Children and Young People Aged 0-25 with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities

The Local Authority has a duty to provide children and young people with SEND and parents of children and young people with SEND with information, advice and support relating to their SEND, including matters relating to their health and social care. This should be provided through a dedicated and easily identifiable service and should be impartial, confidential, accessible and provided at arm's length from the Local Authority.

In Liverpool, this service is provided by the Liverpool & Knowsley SEND IASS (Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities, Information, Advice & Support Service).

They can be contacted by telephone on 0800 012 9066 or email on liverpoolandknowsleysend@wired.me.uk.

(See also, DfE/DoH, Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0- 25 years (Ch 2).)

The Local Authority must publish a Local Offer, setting out in one place information about provision they expect to be available across education, health and social care for children and young people in their area who have SEN or are disabled, including those who do not have Education, Health and Care plans (EHCPs). The information should:

• Support families in understanding the new system for children and young people from birth to 25 years with special educational needs and disabilities;
• Give information about childcare and early education for children with special educational needs and disabilities;
• Provide information about how a child's school supports pupils with special educational needs;
• Help families to understand their role in ensuring that their child's needs are met;
• Set out what can be expected from health services that support children and young people with a range of medical needs;
• Make clear what options are available for young people to continue in education, training and/or employment;
• Give clear criteria for accessing services;
• Provide guidance through education, health and social care processes that ensure children and young people with the most complex needs are identified early and supported with an Education, Health and Care Plan;
• Make transition a seamless process to independence and adulthood for young people.

Click here to view the Local Offer.

(See also, DfE/DoH, Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0- 25 years (Ch 4).)

Every school is required to identify and address the SEN of the pupils that they support. Mainstream schools, including academies must:

• Use their best endeavours to make sure that a child with SEN gets the support they need – this means doing everything they can to meet children and young people's SEN;
• Ensure that children and young people with SEN engage in the activities of the school alongside pupils who do not have SEN;
• Designate a teacher to be responsible for co-ordinating SEN provision – the SEN co-ordinator, or SENCO (this does not apply to 16 to 19 academies);
• Inform parents when they are making special educational provision for a child;
• Prepare an SEN information report and their arrangements for the admission of disabled children, the steps being taken to prevent disabled children from being treated less favourably than others, the facilities provided to enable access to the school for disabled children and their accessibility plan showing how they plan to improve access progressively over time.

All schools should have a clear approach to identifying and responding to SEN. The benefits of early identification are widely recognised – identifying need at the earliest point and then making effective provision improves long-term outcomes for the child or young person.

A pupil has SEN where their learning difficulty or disability calls for special educational provision, namely provision different from or additional to that normally available to pupils of the same age. Making high quality teaching normally available to the whole class is likely to mean that fewer pupils will require such support. Such improvements in whole-class provision tend to be more cost effective and sustainable.

In deciding whether to make special educational provision, the teacher and SENCO should consider all of the information gathered from within the school about the pupil's progress, alongside national data and expectations of progress. This should include high quality and accurate formative assessment, using effective tools and early assessment materials. For higher levels of need, schools should have arrangements in place to draw on more specialised assessments from external agencies and professionals.

This information gathering should include an early discussion with the pupil and their parents. These early discussions with parents should be structured in such a way that they develop a good understanding of the pupil's areas of strength and difficulty, the parents' concerns, the agreed outcomes sought for the child and the next steps. A short note of these early discussions should be added to the pupil's record on the school information system and given to the parents. Schools should also tell children, parents and young people about the local authority's Information, Advice and Support Service.

Consideration of whether special educational provision is required should start with the desired outcomes, including the expected progress and attainment and the views and wishes of the pupil and their parents. This should then help determine the support that is needed and whether it can be provided by adapting the school's core offer or whether something different or additional is required.

