What is SEN support and how do I get it for my child?

SEN Support is the level below an Education, Health and Care Plan, and most children with special educational needs never go beyond it. The threshold is that a child has significantly greater difficulty in learning than most others of the same age, or a disability that hinders them using the facilities the school provides.

The graduated approach

The SEND Code of Practice 2015 requires schools to work through a cycle:

• Assess — teacher and SENCO gather observations, attainment data and the views of parents and the child.
• Plan — a written SEN Support Plan setting out targets, interventions and who is responsible, agreed with you.
• Do — the plan is delivered, through adjusted teaching, targeted group work or specialist intervention.
• Review — progress checked at least three times a year and the plan revised around what is and is not working.

Crucially, no diagnosis is required. Schools must respond to observed need whether or not a label has been attached, so waiting years for an autism or ADHD assessment is not a reason for a school to do nothing.

Who to speak to, and what to do if it stalls

Every mainstream school must have a SENCO who is a qualified teacher and holds, or obtains within three years, the National Award for SEN Coordination. They assess needs with teachers, bring in educational psychologists and therapists, advise staff, and manage the SEN register. Ask for a meeting with them and the class teacher, and ask to see and contribute to the support plan.

The school cannot charge you for SEN support — it comes from the core budget and additional funding. There is no fixed minimum: the duty is to make reasonable adjustments and deliver the plan from available resources, and cost alone is not a reason to refuse to try.

If support is inadequate, escalate in writing to the SENCO and head teacher, then use the school's complaints procedure. Free independent advice comes from your local SENDIASS, which every council must fund and which can attend meetings with you, and from IPSEA, which provides legally-based advice and template letters. Keep a dated record of every meeting and email from the start. Where sustained SEN Support has not produced adequate progress, you can request an EHC needs assessment yourself — the school's agreement is not required, though evidence of what it has tried matters a great deal.