegate this whole process to the SENCO or other appropriate member of staff. After receiving the review report the LEA must review the statement, make any amendments and send their recommendations to all those who had been invited to the review meeting.
Class and subject teachers should be involved in the development of the school's SEN policy and should be fully aware of the school's procedures for identification, assessment and provision.
According to national standards laid out by the Teacher Training Agency, all newly qualified teachers must have knowledge of the Code of Practice, be able to identify pupils with special needs and know how to gain further help for these pupils.
Many teachers may wish to take advantage of in-service training in areas of special educational need.
At Stage 1 each teacher has a responsibility to identify any difficulties experienced by pupils in their lessons and to discuss these concerns with the parents at their earliest opportunity. The parents may be able to throw a good deal of light on the problem. In many cases it is also helpful to talk over the problem directly with the pupil. The teacher would probably experiment with some different strategies and materials, monitoring any progress, and for some children this may solve the problem. The SENCO needs to be informed of the concern and should enter the child's name on the school's special educational needs register. In some schools teachers are asked to fill out a Stage 1 form which briefly records the concern and any action being taken. After a term the teacher should review the position and discuss any continuing concerns with the SENCO who may then suggest that the child moves to Stage 2.
At Stage 2 the class and subject teachers work jointly with the SENCO to produce an Individual Education Plan. Progress should be monitored and any other relevant information gathered. Some form of record keeping will be needed to show how well the child is responding to teaching. Parents must be informed about the I.E.P. and any extra small group and individual teaching. Many parents welcome being informed about the teaching targets on the I.E.P. which ideally they will support at home. The SENCO should help the teacher to review the I.E.P. at roughly termly intervals. At review the child may move down to Stage 1 simply to monitor the concern, stay at Stage 2 to continue work to targets or move up to Stage 3 for more support.
At Stages 3, 4 and 5 all teachers continue to take responsibility for teaching all the children in their classes, doing their utmost to meet any special educational needs, but there may well be some form of support in place to ease the pressure on time and materials. Some children may be supported in the class for some or all of the time; some children may be withdrawn for intensive work in particular skills; some children with sensory handicaps may need to use visual or auditory aids; some children may be mentored by an adult or another pupil; some will be on behaviour modification programmes throughout their week; other pupils may carry a lap-top with them or may have other I.C.T. aids made available to them; the list of possibilities is endless. These all require the teacher to adapt to the new requirements of the support whether this be to do with organising physical space in the classroom, wearing an auditory loop, enlarging teaching materials, etc. One of the main adjustments will be to the presence of a Learning Support Assistant or Behaviour Support Assistant. Some teachers find this difficult to adapt to but most teachers welcome the support enthusiastically. To make the most of this support, teachers should talk to the ancillaries and plan for their involvement. For example if one out of three Science lessons are supported it is a waste of opportunity to spend this lesson watching a video; it makes much more sense to spend this lesson engaged in the type of activity the pupil is least able to manage independently. Ancillaries who understand the teaching aims will be better able to ensure the pupils they work with are meeting those aims as far as possible.
The contribution of teachers to reviews and setting new targets continues to be important at Stages 3, 4 and 5. How, and to what extent, this is achieved in a school is a matter of internal organisation.
When outside agencies are involved teachers may be asked to meet, for example the educational psychologist in order to discuss concerns and strategies, may be asked to respond to a "round robin" or questionnaire about a pupil, may be asked to excuse a pupil from a lesson to attend a testing session, and may be asked to allow, for example, a specialist advisory teacher to observe the child in class.
The involvement of parents, if possible, continues to be extremely important. There will need to be agreement about how this is achieved and in bigger schools there is often a need for organised systems of communication between members of staff and then with parents. The SENCO or teacher with pastoral responsibility may take the lead in keeping in touch with parents. In small primary schools the classteacher is likely to be the first person the parents would see, but they might also see the SENCO or Headteacher at termly or annual reviews.
Many schools now employ a small army of classroom assistants, some of whom work exclusively with children who have special educational needs. No formal qualifications are necessary and most enter schools fairly nervously, wondering if their own education will be sufficient in the job they will do.
It is good practice to organise some induction, perhaps by allowing the new L.S.A. to work with an experienced colleague for a few days. Thereafter, schools should ideally identify someone who will mentor their L.S.A.s. In some schools the SENCO holds a weekly team meeting with the L.S.A. s to discuss strategies, problems, look at records, make practical decisions etc. In schools with only a few L.S.A.s this is likely to happen informally during the week, in lunchtimes and odd moments. In addition, SENCO's are often able to arrange for some in-house training, conducted either by themselves or other members of the school staff, or by advisory teachers, educational psychologists and other outside agencies. Most authorities now also provide long courses for L.S.A.s leading to formal accreditation.
