The Special Educational Needs Code of Practice, which has been in schools for some time, has been revised by the Department of Education and Employment. It will now include pre-school children. At the time of writing there is only a consultative document, but the final version, due to be published some time in the summer when the SEN and Disability Bill has wended its way through Parliament, is unlikely to be very different. The new Code will have to be implemented from September this year, but because of the short timescale, it is unlikely that pressure will be put on providers if it is not fully operational in their setting.
Among the changes in the revised code are:
* the specific inclusion of children in early years provision, whether this is a formal educational setting, a private establishment or an approved network of childminders
* greater emphasis on parental involvement
* greater emphasis on the child's involvement (even in the Foundation Stage) * individual education plans or programmes which focus only on what is additional and different to what other children do * new rights of parental appeal.
The Code of Practice assumes that a child's special educational needs fall within a number of broad areas, including communication and interaction, cognition and learning, behavioural, emotional and social develop-ment; sensory and/or physical. But it recognises that a child's difficulties may well take in two or more of these.
The new Code of Practice sets out a two-strand model of action and intervention: Early Years Action and Early Years Action Plus.
Early years action
The main things that will trigger your concern over a child are that he * makes little or no progress, even when you have used approaches that targeted his difficulties.
* continues to work at a level well below that expected of a child of his age, in certain areas.
* displays persistent emotional and/or behavioural difficulties despite behavioural management strategies you may have used.
* has sensory or physical problems and makes little or no progress despite having personal aids or equipment to support him.
* has communication and/or interaction difficulties and needs specific support in order to learn.
You should then
* discuss with the child's parents the involvement of the Special Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO). Every setting must nominate a member of staff for the position.
* provide the SENCO with as much information as you can about the child's difficulties, such as test results. Ask his parents about any health or physical problems, observe his behaviour and performance and record as much as possible.
* liaise with the child's parents, the SENCO and the child to plan and implement an individual education plan. Even very young children should be actively involved at an appropriate level in discussions about their plans, and be encouraged to share in the recording and monitoring of their progress.
* make sure that the plan focuses on a maximum of three or four targets and records only strategies that are additional to or different from the normal differentiated curriculum.
The SENCO should
* make sure the child's parents are aware of the local education authority's Parent Partnership Service.
* make sure that all known information about the child is collected, together with any new, relevant information from the parents.
* liaise with outside agents, for example health or social services, that may already be involved with the child, and collect any relevant information from them.
* liaise with the educational psychologist and make sure that support and advice from the Child Psychology Service is given to parents and colleagues.
* work with the child's teacher (at present the consultative version of the code is couched in school language, but this may change) and work with parents to decide on the action to be taken, and to plan teaching strategies.
* arrange a termly review meeting, involving everybody who has been working with the child.
Early years action plus
Early Years Action Plus is the point at which you feel the need to involve outside agents. You can access these by first asking the parents if any professionals are seeing the child. If not, first contact the local education authority, and then the child's GP, health visitor or the local social services.
The main points that will trigger you to refer the child to external services are that he
* continues to make little or no progress in specific areas over a long period of time.
* continues to work at an early years curriculum well below that of his peers.
* continues to experience emotional and/or behavioural difficulties that impede his own learning or the group's.
* has sensory or physical needs, requires specialist equipment and/or requires regular support or advice from specialist practitioners.
* continues to have communication and interaction difficulties that impede the development of social relationships and cause problems with learning.
You should then
* hold a review meeting with the child's parents and the SENCO.
* collect all the relevant information, such as assessment results, the individual education plans and records from other agents.
* with the external specialist and the parents, agree on a new education plan.
* maintain regular and careful record-keeping - this body of information will prove to be invaluable in the long term in deciding what steps to take next.
* set the review date, making sure that the parents and all the involved agents are invited and involved.
The SENCO should
* make sure the parents are still completely informed about their child's programme of work.
* make sure that all relevant records are up to date and available for the external specialist to use.
* liaise with the external agents, including the educational psychologist, and make their advice available to the child's teacher and parents.
* work with the specialist agent, the child's teacher and parents to decide on a new plan, targets, and teaching strategies.
* make sure that the education plan is reviewed once per term and involves everybody concerned with the child.
While acknowledging that the management of each child is unique, the Code offers useful ideas of the types of strategies that could be considered. These include any combination of
* extra adult time to plan and monitor the programmes of intervention * provision of different learning materials and equipment * individual or group support, or staff development and training to intro-duce more effective teaching strategies * creating small groups within the classroom that receive extra attention * creating small groups that work outside the classroom for short periods * giving the child support out-of-hours * giving the child flexible access within school to a base where SEN resources and teaching expertise are available * teaching the child in groups which are permanently small and have specialist resources and teaching.
Statutory assessment
Most children will be beyond early years provision before getting to the stage of needing a statement, but professionals must be aware of the whole process and the new legal obligations.
* Parents, maintained schools and nursery schools can request the LEA to make a statutory assessment.
* Other early years providers can bring a child to the attention of the LEA, which then decides whether a statutory assessment is required.
* The Code stresses the importance of the involvement of the parents of a child who is under five years old.
The provider must supply the LEA with all relevant records, and they must obtain information on health-related matters from the appropriate agents. When the LEA considers an assessment, it asks * what difficulties were identified by the provider.
* if individualised teaching strategies were put in place through Early Years Action and Early Years Action Plus.
* if outside advice was obtained on the child's physical health, communication skills, perceptual and motor skills, self-help skills, social skills, emotional and behavioural development, responses to learning experiences.
* if parent's views were considered.
From this evidence, the LEA will decide if the child should be the subject of a statement of special educational needs, and the whole process should take no longer than six months. NW
