Academies Expand An academy is funded directly by the Secretary of State for Education. They are state-funded independent schools and therefore have more control over how they do things than maintained schools, for example, they do not have to follow the national curriculum and can set their own term times. Academies do have to follow the same rules on admissions, special educational needs and exclusions as maintained schools, and students sit the same exams. Academies include: all academies including academy special schools, alternative provision academies, and academy boarding schools; free schools- free schools are funded by the Secretary of State for Education but are not run by the local authority. They have more control over how they do things. They are ‘all-ability’ schools, so cannot use academic selection processes like a grammar school. Free schools can change the length of school terms and the school day. They do not have to follow the national curriculum. Free schools are run on a not-for-profit basis and can be set up by groups like: charities, universities, independent schools, community and faith groups, teachers, parents and businesses; university technical college schools- university technical college schools teach specialist subjects like engineering and construction along with business skills and IT. Pupils study academic and practical subjects leading to technical qualifications, and are provided with work experience; and studio schools- studio schools are small schools teaching mainstream qualifications through project-based learning. Students work with local employers and a personal coach, following a curriculum designed to give them the skills and qualifications they need in further education or work. You can check the status of a setting online to see if it is an academy.
Access arrangements Expand Pupils who have learning difficulties and disabilities may be able to get help in public examinations. This can include, for example, extra time or having a computer or a person to read or write for the pupil (except for exams that specifically test these skills). There is a range of other possible arrangements for pupils with visual or hearing impairments, or other difficulties. You can find out more on this on our webpage.
Annual review Expand This is a review of an education, health and care (“EHC”) plan. The process is set out in law, and local authorities (“LAs”) must follow it. It involves: getting up-to-date information about the child or young person, sending out this information before a review meeting, with an invitation to attend, holding a review meeting to consider what: progress the child or young person has made towards achieving the outcomes specified in the EHC plan, and if they are in year 9 or above, provision is needed to help them prepare for adulthood and independent living, a report saying what changes might be required to the EHC plan (and any differences of opinion), and notice of a decision from the LA. The LA must say whether it will maintain the EHC plan as it is, maintain the EHC plan with changes to it (and what these are) or stop maintaining the EHC plan. Each of these decisions can be appealed in the SEND Tribunal. You can find out more about annual reviews here.
Compulsory school age Expand The Children and Families Act 2014 sets out many of the legal protections and rights for children and young people with SEND. Some of these rights relate to those below, at, or over compulsory school age. Children must start full-time education once they reach compulsory school age. This is on 31 December, 31 March or 31 August following their fifth birthday - whichever comes first. If their fifth birthday is on one of those dates then they reach compulsory school age on that date. For example, if a child turns 5 on 10 February 2024 they will reach compulsory school age on 31 March 2024, and they must start full-time education at the beginning of the next term (summer term 2024). Compulsory school age ends on the last Friday in June which falls in the academic year in which they turn 16. For example, for a child born on 23 September 2006 compulsory school age will end on 30 June 2023. However, young people are expected to remain in education or training until they are 18 and you can find out more information on this here.
Direct Payments Expand At the same time as requesting a personal budget from the local authority (“LA”), a parent or young person can ask the LA to say which parts of the personal budget they could receive as a direct payment. A direct payment is an actual amount of money that a parent or young person would receive to arrange and pay for the special educational provision in the education, health and care (“EHC”) plan. You can find out more about it here.
Disability Expand This is a legally defined term and is part of one of the elements to the definition of special educational needs. Someone has a disability if they have a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial (more than minor or trivial) and long-term (lasting more than one year or likely to last more than one year) adverse effect on their ability to carry out day-to-day activities. This is a wide definition, and can cover physical or mental health problems, as well as conditions such as dyslexia or autism. Some conditions are automatically counted as disabilities and people who have them will fit the legal definition of disabled: When someone is certified blind or partially sighted, has a severe disfigurement, cancer, HIV infection or multiple sclerosis, they will be disabled under the law. A child or young person with a disability may also have special educational needs but not automatically. If they do not meet the definition for having special educational needs, they will still be considered disabled under the Equality Act 2010. Education settings and local authorities will have duties not to discriminate against them. It may also be that a child or young person who has special educational needs might be disabled, but not automatically. This will depend on them meeting the definition of disability set out above. If they are not considered disabled, they will still be considered to have special educational needs and the Children and Families Act 2014 will apply to them.