Some schools provide differentiated pay rates for their L.S.A.s according to their experience, qualifications, duties and hours of work. The wages tend to be low and often fail to reflect the achievements of the individuals concerned. However, it is the very fact that they are affordable that has made these people so much a part of our school system. In my opinion it is fair to say that L.S.A.s have made it possible for many pupils who would previously gone to special schools, to gain a great deal from mainstream education. A quiet revolution has happened under our noses in the last fifteen years, in which ordinary schools have come to accept as the norm the fact that they cater for pupils with a wide range of special needs.
Many L.S.A.s spend most of their time supporting particular children within class. In lower or infant schools a child who has a statement of special educational needs will probably be supported by one L.S.A. who will work closely with the class teacher. In large primary or middle schools the L.S.A.s are often attached to year groups so that they become adept in meeting the demands of that year and thoroughly conversant with the resources available. They are often included in year meetings or other planning sessions. In some secondary schools the L.S.A.s are attached to particular departments so that they learn curriculum content and requirements and are better able to bring out important teaching points or find ways of providing differentiated tasks.
However L.S.A.s are organised, there are a number of important pitfalls to avoid, which all basically boil down to communication. Without sufficient planning and liaison an assistant can easily spend a lesson sitting next to a child who is copying from the board, watching a video, silently enduring a long oral presentation or otherwise engaged in a task that does not allow for support. With planning each of these activities could be meaningfully supported by an assistant who felt confident enough to, for example, break up the information to be copied into key phrases, note key words from a video for discussion afterwards, quietly check an answer to give a pupil the confidence to offer a contribution to a discussion etc.
Some timetable constraints make for difficult situations. If a L.S.A. is only in one Science lesson per week there will be a particular need to inform her of the content of the other lessons that have contributed so far to the pupil's understanding.
Certain individuals are withdrawn from class for time with L.S.A.s. This will sometimes be in order to teach away from other distractions or to go over a concept in a way which will not provide distractions for other pupils. Many pupils have a little withdrawal each day or each week in order to teach to specific targets on their I.E.P.s. There are obvious training needs here for L.S.As in the teaching methods and materials and also, perhaps, in time management and behaviour management.
Consideration also needs to be given to the places in which this withdrawal should be conducted. L.S.A.s are often involved in testing and need to be taught how to use tests correctly. Record keeping is an important feature of their work and this needs monitoring in some way. It is important that they are involved in reviews and target-setting but they should not be given the responsibility of setting targets: this process should be directed by the SENCO and/or teacher.
The L.E.A. may be able to help the child with special needs from an early age, particularly if they employ Portage workers. Under Portage specially trained experts in child development visit children at home to advise on strategies, resources and activities. L.E.A.s also often provide specialist early years teachers who work with medical specialists at child development centres (C.D.Cs) to assess pre-school children who are causing concern to their parents and health visitors or nursery teachers. The early years teachers would be likely to monitor development after assessment at C.D.C. until the child is of a statutory school age.
Once a child is over two the L.E.A. can be asked to make a statutory assessment and, if necessary, issue a statement of special educational need. This would usually necessitate some home teaching and would usually lead into some special nursery or special school provision. L.E.A.s have a statutory duty to provide educational psychologists to assess children and advise schools, and some L.E.A.s also provide a range of advisory teachers skilled in assessing pupils with various difficulties and helping schools to cater for them. (These could include teachers for pupils with physical difficulties, teachers who are expert in hearing or visual impairment, behaviour management specialists, and teachers who can advise in a range of global or specific learning difficulties including dyslexia). By means of involving these personnel L.E.A. s can ensure that pupils, schools and parents are supported at Stage 3 or at the very least are advised about the assessments and procedures available at Stage 4.
In terms of the Code of Practice, the L.E.A. becomes most actively involved at Stage 4, which is when a child is assessed under the 1996 Education Act. The L.E.A. must consider every request for assessment and must, within six weeks, write to the parents and school to inform them either of the decision to assess or the reasons why they are turning down a request for statutory assessment. If the request is accepted, the L.E.A. Must, in their letter to parents, give the name of a member of staff who will provide information and further assistance. This person is sometimes called the Named Officer. In addition the parents have the right to seek the advice and support of a Named Person. This could be a contact from a voluntary or parents' support group, a relative, a friend or a professional employed by the L.E.A. To fulfil this role. As there is now a good deal of demand for advice to parents at all stages of assessment, many L.E.A.s have a group of trained named persons. After agreeing to assess a child the L.E.A. collects educational advice from relevant professional including the school and the parents.
