Talking to your child's school or nursery if you think they may have SEND

Steps to follow to get support from school or nursery if you think your child may have special educational needs or disabilities.

We have worked with the West Sussex Parent Carer Forum (WSPCF) to help you find the information you need.

Your child does not need a diagnosis for you to start these steps. They are not instructions. They are guidance to support you to understand processes and help you to talk to the professionals who work with your child.

You can use this information along with the WSPCF guide to SEND support in mainstream settings. You can find this on the WSPCF guides page. 

SEND in settings

Mainstream settings are the type of school, nursery or college that most children go to. They teach children with many different health and learning needs. Staff adapt their teaching to meet needs, including those of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). They have training to help them do this.

All schools and settings have a member of staff who is responsible for SEND. They are called the special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO). They work with you to ensure your child or young person gets the support they need. The SENCO may not deliver the support, but they organise and co-ordinate it.

The school nursing team may also work with your child in school.

Talking about your child's needs and progress

Who to talk to at your child's setting

You can speak to:

  • your child's main teacher
  • the SENCO at your child's school or nursery

If you are not sure how to get in touch with the SENCO at your child's school, look on the SEND pages of their website. You can get school website details using the page find a school, academy or college.

Prepare for your meeting

Before you meet with your child's setting, prepare yourself with information about how schools work with children's different skills and needs.

  • It can be difficult to communicate with staff in schools about your child’s needs. You may feel strong emotions when talking about your child’s wellbeing and learning, especially when things are not going well.

    You may also have your own communication needs. If so, discuss those with school before a meeting. You can contact the school in advance and explain that you will need reasonable adjustments such as an accessible room, a quiet place to meet or a friend to support you.

    If you have an Early Help plan, your Early Help support worker can talk to you about the meeting and help you work out what you would like to say.

    Things that may also help include:

    • a diary or notes about things you have noticed at home, such as:
      • things your child has said
      • changes or triggers in their behaviour
      • your child's ideas about what they think might help them at school
    • a note of any people you have spoken to about your child's wellbeing or support you are getting from other services such as a GP or Early Help worker so you can let your setting know
    • discussing your child's wellbeing and what they want to achieve - this could be learning targets or other skills they might want to learn or improve

    You may want to ask about:

    • your child's progress and any assessments
    • whether an individual support plan might be helpful to record your child's goals and how they are being met
    • whether staff have had advice about how to support your child in school from specialist services such as the Special Advisory Teaching Service (SATS) team who have specialist staff in the:
      • Autism and Social Communication Team (ASCT)
      • Learning and Behaviour Advisory Team (LBAT)
      • Sensory Support team

    Tools for schools has a list of services supporting schools and settings.

    Guides for talking to schools

    The West Sussex Parent Carer Forum's Guide to SEND support in schools has tips on speaking to your child's school. Find it on WSPCF guides.

    The West Sussex SEND Information, Advice and Support (SENDIAS) Service also has some useful factsheets about communicating with schools. Find them on the SENDIAS factsheets page.

  • Find out about:

    • the school's duties to support children with SEND
    • the SEND code of practice

    You can also find out about:

    • the 'graduated approach' - cycles of 'assess, plan, do, review'
    • 'Ordinarily Available Inclusive Practice' (OAIP) - the support of each child's strengths and weaknesses that all children can normally (ordinarily) expect schools to provide
    SEND support at school page

     

  • Speak to your setting about whether they might use the 'graduated approach' to support your child. See more information about the graduated approach on the SEND support at school page.

    Individual Support Plans (ISPs)

    An ISP can be a useful document to help you stay in touch with what support your child is receiving at school and the difference it is making. The plan should be clear about who will do what and when.

    A West Sussex ISP plan has been coproduced with schools and you can find out more about it from SENDIAS. Find the ISP factsheet in the ‘SEN Support in Education Series’ on the SENDIAS factsheets page.

    An ISP may sometimes be known as an Individual Learning Plan (ILP) or Individual Education Plan (IEP).

    You should know that:

    • your school must tell you if your child has an ISP
    • you and your child should have seen and discussed the plan and had an opportunity to contribute to it
    • the plan can include learning and personal wellbeing goals for your child
    • the school follow an 'assess, plan, do, review' cycle (called the graduated approach) to find the best way to support your child
    • schools may ask for advice from specialist school support services
    • you should have a meeting to review the plan at least 3 times a year

  • Your child's setting must have a SEND policy and this should be available on their website. You can find links to school's websites on the Find a school, academy or college page.

