St Stephen's Primary School

This section outlines the criteria for an Education Health and Care Needs Assessment for children and young people with communication and interaction difficulties which include Speech, Language and Communication Needs and social communication and social interaction difficulties which can be associated with being on the Autism Spectrum.

For Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN)

The child or young person will typically have two or more of the following:

• Receptive and/or expressive language skills at or below the 2nd centile indicating a severe language delay or disorder
• Limited progress across subject areas due to problems with aspects of communication having a significant impact on learning and/or access to the curriculum
• Extreme communication difficulties which seriously inhibit or preclude participation in activities within the setting and which are evident in a range of environments.

The child or young person may also have:

• Extreme and persistent difficulties with following verbal instructions in the setting
• Extreme difficulties in maintaining attention to task.
• Significant interaction difficulties as a result of their SLCN
• Significant difficulties in communicating verbally with others

The child or young person will typically have two or more of the following:

• Significant difficulties with social interaction
• Severe difficulty with communication that impacts on engagement with peers and adults.
• A high level of need for a predictable and structured learning environment which can be sufficiently flexible to accommodate special interests
• Evidence of inflexibility and rigidity of thought which consistently impacts on the child or young person’s ability to adapt to changes in routine, resulting in extreme behavioural responses despite well-planned timetables and highly differentiated teaching
• Limited progress across subject areas due to problems with aspects of communication having a significant impact on learning
• Extreme communication difficulties which seriously inhibit or preclude participation in activities and or learning both within the setting and in a range of environments.

The child or young person may also have:

• High levels of anxiety associated with social communication and interaction difficulties, to the extent that it prevents engagement with the curriculum and/or learning.
• High levels of social isolation which prevent the establishment of consistent relationships with peers and/or adults.
• Unusual response to some sensory stimuli, requiring major adjustments to the learning environment.

General Learning Difficulties:

The child or young person will have:

• Significant difficulties in accessing the curriculum despite a high level of differentiation and mediation of teaching approaches
• The need for and learning activities and learning outcomes to be significantly adjusted

In addition, the child or young person will typically have one or both of the following:

• 3 or more scores on relevant cognitive ability scales fall at or below the 2nd centile
• Attainment scores using standardised assessment over time, that are likely to be around the 1st Centile in at least two core areas of learning (i.e. reading, spelling and numeracy).

The child or young person may also have:

• Significant difficulties with self-organisation
• The need for support in generalising new learning
• The need for access to teaching of specific, targeted skills using evidence-based interventions including overlearning, such as Precision Teaching

An early year’s child would typically be:

• working at or below 50% of their chronological age in 3 key areas: Personal, social and emotional development, communication and language and physical development.

Children and young people can experience specific difficulties in particular areas of learning, for example literacy and numeracy. Staffordshire recognises that such difficulties can be referred to as dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia, as described in our policy on specific learning difficulties (publication to be confirmed).

In Staffordshire, we use the British Psychological Society’s definition of Dyslexia (1999) which states for children and young people with dyslexia, accurate and fluent word reading and/or spelling develops very incompletely or with great difficulty despite access to appropriate teaching and support.

The child or young person will typically have:

The child or young person may also have:

• Significant difficulties with self-organisation
• The need for support in generalising new learning
• The need for learning outcomes to be significantly adjusted in the areas of literacy and/or numeracy
• The need for extensive differentiation and support to meet the literacy and numeracy demands of the curriculum
• The need for access to teaching of specific skills using evidence-based interventions including overlearning, such as Precision Teaching

This section outlines the criteria for an Education Health and Care Needs Assessment for children and young people with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs.

SEMH difficulties may lead to a range of different behaviours that have an impact on the child or young person’s experience and learning. If this impact is significant, the child or young person should be regarded as having a special educational need as well as a social, emotional and/or mental health difficulty. Not all children and young people with an SEMH difficulty, including some with a specific diagnosis such as ADHD, will have a special educational need.

Schools have a responsibility to help identify and respond to children and young people in this area (DfE Guidance: Mental health and behaviour in schools, March 2016).

Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs

The child or young person will have behaviours from the SEMH needs of such intensity, frequency and duration that in spite of actions taken they result in adverse consequences for the child or young person and/or severely affect others in a detrimental way. 

These consequences might include:

• The child or other person’s safety and wellbeing are persistently endangered
• Others’ safety and wellbeing are persistently endangered
• The child or young person’s achievement and participation in learning are severely restricted
• Others’ achievement and participation in learning are severely restricted
• Social isolation that severely impacts on the child or young person’s well-being
• Anxiety and mental health difficulties resulting in significant periods of school refusal due to anxiety.

This section outlines the criteria for an Education Health and Care Needs Assessment for children and young people with Sensory and/or Physical needs. This includes children and young people with physical difficulties or medical conditions that are complex, severe and long-term, as well as children and young people with severe/profound hearing loss (HI), or a severe/profound vision impairment (VI), or multi-sensory impairment (MSI).