SEN support should take the form of a four-part cycle through which earlier decisions and actions are revisited, refined and revised with a growing understanding of the pupil's needs and of what supports the pupil in making good progress and securing good outcomes. This is known as the graduated approach. It draws on more detailed approaches, more frequent review and more specialist expertise in successive cycles in order to match interventions to the SEN of children and young people.

Assess - In identifying a child as needing SEN support the class or subject teacher, working with the SENCO, should carry out a clear analysis of the pupil's needs. This should draw on the teacher's assessment and experience of the pupil, their previous progress and attainment, as well as information from the school's core approach to pupil progress, attainment, and behaviour. It should also draw on other subject teachers' assessments where relevant, the individual's development in comparison to their peers and national data, the views and experience of parents, the pupil's own views and, if relevant, advice from external support services. Schools should take seriously any concerns raised by a parent. These should be recorded and compared to the setting's own assessment and information on how the pupil is developing.

This assessment should be reviewed regularly. This will help ensure that support and intervention are matched to need, barriers to learning are identified and overcome, and that a clear picture of the interventions put in place and their effect is developed. For some types of SEN, the way in which a pupil responds to an intervention can be the most reliable method of developing a more accurate picture of need.

In some cases, outside professionals from health or social services may already be involved with the child. These professionals should liaise with the school to help inform the assessments. Where professionals are not already working with school staff the SENCO should contact them if the parents agree.

Plan - Where it is decided to provide a pupil with SEN support, the parents must be formally notified, although parents should have already been involved in forming the assessment of needs as outlined above. The teacher and the SENCO should agree in consultation with the parent and the pupil the adjustments, interventions and support to be put in place, as well as the expected impact on progress, development or behaviour, along with a clear date for review.

All teachers and support staff who work with the pupil should be made aware of their needs, the outcomes sought, the support provided and any teaching strategies or approaches that are required. This should also be recorded on the school's information system.

The support and intervention provided should be selected to meet the outcomes identified for the pupil, based on reliable evidence of effectiveness, and should be provided by staff with sufficient skills and knowledge.

Parents should be fully aware of the planned support and interventions and, where appropriate, plans should seek parental involvement to reinforce or contribute to progress at home. The information should be readily available to and discussed with the pupil's parents.

Do - The class or subject teacher should remain responsible for working with the child on a daily basis. Where the interventions involve group or one-to-one teaching away from the main class or subject teacher, they should still retain responsibility for the pupil. They should work closely with any teaching assistants or specialist staff involved, to plan and assess the impact of support and interventions and how they can be linked to classroom teaching. The SENCO should support the class or subject teacher in the further assessment of the child's particular strengths and weaknesses, in problem solving and advising on the effective implementation of support.

Review - The effectiveness of the support and interventions and their impact on the pupil's progress should be reviewed in line with the agreed date.

The impact and quality of the support and interventions should be evaluated, along with the views of the pupil and their parents. This should feed back into the analysis of the pupil's needs. The class or subject teacher, working with the SENCO, should revise the support in light of the pupil's progress and development, deciding on any changes to the support and outcomes in consultation with the parent and pupil.

Parents should have clear information about the impact of the support and interventions provided, enabling them to be involved in planning next steps.

Where a pupil continues to make less than expected progress, despite evidence based support and interventions that are matched to the pupil's area of need, the school should consider involving specialists, including those secured by the school itself or from outside agencies.

Schools may involve specialists at any point to advise them on early identification of SEN and effective support and interventions. A school should always involve a specialist where a pupil continues to make little or no progress or where they continue to work at levels substantially below those expected of pupils of a similar age despite evidence-based SEN support delivered by appropriately trained staff. The pupil's parents should always be involved in any decision to involve specialists.

The involvement of specialists and what was discussed or agreed should be recorded and shared with the parents and teaching staff supporting the child in the same way as other SEN support.

Such specialist services include, but are not limited to:

• Educational psychologists;
• Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS);
• Specialist teachers or support services, including specialist teachers with a mandatory qualification for children with hearing and vision impairment, including multi-sensory impairment, and for those with a physical disability;
• Therapists (including speech and language therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists).

