Support at school or nursery
Many children with SLCN have
special educational needs or
SEN. This means that they will need extra help to make sure that they have the most successful and fulfilling education they can.
A child's
SEN should be met in their educational setting. This might be a school or playgroup or nursery, depending on the age of the child.
The degree of a child’s difficulties will determine the amount of extra support they get.
This page explains how children with SEN are supported in England. We also have information about how children are supported in
Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland.
SEN Support in England
There are different levels of support: action, action plus and statementing. Children with SEN will be supported at one of these levels.
School Action / Early Years Action
If your child needs more help, the nursery or school should do all they can to help them. They do this by giving them extra help and targets that are different to the rest of the class. This should help them make good progress. This level of support is called ‘early years action’ or ‘school action’ depending on the age of your child. Some children with SLCN will be at this level in school and nursery.
School Action Plus/ Early Years Action Plus
At this level the nursery or school will involve extra help from outside. This might be speech and language therapy bought in from the local SLT service. There might be special programmes of work that have been set by that professional. Lots of children with SLCN will be at this level in school and nursery
Formal Assessment
In a very small number of cases the Local Authority will need to make a formal assessment of special educational needs. They ask the school, parents and other professionals to write a report about the child, and sometimes will conduct a formal assessment. From this information they will decide if a child needs a statement. Parents may request a formal assessment, but it is up to the local authority.
Statements
A statement is a legal document which describes a child's needs, the support that a child should get, and the school they will attend. The statement gives schools guidance and support to help a child, and describe any extra help that they might need. For example, how much speech and language therapy they might get. Quite a lot of children with SLCN have a statement.
The Local Authority has ultimate responsibility for all children's education and is directly responsible for meeting the needs of children with statements. However, the school or other setting has the primary responsibility for meeting the needs of children with SEN without statements.
Many voluntary organisations and parents say that the statement is key to getting the right level of support for your child. However, many settings are capable of effectively supporting children at school action or school action plus, without the child needing a statement.