Disability discrimination Expand Early years settings, schools, colleges and local authorities must make sure that they: do not treat children and young people worse than others, or badly, because of their disability, and change what they do (or were planning to do) to make sure a disabled child or young person is not disadvantaged. The type of changes they have to make are called reasonable adjustments. What is reasonable for them to do will depend on the facts. If you feel any of these duties may have been broken, you can make a disability discrimination claim about it in: the SEND Tribunal: if it relates to any type of school or a maintained nursery, or the County Court: if it relates to a private nursery, a further education college or a local authority. You can find out more about disability discrimination here.
Education otherwise than at/in a school (“EOTAS”) Expand For some children and young people, education in any setting would be inappropriate due to their special educational needs. This is often referred to education otherwise than in a school, but includes early years and post 16 settings as well. If it agrees, the local authority (“LA”) can arrange for any required special educational provision to be delivered somewhere else, for example at home. The LA must arrange and pay for that provision. EOTAS is different to elective home education. With an EOTAS package the LA is responsible for arranging and paying for the provision. If a parent chooses to home educate their child, the LA is not responsible for meeting any of the costs or providing any support. You can find out more about EOTAS here.
EHC needs assessment Expand This is an investigation into a child or young person’s educational, health care and social care needs by a local authority (“LA”). A parent/ carer or young person can ask their LA at any time to carry out an education, health and care (“EHC”) needs assessment. The LA must agree to this request if: the child or young person has or may have special educational needs; and they may need special educational provision to be made through an EHC plan. If the LA agrees to carry out the EHC needs assessment, the LA must follow a legal process and: find out from a range of people what: needs the child or young person has, help is required to meet those needs; and outcomes are expected to be achieved by the child or young person as a result of receiving that help. decide whether it will issue an EHC plan for the child or young person based on the EHC needs assessment evidence. The LA must tell the parent or young person whether or not it will issue an EHC plan for the child or young person within a maximum of 16 weeks from the request for assessment. issue an EHC plan if it is necessary for special educational provision for a child or young person to be made via an EHC plan. The LA must issue a final EHC plan no later than 20 weeks from the request for assessment. You can find out more about EHC needs assessments here.
EHC plan Expand This is a plan setting out a child or young person’s education, health care and social care needs. It is a legal document which parents and young people can rely on and enforce. By law it must contain certain information including: the special educational needs your child or young person has, what help they require to meet these challenges, what setting (or type of setting) they are to attend (unless education otherwise than at/in a school applies). You can find a list of all the information an EHC plan must contain in our EHC plan checklist. If you are unhappy with the contents of an EHC plan, you can ask for it to be changed at the next annual review, during mediation or by appealing it in the SEND Tribunal (if it has recently been issued). You can find out more about EHC plans here.
Elective home education Expand Parents are responsible for making sure their child is educated, either at school or otherwise. Parents can choose to home educate their child. This means that they are responsible for giving them a suitable education. This is called elective home education (“EHE”). If your child does not have an education, health and care (“EHC”) plan, you do not need permission from the school or the local authority (“LA”) to home educate them and remove them from school. If your child does have an EHC plan, you can choose to home educate them but: your LA does not have to provide any special educational provision set out in the EHC plan, and if they currently go to a special school, you will need your LA’s agreement to take your child off the school roll. You can find out more about elective home education here.
Exclusion Expand A head teacher or principal can exclude a child or young person from school or college for disciplinary reasons. There are two lawful types of exclusion: permanent exclusion, or for a fixed-period, which is called a “suspension”. The law and the statutory guidance about exclusions relates to children and young people who are attending: a maintained school, an academy, a pupil referral unit, or a school sixth form, and there are certain steps the setting must follow when excluding a child or young person from these settings, depending on the length of the exclusion. If your child or young person attends a sixth form college, further education college, non-maintained special school, a section 41 school, or an independent school or college, they can be excluded in accordance with the setting’s exclusion policies (you can find out more information on our website about this). You can find out more about exclusions on our website.
Health care Expand Many children and young people have health care needs. If you require support from the health service (including Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (“CAMHS”)), the starting point is likely to be a referral from your GP or (in some cases) from the child or young person’s school. You can find out more about how health care support can be part of an education, health and care plan on our website.