Schools are able to apply for additional funding for pupils who are identified as having high needs. In Liverpool 'High Needs pupils' are defined as:

• Those whose development/learning and or behaviour needs require support that is significantly 'additional to' or 'different from' the differentiated curriculum and educational provision made generally for children or young people of their age in mainstream schools;
  AND
• When offering that support there is irrefutable evidence that the cost to the school per annum is more than the Age Weighted Pupil Unit (AWPU) + £6,000 from the school's devolved additional needs funding (notional SEN budget- school block);
  AND
• When having been offered that support there is evidence from school progress data and a compelling argument that more accelerated progress could be made if additional resources were provided and the school has a specific costed action plan (which might be part of a Statement of Special Educational Needs or an Education, Health and Care Plan) which outlines how High Needs Block funding would enable specific, measurable and achievable outcomes for the child or young person to be made.

It is a good practice approach expected by the Local Authority that, after provision through SEN Support, should a pupil require further support, a school request and implement support through Top Up Funding before considering whether an Education, Health and Care Assessment should be requested.

Operational Guidance on High Needs and Top Up Funding, along with the school application forms is available on EDNET. The High Needs Support team can be contacted on:

Tel: 0151 225 6629
E-mail: highneedssupportteam@liverpool.gov.uk

(See also DfE/DoH, Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0- 25 years (Ch 6).)

The process of EHC needs assessment and EHC plan development must be carried out in a timely manner. The time limits set out below are the maximum time allowed.

See:

• Liverpool Education, Health and Care Assessment Request - Guidance Notes (Social Care) Form;
• Education, Health Care Assessment Request / Advice (Social Care);
• Social Care Input into SEN Education health and Care Plans.

From the date the request for an assessment is received:

• Within 6 weeks the Local Authority must decide whether to carry out an EHC needs assessment and notify the parent/young person of its decision. If it decides to carry out an assessment, it will then request further evidence from relevant parties such as Health, Social Care and Educational Psychology. These services must supply that evidence within 6 weeks of receiving the request from the Local Authority;
• Within 16 weeks the Local Authority must decide whether or not to issue an EHC Plan and either inform the parent/young person that they are not, or issue the Draft EHC Plan. The parent/young person and any settings consulted then have 15 calendar days to respond to the Local Authority over the Draft EHC Plan;

Within 20 weeks the Local Authority must issue the Final EHC Plan.

EHC plans must include the following sections, which must be separately labelled from each other using the letters below. The sections do not have to be in the order below and local authorities may use an action plan in tabular format to include different sections and demonstrate how provision will be integrated, as long as the sections are separately labelled.

• Section A: The views, interests and aspirations of the child and his or her parents or the young person;
• Section B: The child or young person's special educational needs;
• Section C: The child or young person's health needs which are related to their SEN;
• Section D: The child or young person's social care needs which are related to their SEN or to a disability;
• Section E: The outcomes sought for the child or the young person. This should include outcomes for adult life. The EHC plan should also identify the arrangements for the setting of shorter term targets by the early years provider, school, college or other education or training provider;
• Section F: The special educational provision required by the child or the young person;
• Section G: Any health provision reasonably required by the learning difficulties or disabilities which result in the child or young person having SEN. Where an Individual Health Care Plan is made for them, that plan should be included;
• Section H1: Any social care provision which must be made for a child or young person under 18 resulting from section 2 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970;
• Section H2: Any other social care provision reasonably required by the learning difficulties or disabilities which result in the child or young person having SEN. This will include any adult social care provision being provided to meet a young person's eligible needs (through a statutory care and support plan) under the Care Act 2014;
• Section I: The name and type of the school, maintained nursery school, post-16 institution or other institution to be attended by the child or young person and the type of that institution (or, where the name of a school or other institution is not specified in the EHC plan, the type of school or other institution to be attended by the child or young person);
• Section J: Where there is a Personal Budget, the details of how the Personal Budget will support particular outcomes, the provision it will be used for, including any flexibility in its usage and the arrangements for any Direct Payments for education, health and social care. The special educational needs and outcomes that are to be met by any direct payment must be specified;
• Section K: The advice and information gathered during the EHC needs assessment must be attached (in appendices). There should be a list of this advice and information.