Within twelve weeks of agreeing to assess a child the L.E.A. should normally arrive at a decision and either issue a proposed statement or a note in lieu, (setting out their reasons for not issuing a statement of special educational needs). The proposed statement is sent to the parents for their comments, particularly about which school they would like their child to attend. Parents have 15 days in which to reply or to ask for a meeting with the L.E.A. to discuss the proposed statement. After any such meeting parents again have 15 days in which to request further meetings. After any such meeting parents have again 15 days in which to send in more comments.
The L.E.A. should usually issue the final statement within eight weeks of the proposed statement. Once a statement is issued it immediately takes effect and the child is now at Stage 5 of the Code of Practice. The L.E.A. must review the statement at least annually to ensure that it continues to meet the child's needs. There is a particularly important review once the child is aged 14, in order to make a transition plan for the child's move to adult life. A statement is not fixed and can be changed after review or discontinued. If a child leaves school at age 16 the statement ceases, but it continues until age 19 for a student in full-time education.
If a child moves area the old L.E.A. must send the new L.E.A. the relevant statement. Once the statement has been received the new L.E.A. has the responsibility of reviewing the statement or re-assessing the child's needs; a date for this should be set within six weeks of the receipt of the statement.
In order to deal effectively with referrals for statutory assessments and the educational advice at Stage 4, most L.E.A.s set up a panel who consider the documentation for each case and make a decision together. This ensures consistency and impartiality. The panel would normally be made up of representatives from health and education, (for example a senior school doctor, a senior educational psychologist, an education officer, a senior advisory teacher, a headteacher).
The L.E.A. has a duty to employ enough educational psychologists (E.Ps) to undertake statutory assessments and the necessary follow-up work for children with statements of special educational need. As far as they are able, E.P.s also work with children who are causing concern at Stage 3. Some involvement at Stage 3 is usually necessary in order to advise schools and parents when they are beginning to think that a child's needs cannot be met without a statement.
The Government's paper "Excellence for All" promoted principles of early involvement and preventative work and in many areas E.P.s do a great deal to help the child, the school and the parents at Stage 3. Unfortunately, insufficient numbers of E.P.s in some areas lead to patchy delivery at Stage 3, with E.P. workload being mainly directed at Stages 4 and 5.
Educational psychologists are normally attached to a number of schools, usually within one or two clusters. Regular visits to schools, (at least annually), determine the new case work and plan ahead for review meetings. E.P.s will advise in any sort of difficulty that is affecting a child's learning and have a good deal of knowledge about the educational consequences of different conditions and disorders. They often see a child both at home and at school, and talk to the parents and the teachers. They liaise with colleagues in health, (such as physiotherapists, clinical psychologist , speech and language therapist), and with any specialist teachers provided by the L.E.A. Some EP involvement, at least at an advisory level, is normally documented and presented with a referral for statutory assessment.
The EP would expect to be heavily involved at Stage 4, in the process of assessment, producing written educational advice. Their assessment and advice has to be wide-ranging, usually including the child's cognitive functioning, attainment levels, attitudes to learning, emotional factors, social and personal skills and self-image.
Once a statement had been issued the EP would expect to be invited to the post-statement planning meeting, in order to advise on arrangements, resources, strategies and annual targets. The E.P would expect to be invited to each annual review but may choose not to attend all of these, especially if input by another specialist is more appropriate, (such as a teacher of visually impaired pupils). E.P.s are also attached to special schools in order to monitor cases and advise in case of changing needs.
Exactly who is employed and how they operate is very much open to Local Education Authorities to decide. The range of specialists who could be employed include:
In some authorities these specialists work together to provide a special needs support service so that schools can easily access help, advice and some direct teaching according to need. Some of the specialists above may be named on a child's statement and directed to provide direct teaching input for a certain number of hours; this may be paid for centrally or bought in by schools.
Any of these specialists could be asked to support or assess a child at Stage 3, thus providing a wealth of expertise that would not normally be available within a mainstream school. This service augments that provided by educational psychology, and without some such service schools are unlikely to receive the help and advice they need early enough or quickly enough. Early identification and appropriate input enables much of this work to be preventative, or allows a school to manage a problem without needing to send in a referral for statutory assessment.
In a few progressive authorities, such as Northamptonshire, the advisory teacher service and educational psychology service combine to provide an integrated service to schools, which provides continuity of care, effective use of human resources and a more holistic approach to each child concerned.
School Doctors are employed by area health authorities but are attached to various schools, probably on a cluster basis. They have duties in providing medical checks at certain ages but are also available for consultation when a school is concerned about a pupil. They may approach a school when colleagues from hospitals notify them of children with special medical conditions or sensory impairments. In this case they might also contact the educational psychologist for a school to explore a child's needs further.
