Where a school has concerns about whether a pupil has special educational needs or that they are not progressing as expected, this should be discussed with both the parent and the child. In order to ensure support of any special educational needs and educational progress, the first step is to gain an understanding of the pupil’s strengths and weaknesses through assessment.
All settings should have clear approaches to support the identification and response to SEN through assessment, observation and building upon information from previous settings. This should be built into the overall approach to monitoring progress and development of all children and young people in education settings.
For those children and young people whose needs, outcomes and provision appear more complex than can be effectively managed through a provision map, or for whom a provision map has been in place without satisfactory progress being made and outside agencies are now becoming involved, a more personalised and detailed plan is likely to be more appropriate. A Support Plan can be put in place; this is a plan has many similarities to the format of an Education, Health and Care Plan and should always be put in place before a request for an EHC Assessment.