Where the child or young person is in or beyond Year 9, the EHC plan must include (in sections F, G, H1 or H2 as appropriate) the provision required by the child or young person to assist in preparation for adulthood and independent living, for example, support for finding employment, housing or for participation in society.

A Personal Budget is an allocation of funding identified by the local authority to deliver provision set out in an EHC plan where the parent or young person is involved in securing that provision (see 'Mechanisms for delivery of a Personal Budget' below).

Local authorities must provide information on Personal Budgets as part of the Local Offer. This should include a policy on Personal Budgets that sets out a description of the services across education, health and social care that currently lend themselves to the use of Personal Budgets, how that funding will be made available, and clear and simple statements of eligibility criteria and the decision-making processes.

Personal Budgets are optional for the child's parent or the young person but local authorities are under a duty to prepare a budget when requested. Local authorities must provide information about organisations that may be able to provide advice and assistance to help parents and young people to make informed decisions about Personal Budgets. Local authorities should use the information on Personal Budgets set out in the Local Offer to introduce the idea of Personal Budgets to parents and young people within the person-centred approach.

The child's parent or the young person has a right to request a Personal Budget when the local authority has completed an EHC needs assessment and confirmed that it will prepare an EHC plan. They may also request a Personal Budget during a statutory review of an existing EHC plan.

Personal Budgets should reflect the holistic nature of an EHC plan and can include funding for special educational, health and social care provision. They should be focused to secure the provision agreed in the EHC plan and should be designed to secure the outcomes specified in the EHC plan.

For more information please see the Personal Budgets page on the Local Offer.

(See also, DfE/DoH, Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0- 25 years (Ch 9))

Where a Looked After Child is being assessed for SEN it is vital to take account of information set out in the Care Plan. SEN professionals must work closely with other relevant professionals involved in the child's life as a consequence of his/her being looked after. These include the social worker, Designated Doctor or Nurse, Independent Reviewing Officer (IRO), Virtual School Head (VSH) and Designated Teacher in school. This will ensure that the child's EHC plan works in harmony with his/her Care Plan and adds to, but does not duplicate, information about how education, health and care needs will be met. It is essential to involve the child, their carers and, where appropriate, their parents in the planning process. When referencing information contained within the Care Plan only information relevant to meeting the child's SEN should be included in the EHC plan. If in any doubt SEN professionals should discuss this with the social worker and, where appropriate, the child and their carers.

A significant proportion of looked after children live with foster carers or in a children's home and attend schools in a different local authority area to the local authority that looks after them. Local authorities who place Looked After Children in another authority need to be aware of that authority's Local Offer if the children have SEN. Where an assessment for an EHC plan has been triggered, the authority that carries out the assessment is determined by Section 24 of the Children and Families Act 2014. This means that the assessment must be carried out by the authority where the child lives (i.e. is ordinarily resident), which may not be the same as the authority that looks after the child. If a disagreement arises, the authority that looks after the child, will act as the 'Corporate Parent' in any disagreement resolution.

It is the Looked After Child's social worker, (in close consultation with the VSH in the authority that looks after the child), that will ultimately make any educational decision on the child's behalf. However, the day-to-day responsibility for taking these decisions should be delegated to the carer who will advocate for the Looked After Child and make appeals to the First-tier Tribunal (SEN and Disability) as necessary.

For Previously Looked After Children, the SEN assessment should be aware of, and take into account, any factors relating to the child's previous looked after status that are relevant. The child's carer with parental responsibility will ultimately make any educational decision on the child's behalf but should be offered support and guidance from the VSH who might also advocate on the child's behalf where necessary.