Independent schools (excluding academies) Expand These fee-paying schools are not controlled by a local authority or the Secretary of State for Education and are often called ‘private’ schools. They are mostly controlled by charities but there are some private owners. They include prep schools, public schools, and private nurseries. In law, these independent schools are neither special nor mainstream, but all simply “independent”. Some independent schools are section 41 schools. This means parents or young people have a right to request this type of school is named in an EHC plan in the same way they can request a maintained school. You can check to see if a school is an independent setting online.
Judicial review Expand This is a legal process in which a court will look at how a public body acted or made a decision, and say whether it acted or made the decision in a lawful, fair and reasonable way. This process is used when there is no other way of resolving the matter. Professional legal help should be obtained when applying for judicial review. The application for it must be made as soon as possible and within three months maximum from the date of the matter being complained of happening. There are two key stages to the process: a formal pre-action letter is sent, explaining the issue and giving the public body time to sort the problem, and a review by the court of how the public body acted or came to a decision, and whether it acted in a lawful, fair and reasonable way. If the public body did not act in a lawful, fair and reasonable way, the court can require it to do (or stop doing something) to address this. You can find out more about judicial review here.
Learning difficulty Expand This is a legally defined term. It is part of the first section to the definition of special educational needs (“SEN”). When we think about who might have a learning difficulty, we also need to think about their age: A child of compulsory school age or a young person has a learning difficulty if they have significantly greater difficulty in learning compared to the majority of others of the same age. A child under compulsory school age has a learning difficulty if they are likely to have significantly greater difficulty in learning than the majority of others of the same age when they reach compulsory school age, or it would be likely when they reach compulsory school age, if no special educational provision were made for them. You can find out more about what are special educational needs here.
Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (“LGSCO”) Expand The LGSCO can investigate complaints about local authorities, adult social care providers and some other public service organisations. It will look into situations where: the processes which should have been followed were not, or were carried out poorly, and injustice was caused as a result. It is independent and free to use. If the LGSCO decides to investigate, it looks at how decisions were made and can recommend how to put things right. You can find out more about the LGSCO, and how to make a complaint to it, here.
Mainstream nursery, school or college Expand A mainstream setting is one that: is not specially organised to make special educational provision for pupils with special educational needs, and is maintained or is an Academy.
Maintained nursery, school or college Expand Maintained nurseries, schools or colleges are controlled and funded by local authorities, and include: mainstream schools (e.g. mainstream community schools, voluntary-aided, trust, foundation, or grammar schools), nurseries (free-standing or part of a community primary school), special schools, and alternative provision (including pupil referral units). You can get information on a nursery, school and college online.
Mediation Expand This is a free way to resolve a dispute without going to court or to the SEND Tribunal. An independent person, called the mediator, helps the parties discuss what the problems are and see how they can be resolved. If agreement is reached, you should write down what has been agreed (including any timescales). This is called a mediation agreement. You have a right to try mediation whenever your local authority makes a decision which you could appeal to the SEND Tribunal, including if you only disagree with the name or type of setting, or the fact no setting or type has been named in section I of an EHC plan. You can find out more about mediation here.
Monitoring Officer Expand Each local authority (“LA”) should have a Monitoring Officer. They are usually a senior person in the organisation. This person is legally responsible for making sure high standards of office are promoted and maintained. Part of the Monitoring Officer’s job is to write a report: if they think the LA has acted (or appears to have acted) illegally, or is at risk of not following the law, and on any maladministration or injustice where the LGSCO has carried out an investigation. You can find details of your LA’s Monitoring Officer if you type the name of your LA and the words “Monitoring Officer” into an internet search engine.
Personal Budgets Expand A personal budget is the estimated amount of money that would be needed to cover the cost of making the special educational provision in Section F of an education, health and care (“EHC”) plan. A personal budget is different to a direct payment. The local authority (“LA”) must consider identifying a personal budget for educational provision if a parent or young person makes a request either when the LA: sends a draft EHC plan following an EHC needs assessment,or reviews an EHC plan. You can find out more about personal budgets here.
School anxiety Expand Some school-aged children are too anxious to go to school – very often related to their special educational needs. This is also sometimes known as 'school refusal'. There are lots of steps a parent, carer or young person can take in this situation and you can find more information on these on our website.