Physical

The child or young person will typically have one or more of the following:

• Severe, long-term physical difficulties which may be degenerative
• A healthcare plan that requires a higher level of resourcing which is over and above the nationally-prescribed threshold per pupil per year
• A need for alternative approaches and specific individualised resources and/or equipment, to enable them to access the curriculum
• A need for named staff with appropriate competencies/qualifications to meet their physical needs to support them to access the educational environment.

The child or young person may also have:

• Emotional and/or behavioural problems such as withdrawal, disaffection, reluctance to attend.
• Additional learning, communication or behaviour difficulties requiring specialist intervention.
• A slower rate of learning than would normally be expected which is affected by absences, fatigue or medication.

Hearing Impairment

The child or young person will typically have one or more of the following:

• A severe / profound hearing loss
• Severe speech and language delay leading to a likely dependency upon sign and/or higher levels of repetition/rephrasing, requiring a significant amount of intervention from, for example, a TA or specialist CSW to access the curriculum. The child or young person will need adapted learning resources and teaching materials, with strategies to develop inclusive communication in the classroom. They will need discrete learning programmes designed to promote language learning and social skills, and pre-tutoring or post-tutoring to ensure key concepts are understood.
• Communication and independence skills that are significantly delayed in comparison to hearing peers and are likely to require specialist, targeted language support.
• A need for named staff with appropriate competencies/qualifications to meet their needs to support them to access the educational environment.

The child or young person will require assessment, classroom management advice, monitoring and direct teaching (when necessary) from a specialist teacher. The frequency of support is informed by the National Sensory Impaired Partnership (NatSIP) Eligibility Framework.

The child or young person may also have:

• Attainment levels that do not reflect ability levels.
• Significantly impaired communication and independence compared to peers.
• Have delayed social development and require the opportunity to interact socially with peers with hearing impairments.

Visual Impairment

The child or young person will typically have one or more of the following

• A vision loss ranging from Severe /Profound (in accordance with NatSIP visual acuity descriptors).
• A need for large print or Braille, requiring a significant amount of intervention from, for example, a TA or, for tactile learners, a specialist CSW to support curriculum access.
• A need for named staff with appropriate competencies/qualifications to meet their needs to support them to access the educational environment.

The child or young person will require assessment, classroom-management advice, monitoring and direct teaching (when necessary) from a specialist teacher (frequency of support informed by NatSIP (National Sensory Impaired Partnership) Eligibility Criteria.

The child or young person may also:

Requests for Education Health and Care Needs Assessments will be considered by a multi-professional panel chaired by a senior officer from the SEND Assessment and Planning Service. Decisions are made based on a combination of factors including the severity and complexity of need (threshold), the relevant and purposeful action taken to address the needs (process), the resources deployed to support the child or young person, and the progress made.

A decision will normally be made within 6 weeks of receiving the request. Parents/carers will be contacted by the SEND keyworker following the decision. Further details about the assessment pathway in Staffordshire.

Cases will go forward for assessment where there is clear evidence that:

• parents/carers and the child or young person have been fully involved and genuinely engaged in the process 
• the criteria are met in one or more areas of need
• action taken by the educational provider has been purposeful, relevant and sustained over a period of time (at least two cycles)
• considerable additional funding is required which exceeds the nationally prescribed threshold (£6k), and the level of special educational provision required cannot be sustained without additional resourcing

In circumstances where an  Education Health and Care Needs Assessments  is refused, parents/carers and young people over 16 may appeal to the first-tier SEND tribunal. Full details of how to appeal are provided within the decision letter which also contains information about how to contact the local authority to discuss decisions.

Parents/carers may also contact the SENDIASS Family Partnership for further advice and support as outlined above and/or may consider using Mediation. Details of all these services are also contained within the decision letter.

This is the documentation that is requested from school for the assessment to go ahead. All documents are up loaded onto the Hub by the SENDCo.

These documents are essential for the assessment to go ahead.

• Attainment data for at least the last two academic years showing less than expected progress.
• Educational specialist support services reports (within 18 months).
• Health and / or social care reports (including any diagnoses).
• A total of at least two cycles of assess / plan /do / review that clearly shows:

a. specific assessment of the area of need

b. the plans and interventions that are in place to reduce the barriers to learning

c. how these plans have been reviewed by evaluating the support and interventions and how they are adapted according to how the child has responded to the support.

• The most recent cycles of Assess / Plan /Do / Review that incorporates the advice and recommendations of the relevant educational specialist support services. The implementation of advice from outside agencies, which is then reviewed and evaluated.
• The current APDR that is being implemented.
• A costed provision map that correlates with the APDR documentation and demonstrates full use of the SEN notional budget (£6000) and details evidence based interventions that are related to the areas of assessed need. It needs to show a minimum of 10 hours of support.

The APDR (ISP & Review) needs to be written by the class teacher and incorporate any recommendations in reports from outside agencies, this could be a SALT program, OT or AO report. Also any info from Educational Psychologists reports are also useful.  The SENDCo can then provision map the ISP.