Talking to other services

If you are worried about your child or young person's health and wellbeing there are more services to help. You should tell your child's school if you are in contact with other services.

You can contact:

These services can refer you to other services for more help, if needed.

Further information on health and wellbeing is available on the Local Offer Health and development pages.

SEND support

SEND support is when a child regularly receives special provision. This might be from Ordinarily Available Inclusive Practice (OAIP) or something else the setting has agreed with the child their parents. This is the next stage on from the 'graduated approach' or an individual support plan.

SEND support helps identify goals, sometimes called 'learning objectives' which are most important to your child's progress and how the school will help your child work towards them. It is not just about academic learning - it is important that your child has support to reach their goals in all parts of life at school.

Schools should involve parent carers and especially the child themselves in deciding learning objectives. If a young person is over the age of 16, they must have direct involvement in setting these goals.

The SEND register

If your child needs further support or ongoing additional or different support that is generally given to other children of their age, their school will need to place them on the 'SEND register'.

The SEND register is a list of children at the school who receive SEND support. The school must keep the list and report to the government how many children are on their register. They do not share the names of the children.

The SEND register

If your child needs further support or ongoing additional or different support that is generally given to other children of their age, their school will need to place them on the 'SEND register'.

The SEND register is a list of children at the school who receive SEND support. The school must keep the list and report to the government how many children are on their register. They do not share the names of the children.

If SEND support is not enough

Most children will have their needs met by the school using OAIP and SEND support. However, sometimes a child may need more support than the school can provide with these methods and the standard resources they have available.

You can look back at previous ISPs to make sure that your child is making progress or not. You can discuss this with the school and review SEND support together.

If your child is not reaching their goals, you may consider requesting an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA), with a view to getting an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). You can read more about these on our EHCPs section.

Usually, a setting will make the request for an EHCNA because they have experience in the process and gathering all the necessary information. However, parent carers can make a request too. Talk to your child's setting to decide who will make the request.

What to do if you feel the setting is not meeting your child's needs

If at any point you feel the setting are not meeting your child's needs you should:

  • speak to your first contact at the setting, usually their teacher or the SENCO as soon as you can to discuss your concerns
  • the school may also have an inclusion or pastoral support lead that you can speak to
  • if, after talking to the teacher you are still unhappy with the action or plans, you can ask to speak to the SENCO - if you've spoken to the SENCO, you can ask to speak to the head teacher

Find useful help sheets and guides on the pages for:

If you feel the school are still not meeting your child's needs after speaking with the head teacher, you will need to follow the school's complaints process. You can usually find a copy on their website, or you can ask for a copy from the school office.

If you do not feel comfortable talking to the setting, or need impartial advice about how to move forward, contact SENDIAS.

Advice about attendance at school

Unless you have decided to home educate your child, they should be 'on roll', which means registered, at a school, even if they are not currently attending.

Authorised and unauthorised absence

It is useful to understand the law about absence. There are 3 factsheets in the attendance series on the SENDIAS factsheets page.

Part time and reduced timetables

If your child is on roll at their school, but not attending full time, the school should have a plan for re-engaging your child in education. You can contact the SENCO to discuss the plan.

Schools cannot impose part time or reduced timetables. They are a temporary measure and need parents' consent. There are laws about this. You can find out more from the 'school related topics' section of SENDIAS factsheets.

Emotionally based school avoidance (EBSA)

We have some information about support for children who are absent due to EBSA.

Taking your child off the register at their school

Your child's school must not encourage you to take your chid off the register at the school. You may hear the terms 'de-registering' or 'off rolling'.

Even if you plan to send your child to another school, you do not need to de-register them. Schools move children from one to another by transferring them.

If you are thinking about de-registering your child

Before you de-register your child, make sure you get advice from SENDIAS.

This is important because de-registering your child means you are choosing to home educate them. See below for more information.

Home education

Once you choose to home educate, the county council is no longer responsible for your child's education. You should not feel pressure to home educate your child.

You must consider all of your options and make the choice (elect) to home educate freely.

You can find more information on the elective home education (EHE) pages.

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