Once placed in a school the child's progress will be monitored and promoted by the Designated Teacher who will need to be aware of the child's looked after legal status, contact arrangements and the child's Care Plan including the level of authority delegated to the named carer.

The Designated Teacher has a wide range of responsibilities, including:

• The development and implementation of the child's PEP and ensuring all other staff in the school are aware of the plan and are working to it;
• Safeguarding;
• Ensuring children who are entitled to Premium Pupil Funding are attracting it and that it is being used to support and benefit the Looked After and Previously Looked After Children as intended and this is reflected in the PEP;
• Advising and supporting teachers and other school staff in whole school approaches that enable Looked After and Previously Looked After Children to thrive and achieve;
• Promoting positive home and school links;
• Monitoring the children's progress against their peers.

For a child in a stable, long-term foster placement it may well be appropriate for the carer to take on the responsibility of managing a Personal Budget but this will need careful case-by-case consideration and subject to social work review.

Any considerations of a Personal Budget would be in line with the Personal Budgets Policy.

The Care Planning Regulations specify the frequency with which Care Plans are reviewed. It is important to ensure the annual review of an EHC plan coincides with one of the child's Care Plan reviews. This could be done as part of the review of a child's PEP which feeds into the review of the wider Care Plan. Social workers and SEN teams will need to work closely together to ensure that transitions from being looked after to returning home are managed effectively, to ensure continuing provision.

(See also, DfE/DoH, Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0- 25 years (Ch 10).)

Where a child or young person being educated out of the local authority's area is brought to the local authority's attention as potentially having SEN, the home local authority (where the child normally lives) should decide whether to assess the child or young person and decide whether an EHC plan is required.

Where a child or young person being educated out of area has an EHC plan, the home local authority must ensure that the special educational provision set out in the plan is being made. They must review the EHC plan annually. Local authorities can make reciprocal arrangements to carry out these duties on each other's behalf.

If the child or young person is placed by a local authority at an independent special school, non-maintained special school or independent specialist provider, the local authority must pay the appropriate costs. There are clear processes in place in Liverpool for making a decision as to whether to place a child or young person in an independent or non-maintained special school. If a child or young person with an Education, Health and Care Plan is in a position where an Independent or non-maintained placement is being considered for them, the relevant Education Officer in the SEN Assessment and Pupil Support Team MUST be involved in those discussions. Any such placement will need prior approval by the Education Placements Panel, which the Education Officer would make the application for. This is the only process for such placements and for funding to be agreed from an Education perspective. Please contact the SEN Assessment and Pupil Support Team if this option is under consideration.

If it is a residential placement, so far as reasonably practicable, those placing the child or young person should try to secure a placement that is near to the child's home. However, in making this decision they must have regard for the views, wishes and feelings of the child or young person and their families about the placement.

(See also, DfE/DoH, Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0- 25 years (Ch 10).)

For a young person with an EHC plan, the local authority should ensure that the transition to adult care and support is well planned, is integrated with the annual reviews of the EHC plans and reflects existing special educational and health provision that is in place to help the young person prepare for adulthood.

As with EHC plan development in general, transition assessments for adult care and support must involve the young person and anyone else they want to involve in the assessment. They must also include the outcomes, views and wishes that matter to the young person – much of which will already be set out in their EHC plan.

Assessments for adult care or support must consider:

• Current needs for care and support;
• Whether the young person is likely to have needs for care and support after they turn 18; and,
• If so, what those needs are likely to be and which are likely to be eligible needs.

See Adult Social Care - Transitions Team (guidance) and Appendix 2: Multi- Agency Transition Information.

Local authorities can meet their statutory duties around transition assessment through an annual review of a young person's EHC plan that includes the above elements. Indeed, EHC plans must include provision to assist in preparing for adulthood from Year 9 (age 13 to14).

