SEND Toolkit - Home

In Doncaster, children and young people who have Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, will have the best possible start in life, and as they grow up, they will have prompt access to reliable local, high-quality education, health and care services. These services will work closely with the children, young people, and their families to help them to:

• make excellent progress in achieving their ambitions and targeted outcomes.
• be fully included in their home community and participate in society.
• be as healthy as possible.
• stay safe.
• be successfully prepared for adulthood.
• secure sustained meaningful employment, wherever possible.
• live as independently as possible.
• have choice and control over their lives.
• be at the heart of decision making about provision for their needs, both individually and strategically.

We aim to be the most child friendly borough in the country. Our ambition is to provide the best possible support for our children and young people to plan for and achieve fulfilling lives, with bold reforms that will broaden their own individual ambitions and horizons. For children who have Special Educational Needs and Disabilities there are additional imperatives which must drive our ambition for them to achieve fulfilling lives; in particular, the timeliness and sophistication of identification and assessment of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities, and the effectiveness and efficiency of collaborative planning, involves the right people at the right time in the delivery and review of the impact of this support.

For all learners, their environment can have a profound impact upon their feelings of belonging and aspiration; the influence of setting culture, ethos and attitudes of staff and peers are highly influential.

Everyday relationships and interactions with staff and peers form the basis of every child and young person's educational experience. Where they are positive and nurturing, our learners with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities are far more likely to feel they belong and can thrive in their learning and development.

Fundamental conditions for inclusion should be in place prior to individualised targeted provision for our learners with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities:

• An inclusive culture that permeates policy and practice.
• An ambitious vision.
• Equality of opportunity.
• An understanding and application of the duty to make ‘reasonable adjustments’.
• Alertness to possible unconscious bias that may lead to reduction in aspiration.
• Prioritising independence.
• Representation of positive role models with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities through the curriculum, resources, visiting speakers.
• Ensuring learners with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities are represented in all aspects e.g. school plays, clubs, school councils, sports and music events.
• Positive relationships between teachers and peers and inclusive teaching practice built on established inclusive principles are fundamental to improving outcomes for all learners.

The aim of this toolkit is to support practitioners in the process of building on current good practice to meet the needs of learners with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and ensuring they achieve the best outcomes. The toolkit will help educational settings to develop systems, skills and structures for responding to children and young people's needs, as identified in the SEND Code of Practice (2015), to ensure progress and development of the whole child.

This document fulfills a Department for Education (DfE) requirement that each Local Authority (LA) explains the special educational provision it expects to be made.

• All Doncaster children and young people attending an early years setting or a mainstream school should have the same minimum entitlement to provision for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
• Settings and local authority staff need a joint understanding to support their dialogue about individual learners.
• It supports the local authority in its statutory duty to monitor and evaluate effectiveness of SEND provision.
• It provides the threshold for access to High Needs Funding and/or eligibility for an Education, Health and Care Plan.
• The SEND Code of Practice (January 2015) clearly states that, where possible, children and young people should attend mainstream schools in their local area and should be encouraged to feel part of their local community.

This guidance sets out the continuum for a range of needs and identifies the types of interventions and support available from Universal Level ‘High Quality Teaching’ (identified and delivered by all teachers within a setting) through to Specialist Level of the Graduated Approach.

Its purpose is to provide detailed guidance on how educational settings can identify children and young people with different types and levels of need, along with information on appropriate steps and strategies to support them. It also provides clear information about when a request for an Education, Health and Care Needs Assessment or specialist/outreach support team involvement may be required.

SENDCOs, School leaders, SEND officers, Educational psychologists, Specialist teams, Early Help, Health service

Health professionals and health services have a legal duty under Section 23 of the Children and Families Act 2014 to notify the City of Doncaster Council of any child in Doncaster under the age of 5, who they consider may need some extra arrangements made for them when they start school and has, or is likely to have, special educational needs or a disability (SEND).