Section 41 schools/colleges Expand These settings are not controlled by a local authority or the Secretary of State for Education. These are independent special schools/ colleges which have been approved by the Secretary of State under section 41 of the Children and Families Act 2014 as schools which a parent or young person can request to be named in an education, health and care (“EHC”) plan. You can check to see if a school has section 41 status online.
SEN Support Expand Mainstream nurseries, schools and colleges must support all those with special educational needs (“SEN”) through SEN Support. This includes: recording the child or young person’s SEN, what outcomes it expects the child or young person to achieve, and what provision is being put in place to reach those outcomes, doing everything that could reasonably be expected of it to meet a child or young person’s SEN (called the "best endeavours" duty), requesting an EHC needs assessment if it cannot meet a child or young person’s needs, and if a child or young person has an EHC plan, doing its best to deliver the special educational provision specified in Section F. If it cannot, the local authority must provide the resources to do so. In addition, for example: Nurseries – must involve parents with decisions around special educational provision. Schools – should meet with parents at least three times a year to discuss the pupil’s SEN and progress record. Colleges – should involve the student and (particularly where the student is aged 16-18) their parents in decisions around the support they receive for their SEN. You can find out more about SEN Support here.
SEND Tribunal Expand This is an independent national tribunal. It decides: appeals against local authority (“LA”) decisions about the special educational needs of children and young people, and claims of disability discrimination against schools. The SEND Tribunal will look at all the evidence it receives, and make a decision based on the law. There are no fees for making an appeal or a claim, and you may be eligible for legal aid to provide legal help in preparing your case. The SEND Tribunal can make orders relating to special educational needs and (if asked to do so) non-binding health and social care recommendations. You can find out more about the SEND Tribunal here.
Social care Expand Social services can provide a wide range of support such as practical assistance in the home, respite care and short breaks, home adaptations, travel and other assistance. If you require support from social care, you can ask the local authority to assess your child or young person’s social care needs, and any needs you may have as their parent/ carer. You can find out more about social care here.
Special educational needs (“SEN”) Expand Special educational needs (known as “SEN”) are those needs or challenges that affect a child or young person’s ability to learn. There might be lots of ways those needs can affect learning. SEN is a legally defined term. Meeting the definition of having SEN, or where there is evidence a child or young person may have SEN, opens up legal rights and protections under SEND law. When looking at whether a child or young person has (or may have) SEN, we need to ask two questions. If both are answered “yes”, then the child or young person is defined in law as having SEN. Does the child or young person have at least one of the following: a learning difficulty, and/ or a disability and: this disability makes it difficult for them to use the facilities normally provided for others of the same age in mainstream school or college, or for those under compulsory school age, such an effect is likely when they reach that age, or would be likely if no special educational provision is made for them? If no, they do not have SEN. If yes, next we ask: Does that learning difficulty or disability require special educational provision to be put in place? If no, they do not have SEN. If yes, they do have SEN. You can find out more about SEN here.
Special educational provision Expand This is a legally defined term and is the second part of the definition of special educational needs. Special educational provision is: for those aged 2 or more years old: any educational or trainingprovision that is in addition to, or different from, that generally available for other children or young people of the same age (for example, one-to-one support), for children under two years old: any educational provision, and / or for all children and young people: any health care or social care provision which educates or trains the child or young person (for example, speech and language therapy, which teaches a child or young person on how to do something). You can find out more about special educational provision here.
Transport Expand Local authorities must arrange home to school transport for those children and young people who meet the criteria for it. This criteria depends on their age and you can find out more on home to school transport on our website.
Ward Councillor Expand Each local authority is separated out into different areas (known as wards). Each ward has elected Ward Councillors. They help resolve local issues, by representing the interests of everyone in the ward and being a voice for the community in the council. You can find details of your Ward Councillor online.
Young person Expand The Children and Families Act 2014 sets out many of the legal protections and rights for children and young people with SEND. Under this Act a young person is someone who is over compulsory school age and under 25. Compulsory school age ends on the last Friday in June which falls in the academic year in which they turn 16. For example, for a child born on 23 September 2006 compulsory school age ends on 30 June 2023. However, young people are expected to remain in education or training until they are 18 and you can find out more information on this here. This means most children become a “young person” at the end of Year 11. At this point, the rights and protections in the Children and Families Act 2014 belong to them and can be enforced by them rather than their parents. You can find out more about the rights of young people, and how they can be supported, here.