Having carried out a transition assessment, the local authority must give an indication of which needs are likely to be regarded as eligible needs so the young person understands the care and support they are likely to receive once children's services cease. Where a young person's needs are not eligible for adult services, local authorities must provide information and advice about how those needs may be met and the provision and support that young people can access in their local area. Local authorities should ensure this information is incorporated into their Local Offer.

Statutory guidance accompanying the Autism Strategy places a duty on SENCOs in schools and a named person within a college with SEN oversight to inform young people with autism of their right to a community care assessment and their parents of a right to a carer's assessment. Where a young person has an EHC plan, this should be built into their preparing for adulthood reviews.

(See also, DfE/DoH, Special educational needs and disability code of practice: 0- 25 years (Ch 8)).

Under no circumstances should young people find themselves suddenly without support and care as they make the transition to adult services. Very few moves from children's to adult services will or should take place on the day of someone's 18th birthday. For the most part, transition to adult services for those with EHC plans should begin at an appropriate annual review and in many cases should be a staged process over several months or years.

Under the Care Act 2014 local authorities must continue to provide a young person with children's services until they reach a conclusion about their situation as an adult, so that there is no gap in provision. Reaching a conclusion means that, following a transition assessment, the local authority concludes that the young person:

• Does not have needs for adult care and support; or
• Does have such needs and begins to meet some or all of them; or
• Does have such needs but decides it is not going to meet them (either because they are not eligible needs or because they are already being met).

The local authority can also decide to continue to provide care and support from Children's Services after the young person has turned 18. This can continue until the EHC plan is no longer maintained but when the EHC plan ceases or a decision is made that children's services are no longer appropriate, the local authority must continue the children's services until they have reached a conclusion about their need for support from adult services.

Local authorities must put in place a statutory care and support plan for young people with eligible needs for adult care and support. Local authorities must meet the needs of the young person set out in their care and support plan.

Where young people aged 18 or over continue to have EHC plans, and are receiving care and support, this will be provided under the Care Act 2014. The statutory adult care and support plan should form the 'care' element of the young person's EHC plan. While the care part of the EHC plan must meet the requirements of the Care Act 2014 and a copy should be kept by adult services, it is the EHC plan that should be the overarching plan that is used with these young people to ensure they receive the support they need to enable them to achieve agreed outcomes.

Local authorities must set out in Section H2 of the EHC Plan any adult care and support that is reasonably required by the young person's learning difficulties or disabilities. For those over 18, this will be those elements of their statutory care and support plan that are directly related to their learning difficulties or disabilities. EHC plans may also specify other adult care and support in the young person's care and support plan where appropriate, but the elements directly related to learning difficulties and disabilities should always be included as they will be of particular relevance to the rest of the EHC plan.

Local authorities should ensure that local systems and processes for assessment and review of EHC plans and care and support plans are fully joined up for young people who will have both. Every effort should be made to ensure that young people with both EHC plans and care and support plans do not have to attend multiple reviews held by different services, provide duplicate information, or receive support that is not joined up and co-ordinated.

When a young person's EHC plan is due to come to an end, local authorities should put in place effective plans for the support the young person will be receiving across adult services. Where a care and support plan is in place, this will remain as the young person's statutory plan for care and support. Local authorities should review the provision of adult care and support at this point as the young person's circumstances will be changing significantly as they leave the formal education and training system.

Where a safeguarding issue arises for someone over 18 with an EHC plan, the matter should be dealt with as a matter of course by the adult safeguarding team. They should involve the local authority's child safeguarding colleagues where appropriate as well as any relevant partners (for example, the police or NHS) or other persons relevant to the case. The same approach should apply for complaints or appeals.

Telephone: 0151 225 6234 / 6244 or 4972
E-mail: sen.team@liverpool.gov.uk

Appendix 1: Education, Health Care Assessment Request / Advice (Social Care)

Appendix 2: Multi-Agency Transition Information

Appendix 3: Disputes about special educational needs in England: Where can parents, carers and young people get help if they are experiencing problems? (House of Commons Library)