They might contact a child's G.P. to discuss medication or conditions. They might discuss the child with a health visitor. They provide an essential link between the worlds of education and health and can ensure that a child's needs are not overlooked, but are followed up by a relevant body. When a child is undergoing a statutory assessment of needs, the parents are asked to give their permission for a medical examination, which the school must then arrange for the school doctor to undertake. This sometimes results in the school doctor referring the child on to a hospital consultant or to occupational therapy, physiotherapy or speech and language therapy for further assessment.
When all relevant medical personnel have been consulted their advice must be submitted to the L.E.A. to help them in their decision as to whether or not to issue a statement of special educational need. Medical advice is needed for every child at Stage 4, even if they appear to be in good health and without any suspected medical conditions.
The school doctor can, possibly via the involvement of other colleagues and therapists, inform the school and parents about the likely developmental, educational, social, emotional, behavioural and health consequences of particular conditions and any treatment. This will help all concerned to plan and resource accordingly. The school doctor will also be involved when sudden needs emerge through illness, accident or trauma. At these times the doctor may be instrumental in helping a school to understand the difficulty, respond appropriately and, if necessary, seek emergency or short-term funding.
School nurses work alongside school doctors to provide a health service to the pupils in the schools they are attached to. The doctor may ask a nurse to provide practical advice and helpful monitoring, both to the child's parents and to teachers in the school.
Many school nurses provide wonderful support to families managing children with physical, medical and other difficulties. They might also put parents in touch with support groups or recommend further referral, for example to child and adolescent mental health.
In addition school nurses routinely screen school age pupils for sensory and medical problems. When a teacher feels there might be a hearing or visual impairment it is usually easy to arrange for the school nurse to test the child. While the tests lack sophistication they are enough to show whether further testing could be helpful, in which case the nurse will refer the child to hospital consultants.
School nurses are in regular contact with schools and can informally offer advice in a range of problems that pupils may be experiencing. School nurses also provide a consultancy service in secondary schools, offering a weekly time when they are available if a pupil wishes to discuss a problem. This is a service that is highly valued by pupils and teachers alike.
Speech and Language Therapists
Speech and Language Therapists (S.A.L.T.s) are normally provided by area health authorities and are particularly involved with children in the early years. By the time they arrive in school many children have already been identified by their parents, health visitors or doctors, and have already received a good deal of therapy. Some continue to receive blocks of therapy during Key Stage 1 and a few continue to need regular input in order to improve.
Some children may have been issued with a statement on the basis of their speech and language difficulties and in this case liaison between the school and the S.A.L.T. will be very important. In some areas children with this need are placed in a speech and language unit based at a mainstream nursery or primary school.
There are a number of issues that schools often come up against when children experience speech and language difficulties. Firstly there seems to be a great shortage of S.A.L.T.s and schools often feel the children receive insufficient treatment. Secondly, how provision is organised varies but if children have to be taken to clinic this is dependant on their parents being able to collect, transport and accompany them and at least a half-day is likely to be lost from school. Clinics that run on a weekly basis at schools are a much more satisfactory form of provision, (as long as care is taken to involve the parents in the programme), but are not an option in all areas.
In some areas S.A.L.T.s make regular visits to schools in order to pick up new referrals, but this is not possible in other areas where a more remote referral system will operate, mainly due to pressures of time. When a child needs daily or weekly speech and language teaching in school, either at Stage 3 or 5, there is a need for the S.A.L.T. To advise in the programmes and monitor progress, and this can be difficult to arrange. There is also a training issue in such cases, as a teacher or learning support assistant will need to deliver direct specialist teaching.
The L.E.A. will employ a few Portage workers to visit children with special educational needs and their parents at home. They advise about developmental difficulties and suggest strategies and suitable aids and educational toys. They often devise very small-step programmes to help take a child a little further in an important skill. They are friendly and approachable people who will listen to problems and respond pragmatically. Portage workers work alongside health personnel, educational psychologists and other specialists, such as physiotherapists.
The Special Educational Needs Tribunal
This is an independent body set up to hear parents' appeals against L.E.A. decisions relating to statutory assessments and statements. If parents disagree with the L.E.A. in deciding not to proceed with a request for a statutory assessment they can appeal to the Special Educational Needs Tribunal. Parents may also appeal if a note in lieu is issued instead of a statement. Parents may appeal if they disagree with parts 2, 3 or 4 of their child's statement either when first issued or if changed at a later date. If parents have requested a re-assessment or change of school for a child who already has a statement, and the L.E.A. Has refused, they may appeal to the tribunal. Parents may also appeal if they disagree with a decision to stop maintaining a statement. The decision of a tribunal is final and binding.